El color y lo funerario entre los mayas de ayer y hoy. Ritual, magia y cotidianeidad

Abstract

Certain Maya funeral customs have their origin in traditions shared by other, earlier pre-Hispanic civilizations in Mesoamerica. One such tradition passed down from earlier times was the emphasis given to the colour employed to decorate the interior of the tombs of Maya kings and nobles, their funeral furnishings and the body of the deceased. The application of colour was considered as a ritual, and even a magical element. The start of this practice among the Maya, whose Mesoamerican origins date back to Olmec culture on Mexico’s Gulf Coast and the ancient cultures of the Valley of Mexico (Tlatilco), is perfectly documented in various tombs from the beginning of the late Pre-Classic period, where there was a marked preference for the cinnabar pigment. It was only when the red pigment was no longer employed to paint the tomb and cover the deceased and their belongings, and instead was deposited among the funeral furnishings in the form of balls of colour, that the symbolic cinnabar was substituted by the haematites or red soils that were so frequently used among the Maya elite, either as a cosmetic or for purely aesthetic and ritual purposes.