bernard Wrote:
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> Thanks for that. Something to chew on .
>
> The symbols that resulted instead of quotation
> marks are annoying. What is the exact quote and
> citation for the Popol Vuh measuring cord? I would
> like to compare it to the Edmonson side-by-side
> Maya-English version.
>
> Thanks
> Bernard
Yes, it is a rough draft and I have to edit and find where my formatting error is.
Here is Tedlocks lengthy take on the process,;it's complicated, but important. It also involves, by the way, that term 't'zuk', which can be a verb or noun as 'partition'.
The "fourfold staking" is ucah cheexic; Andres Xiloj ununderstood this to be four sticks or poles driven in the ground at the four corners. The "measuring" is retaxic, literally "its-being-measured," translated on the basis of etah, "to measure, to mark out"(
, and the reading offered by don Andres. The measuring in this passage is done according to a unit still in use among the Quiche', the 4aam or "cord" (a length of rope). Don Andres was familiar with the pheraseology used here. umeh camaxic [4aamaxic], "its-folded cording," and uyuc camaxic [4aamaxic], "its-folded cording" and uyuk camaxic [uyuc camaxic], its-stretched cording."
Tedlock pg 244-245
...and he goes on at length discussing passive and active endings context and parallel verse structure. You do have a copy of Tedlock, don't you? Otherwise I'd be happy to type out the full pages because it has a lot of implications. Even for the Caral khipu in regards to the evolution of the khipu from measuring device to recording and linguistic instrument.
It is also telling that Tedlock, in conjunction with these linguistic sublties, mentions Tozzer and the 'sky umbilicus' cords, as well as the more prosaic aspects such as measuring the cornfields. So even in the slicing and dicing of etymology , one can glimpse a cohesive, unified world view of the Quiche'.
But I do have to look into contextual renderings of 'etah' and '4aam'. How does one pronounce that '4' on '4aam', anyway?
I'm going to clean up this draft and attach biblio....thanks for any critcism/advice you may have.
Duncan