Parallelism and the Principles of Mayan Aesthetics

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Parallelism and the Principles of Mayan Aesthetics

• Ixiloom, Dr. Laura Martin
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• 2 May 2007
• 12.19.14.4.19 10 Kawoq Day of Judges

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Mayan aesthetic values

• Complex patterns of repetition and parallelism
• Multilayered structure and symbolism
• Physicality
• Ambiguity
• Humor and word play

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Parallelism and repetition in Mayan discourse

• Pervasive at all levels
• phonological
• morphological
• syntactic
• semantic
• lexical
• discourse structural and semantic
• text interpretive

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Parallelism and repetition in Mayan discourse

• Functions structurally
• organizes discourse units
• signals turns and episodes
• creates embedded and nested structures
• uses omission as element of repetition
• Functions semantically
• sequential elements create semantic associations
  that reference elements not present in text
• resonating repetitions provoke text-external
  memory

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Parallelism and repetition in Mayan discourse

• Functions culturally
• replicates cosmic cycles
• reproduces in physical (spoken) form what is
  perceived in imaginative world
• reinforces other expressive systems, e.g.,
  weaving, music, agriculture, ritual

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Summary Mayan aesthetic principles

• consistent across expressive forms
• consistent with cultural cosmovision
• reliance on formal use of repetition to construct
  elaborate parallelism
• parallelism is fundamental to all Mayan aesthetic
  expression

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Summary Parallelism

• parallelism occurs at every level of structure
• meaning and structure are independent
• rigid form permits infinite variation
• deletion and synonymies create referents that are
  not physically present
• discourse parallelism models all other types