Mesoamerican literature

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Precolumbian Literature[edit]

When defining literature in its broadest possible sense including all products of "literacy", what becomes primarily interesting about a literate community is the manner in which literacy and literature is used. Which topics are chosen to be written and spoken about? And why did they do it? Which genres of literature are found in Mesoamerica? The answer to this question is complex and is the topic of the rest of this article that will try to describe and resume what is known about the genres and functions of indigenous Mesoamerican literatures.

Three major subjects of Mesoamerican literatures can be identified:

  • Religion, time and astronomy : Mesoamerican civilizations shared an interest in the recording and keeping track of time through observation of celestial bodies and religious rituals celebrating their different phases. Not surprisingly a large portion of the Mesoamerican literature that has been delivered down through time to us deals exactly with this kind of information. Particularly the true precolumbian literature such as the Mayan and Aztec codices deal with calendrical and astronomical information as well as describing the rituals connected to the passing of time.
  • History, power and legacy: Another large part of the Precolumbian literature is found carved into monumental structures such as stelae, altars and temples. This kind of literature typically documents power and heritage, memorize victories, ascension to rulership, dedications of monuments, marriages between royal lineages.
  • Mythical and fictive genres. Mostly present in postconquest versions but often relying on oral or pictorial traditions the mythical and narrative literature of Mesoamerica is very rich, and we can only guess as to how much has been lost.
  • Every day literature. Some texts are sort of every day literature such as descriptions of objects and their owners, graffiti inscriptions, but these only constitutes a very small part of the known literature.

Pictorial vs. Linguistic literature[edit]

Geoffrey Sampson distinguishes between two kinds of writing. One kind of writing he calls Semasiographical, this covers kinds of pictorial or ideographic writing that is not necessarily connected to phonetic language but can be read in different languages, this kind of writing is for example used in roadsigns which can be read in any language. The other kind of writing is phonetic writing called by Sampson Glottographic writing and which represents the sounds and words of languages and allows accurate linguistic readings of a text that is the same at every reading.[1] Normally only the latter is considered true writing but in Mesoamerica there was made no distinction between the two and so writing, drawing and making pictures were seen as closely related if not identical concepts. In both the Mayan and Aztec languages there is one word for writing and drawing ((tlàcuiloa in Nahuatl and tz'iib' in Classic Maya)) Pictures are sometimes read phonetically and texts meant to be read are sometimes very pictorial in nature. This makes it difficult for modern day scholars to distinguish between whether an inscription in a Mesoamerican script represents spoken language or is to be interpreted as a descriptive drawing. The only Mesoamerican people known without doubt to have developed a completely glottographic or phonetic script is the Maya, and even the Mayan script is largely pictorial and often shows fuzzy boundaries between images and text. Scholars disagree on the phoneticity of other Mesoamerican scripts and iconographic styles, but many show use of the Rebus principle and a highly conventionalised set of symbols.

Monumental Inscriptions[edit]

An Monumental inscription in Maya hieroglyphics from the site of Naranjo, relating to the reign of king Itzamnaaj K'awil

The monumental inscriptions were often historical records of the citystates: Famous examples include:

  • Hieroglyphic Stair of Copan recording the history of Copan with 7000 glyphs on its 62 steps.
  • The inscriptions of Naj Tunich records the arrival of noble pilgrims to the sacred cave.
  • The tomb inscriptions of Pacal the famous ruler of Palenque.
  • The many stelae of Yaxchilan, Quiriguá, Copán, Tikal and Palenque and countless other Mayan archaeological sites.

The function of these kinds of historical inscriptions also served to consoliate the power of the rulers who used them also as a kind of propaganda testimonies to their power. Most commonly monumental hieroglyphocal texts describe:

  • Lordship: ascension and death of rulers, and the claiming of ancestry from noble lineages
  • Warfare: Victories and conquest
  • Alliances: Marriages between lineages.
  • Dedications of monuments and buildings

Renowned epigrapher David Stuart writes about the differences in content between the monumental hieroglyphical texts of Yaxchilan and those of Copan:

"The major themes of the known Yaxchilan monuments are war, dance, and bloodletting rituals, with several records of architectural dedicatory rites." Most of the records of wars and dances accompany scenes of the rulers, who are featured prominently in all of the texts. Copán's texts have a far lesser emphasis on historical narrative. The stelae of the great plaza, for example, are inscribed with dedicatory formulae that name the ruler as "owner" of the monument, but they seldom if ever record any ritual or historical activity. Birth dates at Copán are virtually nonexistent, as also are records of war and capture. The Copán rulers therefore lack some of the personalized history we read in the texts of newer centers in the western lowlands, such as Palenque, Yaxchilan, and Piedras Negras." (David Stuart[1])
A page of the Precolumbian Mayan Dresden Codex


See also Mayan codices and Aztec codices for fuller descriptions of the different codices.

A number of Precolumbian codices written on amate paper with gesso coating remain today.

Historical narratives
  • Mixtec codices
  • Aztec codices
  • Codex Mendoza (part 1 is a history of the founding of Tenochitlan)
Astronomical, calendrical and ritual texts
  • Central Mexican origins:

Of disputed authenticity:

Other texts[edit]

Some common household objects of ceramics or bone and adornments of jade have been found with inscriptions. For example drinking vessels with the inscription saying "The Cacao drinking cup of X" or similar.

Post Conquest Literatures written in Latin script[edit]

Page of the Florentine Codex (ca 1580)showing Nahuatl written with Latin script

The largest part of the Mesoamerican literature today known has been fixed in writing after the Spanish conquest. Both Europeans and Mayans began writing down local oral tradition using the Latin alphabet to write in indigenous languages shortly after the conquest. Many of them were monks and priests who trying to convert the natives to Christianity and translate holy scriptures acquired good dominance of the indigenous languages and often even composed grammars and dictionaries of the indigenous languages. These early grammars of native languages systematized the reading and writing of indigenous languages in their own time and help us understand them today. The most widely known early grammars and dictionaries are of the Aztec language, Nahuatl. Famous examples are the works written by Alonso de Molina and Andrés de Olmos. But also Mayan and other Mesoamerican languages have early grammars and dictionaries, some of very high quality. The introduction of the Latin alphabet and the elaboration of conventions for writing indigenous languages allowed for the subsequent creation of a wide range of texts. And indigenous writers took advantage of the new techniques to document their own history and tradition in the new writing, while monks kept on extending literacy in the indigenous population. This tradition lasted only a few centuries however and due to royal decrees about Spanish being the only language of the Spanish empire by the mid-1700s most indigenous languages were left without a living tradition for writing. Oral literatures however kept being transmitted to this day in many indigenous languages and began to be collected by ethnologists in the beginnings of the 20th century, however without promoting native language literacy in the communities in which they worked. It is an important and extremely difficult job in the Mesoamerica of today, and what that is only beginning to be undertaken, to return native language literacy to the indigenous peoples.

But during the first post-conquest centuries a large number of texts in indigenous Mesoamerican languages were generated. A corpus that today after a hundred years of study remains only superficially known and about which the general public is largely ignorant.

Historic accounts[edit]

Many of the postconquest texts are historical accounts, either in the form of annals recounting year by year the events of a people or citystate often based on pictorial documents or oral accounts of aged community members. But also sometimes personalized literary accounts of the life of a people or state and almost always incorporating both mythical material and actual history. There was no formal distinction between the two in Mesoamerica. Sometimes as in the case of the Mayan Chilam Balam books historical accounts also incorporated prophetical material, a kind of history in advance.



Administrative documents[edit]

The postconquest situation of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica also required them to learn to navigate in a complex new administrative system. In order to obtain any kinds of favourable positions pleas and petitions had to be made to the new authorities and land possessions and heritages had to be proven. This resulted in a large corpus of administrative literature in indigenous languages, because documents were often written in the native language first and later translated into Spanish. These administrative documents include a large number of:

  • Titulos (claims to power by showing a noble precolumbian heritage)
  • Petitions (for example petitions to lower tributary payments or complaints about abusive lords)
  • Testaments and Land claim documents.

Mythological narratives[edit]

The most extensively researched Mesoamerican indigenous literature probably because of being the most interesting by today's standards is the literature containing mythological and legendary narratives. The styles of these books is often very poetic and appealing to modern aesthetic senses both because of the poetic language and its "mystical", exotic contents. Often however the mythological narratives are mistaken for historical accounts because of the lack of distinction between myth and history in Mesoamerican cultures. While many do include actual historic events the mythological texts can often be distinguished by focusing on claiming a mythical source to power by tracing the lineage of a people to some ancient source of power. (Pedro Carrasco)


Some famous collections of Aztec poetry have been conserved. Although written in the late 16th century they are believed to be fairly representative of the actual style of poetry used in precolumbian times. Many of the poems are attributed to named Aztec rulers such as Nezahualcoyotl. Because the poems were transcribed at a later date, scholars dispute whether these are the actual authors. Many of the mythical and historical texts also have poetic qualities.

Aztec Poetry

Mayan Poetry


Ethnographic accounts[edit]

Florentine Codex (Bernardino de Sahagúns masterpiece of an Ethnographic account contained in 12 volumes) Coloquios y doctrina Christiana (also known as the Bancroft dialogues. Describing the first dialogues between Aztecs and monks preaching Christianity)

Collections of disparate treatises[edit]

Not all specimina of native literature can be readily classified. A prime example of this are the Yucatec Mayan Books of Chilam Balam, mentioned above for their historical content, but also containing treatises on medical lore, astrology, etc. Although clearly belonging to Maya literature, they are profoundly syncretic in nature.

Oral Literatures[edit]

  • Ethnography of Speaking
  • Tradition and changes to them


  • Fernando Peñalosa

Jokes and Riddles[edit]

  • Tlacuache stories (Gonzalez Casanova)


  • Henrietta Yurchenco

Nahuatl songs by[edit]

  • Jaraneros indigenas de Vera Cruz
  • Xochipitzahuac

Ritual Speech[edit]

  • Mayan modern prayers
  • Huehuetlahtolli


  1. ^ Sampson


  • David Stuart: David Stuart writes about the inscriptions of Copán
  • Michael D Coe and Justin Kerr, "The Art of the Maya Scribe" Thames and Hudson. 1997
  • Jesper Nielsen, "Under slangehimlen" Aschehoug, Denmark, 2000.
  • Geoffrey Sampson, Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction, Hutchinson (London), 1985
  • Horcasitas, Fernando. Teatro náhuatl. I : Épocas novohispana y moderna, México: UNAM, 2004
  • Angel María Garibay K. Historia de la. literatura nahuatl / México : Editorial Porrúa, 1971
  • Karttunen, Frances and Lockhart, James. 1980. La estructura de la poesia nahuatl vista por sus variantes. Estudios de Cultura nahuatl 14. 15-64. : .
  • David Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers, Waveland 1998
  • Curl, John; Ancient American Poets The Flower Songs of Nezahualcoyotl The Songs of Dzitbalche Bilingual Press, 2005, ISBN 1-931010-21-8

External links[edit]