By Kirby Vickery on the December 2019 Edition As with all civilizations, the Mesoamerican people played a variety of games. Some had religious connections and even others were used by the better competitors to gamble and make a living. One such game of skill resembled bowling. There is very little information on it except that […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the November 2019 Edition To use the word, ‘witchcraft’ with any of the Mesoamerican cultures could almost be called a misnomer. Witchcraft, by its nature and conceptual origins, is purely Old World. The meaning of the word is so broad-based that to try to fit it into a single category of Mesoamerican […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the October 2019 Edition Let’s say that you’re a Mayan farmer, from any time period from the ancient Mayan Empire that we are still finding to be larger than we thought, to, even today or tomorrow, for that matter. Your chief crop wouldn’t have changed through all this time. It is maize […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the September 2019 Edition A lady Zorrino (Skunk) had a small son named Tak Zóachil, which he shortened to ‘Tak’, and an even smaller daughter named Ti’ Tu’. As luck would have it, this young skunk was baptized by his mother’s good friend and compadre, a gentleman Báalam (Jaguar). One day, it […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the August 2019 Edition I found, according to one internet site, there are thirteen different kinds of snakes in Mexico. Then I went to another and found three more. After that, I found some additional varieties. But, I’m not really sure how many varieties there are altogether. Of the seventeen I was […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the July 2019 Edition The dog figures prominently in Mesoamerican Folklore so much so that in many versions of the 20-day cycle of the Mesoamerican calendar, the tenth day bears the name “dog”. This is Itzcuintli in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Tz’i’ in the K’iche’ Maya language and Oc in […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the June 2019 Edition I own a Cairn Terrier whose breed purports to be from Scotland and, even though there are histories that support this thesis, there are internet sites about Scottish dog breeds which deny her existence. My other dog is a ‘Mostly.’ She’s a rescued dog but doesn’t hold the […]
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By Kirby Vickery on the May 2019 Edition Whenever the subject of what the New World gave to the Old World comes up, one of the first things that gets listed is corn or ‘maize’ as its known down here. What it looked like, and consisted of, back in the days before 1492, is a far […]
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By Kirby Vickery the April 2019 Edition Pre-Columbian Times (overview):I have found that history has almost forgotten Manzanillo’s first inhabitants, even though we have some Nahuatl ruins in the State of Colima which are superb. Archeology for the history between 2000 BCE and 500 BCE for this area reads like a dart board. I even […]
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By Kirby Vickery the April 2019 Edition Have you ever been to ruins of Uxmal? Have you noticed the many turtle motifs and wondered what kind of a relationship the Mayans had with this particular animal? The turtle figures prominently in the Mayan Creation Myth, as transcribed from the Popol Vuh. The god of corn, […]
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