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Step 4 of 7~8 min read~29 min left
The Popol Vuh on Human Purpose
Examine the key Popol Vuh passage on what it means to be human, and why the wooden people fail.
“The wooden people could not remember their creators, they did not remember Heart of Sky, and so they fell. It was just a test, just an attempt at creating human beings, they weren't successful. They could speak, their faces were carved, their feet and hands had form, but they had no blood, no lymph, no moisture, no fat. Their cheeks were dry, their feet and hands had no moisture, their flesh was yellow. [...] They lacked the sense of their Makers, and they walked without purpose. So they were killed, the ones who had already spread over the face of the earth. And then the humans of maize were made, they could speak and think and see far. The gods said: 'They know all, the great and the small. [...] Must we change their nature? We do not want them to know too much. Our recompense is in their words.' — Popol Vuh (trans. Dennis Tedlock, 1985; University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh PDF); Mossy Skull 'Circular Time'; Smithsonian 'Creation Story of the Maya'”