1 - Histomesoamericana

INTRODUCTION XVÜ
and was supposed to rotate among the subsidiary cities. Commonly more
than one city claimed the honor, which conferred tribute rights, control
of land titles, and appointments to public office. Even the ruined cities
lent their prestigious names to the seating of the katun, and at various
dates between 1461 and 1539 the privilege was claimed by Chichen Itza,
Izamal, Uxmal, Tihosuco, Coba, and Emal.
Early in the sixteenth century, the war of the katuns—or katun of the
wars (u katun katunob)—between the Xiu and the Itza was exacerbated
by the arrival of the Spanish. The result was a formal bifurcation of the
politico-religious system and, coincidentally, a major calendrical reform,
which was promulgated at the beginning of 11 Ahau: 11.16.0.0.0 (1539).
The Itza continued to consider Mayapan to be the seat of the cycle, and
they seated the katun at Emal. The Xiu established Merida as the seat of
both the cycle and the katun. In effect, the peninsula was divided into
eastern and western jurisdictions along a north-south line running right
through Mayapan. A new calendar was announced at Mayapan, with new
yearbearers, a new count of the twenty-day uinals (from 1-20 instead of
0-19], and a count of the katuns by initial date rather than by terminal
date (see the appendix). This calendar, universally used by the colonial
Yucatecans from 1539 to 1752, is in agreement with Landa's statement
that the Mayan new year fell on Sunday, fuly 16, 1553 (see Edmonson
1976).
The Flower katun 11 Ahau thus initiated a new Itza cycle, which was
also the cycle of the Spanish Empire and ended very nearly with the
empire in 1824, at the end of 13 Ahau. The Itza of the sixteenth century
found themselves embattled on several fronts, being opposed by the Spanish
secular and religious authorities, the Xiu nobility, who found it convenient
to become Christians, and the merchants and peasants of both the
east and the west (often also Christianized), who objected to paying tribute
to the Itza as well as taxes to the Spanish. Lowborn claimants to the
lordship of the katun sprang up everywhere, supported by rebellious guerrilla
companies in the woods who made it dangerous and eventually
impossible for the legitimate lords to complete their ceremonial visits to
collect tribute and confirm titles. Few lords of the katun completed their
terms of office. The military companies were not brought under control
until the middle of the seventeenth century, and peasant rebellions continued
long after that.
The Xiu had a long-standing tradition of accommodating foreign culture.
They were considerably more Mexicanized than the Itza even in the
post-Classic period. After the conquest they accommodated similarly to
Christianity and attempted to justify their stance in terms of Mayan
prophecy. By the early seventeenth century, they apparently had lost interest
in the Mayan political game and did not claim to seat the katun
after 1 Ahau (1638-1658). Merida had become the Spaniards' city.
The Itza were more resistant. From the outset of the Spanish conquest
they were troubled by the possible implications of the European calendar,
particularly by the seven-day week, which (leap years being ignored) appeared
to represent a new class of yearbearer that the Maya hadn't
thought of. While the Xiu tried to accommodate the Mexican fifty-two
year divinatory cycle and the Christian year by inventing a twenty-year
(rather than twenty-tun) "katun" (see chapter 22), the Itza clung to the