From Moon Goddesses to Virgins: The Colonization of Yucatecan Maya Sexual Desire.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

From Moon Goddesses to Virgins: The Colonization of Yucatecan Maya Sexual Desire, by Pete Sigal. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.

The process of cultural hybridization resulting from the colonization of the Americas has fascinated scholars for decades, but Pete Sigal approaches the subject from a distinctive angle: that of sexual desire. The first study of sexuality based on Maya-language documents, From Moon Goddesses to Virgins explores the transformation of Maya attitudes toward gender, body, and other cultural, social, and political issues during the colonial period. Sigal shows that Maya notions of sexuality were closely related to general concepts of the world and its workings. Once infused with Spanish Catholic beliefs on sexuality, the Maya ethos evolved into a new system that incorporated elements of both the precolonial and Spanish world views. Sigal argues that for the Maya, sexual desire was integrated with rituals that promoted warfare and religious sacrifice, while for the Spaniards sexual desire was associated with sin. During colonization, the very definitions of sacrifice and sin were modified as a result of the intermingling of cultures.

The Moon Goddess was central to Maya culture and the embodiment of Maya self-identity. In the precolonial model, the Moon Goddess was a generative and reproductive symbol--a female deity who had sex with other gods, thereby creating the Maya people. During the colonial period, the Spaniards introduced the figure of the Virgin Mary, which the Maya incorporated into their system. Sigal sees both the Moon Goddess and the Virgin Mary as encoded figures whose meaning related to diverse aspects of religion, gender, and sexuality. In his book, he attempts to reconfigure these codes in order to discover their evolving significance in Maya society.

When the Spaniards introduced the cult of the Virgin Mary in Mesoamerica, the Maya saw in her the Moon Goddess. Curiously, by accepting the Virgin, they expressed resistance to colonization because they did not accept the Christian emblem intact, but changed it into a symbol they could understand on their own terms. Yet, the Moon Goddess did not remain intact either. Gradually she became more like the Virgin, which led to a greater acceptance of Catholic norms. The Virgin Mary Moon Goddess incorporated the Catholic notion of virginity and chastity, but integrated into it the gendered notion of creation.

Thus, over the years the Moon Goddess and...