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Sex & The Maya®
Part I
Mythology
The ancient Maya was a society whose sexual identity was more fluid, frank, and open. They also had some other discreet sexual practices in different areas, which concealed them much more than the ones they came to show up iconographically to the world centuries later.
According to current archaeological discoveries and detailed analyses of iconography (*) of the ancient Mayan culture, like most pre-Hispanic cultures, sexuality was closely related to nature, the world, the environment, the cosmogony, and everything involved in its affirmation as societies.
(*) A method of study that objectively analyses and discerns the themes represented in different art objects.
Sexual desire was part of the rites of war and religion in all Mayan communities. The human body was considered transitory, and the one contemplated as the sexual body merely understands what it feels.
To investigate the sexual concepts of the Mayan culture, we depend on the representations carved in their temples and sculptures and the inscriptions elaborated in glyphs (**) that engaged their ideas and erotic expressions.
(**) carved mostly in ceramic and stone.
As an example of this, we refer to the engravings contained in the Dresden Codex composed of adoration scenes to a female deity represented in Ixchel, Goddess of the Moon, as the embodiment of a Mayan identity with a strong presence in their sexuality.
Goddess Ixchel, the wife of Itzimná, the God of Wisdom, was also considered a symbol of all generations. She was the continuity of life and motherhood as she had the privilege to have sexual intercourse with other gods, and consequently, she gave birth to all Mayas.
The conception and practice of sexuality among the ancient Maya never established a line between heterosexuals and homosexuals. Ixchel herself represented a giver of life and a seed of creation. She was bisexual. Her identity and presence were related to every aspect of the Mayan culture. Sexual bonding and devotion united both Mayan men and women with Ixchel.
