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How did Maya creation stories describe people made from earth, wood, and corn?
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Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Haida argillite carving, c. 1890, depicting a folktale in which the Bear Mother endures a cesarean birth; in the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Haye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York City.
In Maya mythology, as chronicled in the Popol Vuh, the creation of humanity was a process involving successive attempts by the gods to fashion beings capable of worship and intelligence.1
According to these traditions, the gods created people in three distinct stages:
- Earth: The first attempt involved beings made of earth. These creatures were found to be mindless and were subsequently destroyed.1
- Wood: The second attempt resulted in beings made of wood. These figures lacked souls and intelligence; because they were ungrateful to the gods, they were punished and destroyed by a great flood or devoured by demons.1
- Corn: The final and successful attempt involved creating humans from a corn gruel. These beings became the ancestors of the Maya people.1
This narrative reflects the deep cultural significance of maize in Mesoamerican civilization, where the corn god was a central deity associated with vegetation and life.2