The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

As the gods in the Popol Vuh sought to create human beings, and ultimately
succeeded by using maize dough (Tedlock 1996), their goal was to themselves be reified
by humans so that they would not be forgotten. The production of idols in contact period
Yucatan is another good example of this practice wherein craftspeople conducted
ritualized production to properly and safely, from a spiritual standpoint, bring off the
production of a mask or idol for worship. “Among the occupations of the Indians were
pottery and wood-working; they made much profit from forming idols of clay and wood,
in doing which they fasted much and followed many rites” (a translation of Landa by
Gates [1978:37]). Landa went into further detail, describing the intense nature of the
practice of ritualized production:
One of the things, which these miserable people regarded as most difficult and
arduous, was to make idols of wood, which they called making gods. And so they
fixed a particular time for this and it was this moth of Mol, or another month if the
priest told them it was suitable. Therefore, those who wished to make some
consulted the priest first, having taken his advice, they went to the workmen who
engaged in this work. And they say the workmen always made excuses, since that
they feared that they or someone of their family would die on account of the
work, or that fainting sickness would come upon them. When they had accepted,
the Chacs whom they had also chosen for this purpose, as well as the priest and
the workmen, began their fastings. While they were fasting the man to whom the
idols belonged went in person or else sent someone to the forests for the wood for
them, and this was always cedar. When the wood had arrived, they built a hut of
straw, fenced in, where they put the wood and a great urn in which to place the
idols and to keep them there under cover, while they were making them. They put
incense to burn for the four gods called Acantuns, which they located and placed
at the four cardinal points. They put what they needed for scarifying themselves
or for drawing blood from their ears, and the instruments for sculpturing the
black gods, and with these preparations, the priests and the Chacs and
the workmen shut themselves up in the hut, and began their work on the gods,
often cutting their ears, and anointing those idols with the blood and burning their
incense, and thus they continued until the work was ended, the one to whom (the
idol) belonged giving them food and what they needed; and they could not have
relations with their wives, even in thought, nor could any one come to the place
where they were. [Tozzer 1941:159-60]
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