This article analyzes the appearance and content of the surviving archival manuscript of the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, ascribed to Fray Diego de Landa (1524-79), the most prominent of the first generation of Franciscan friars in the Spanish colony of Yucatán. This analysis is placed in the context of the way in which published editions of the work have been treated and used since the manuscript's rediscovery in the 1860s. The authors argue that such treatment has been based on a misconception of the nature of the Relación, suggesting that this important manuscript be viewed very differently by scholars.

This paper offers a revisionist viewpoint on the nature of colonial Maya literacy, showing that the colonial Yucatec Maya elite utilized both the traditional hieroglyphic script and the new alphabetic writing skills taught by the Franciscan friars. By adapting and utilizing both styles of writing, the colonial Maya elite created a system of graphic pluralism that enabled the Maya nobility to better defend their elite interests in a manner consistent with both pre-Columbian and colonial forms of writing, address, religion, and government administration.

Differing from the rapid political, economic, and social conquests, the conquest of indigenous sexuality was often a long and deeply contested arena of indigenous-Spanish encounters. The roots of what can be called the “sexual conquest” of the Yucatec Maya began with the initial missions of the Franciscan friars. The earliest friars produced vocabularies, grammars, sermons, and confession manuals as tools for their missionary effort. By analyzing these missionary creations, we can approach an understanding of the friars' views of Maya sexuality. The Maya, however, often took the missionary teachings concerning proper and improper sexual activities, and through the lens of their own cultural concepts of sexuality and sexual relations they manipulated them for their own purposes. This paper will examine how the knowledge of the “sins of the fathers” served both the missionaries and the Maya in their struggle for control over the complex nature of evolving colonial sexuality.

Elaborado a partir de miel para fermentar la corteza del árbol denominado balché [Lochacarpuslongistylispittier], el licor del mismo nombre se libaba con frecuencia en las ceremonias religiosas mayas. Desde los `primeros tiempos las autoridades hispanas y los franciscanos intentaron eliminar su producción y empleo, considerando su consumo como un acto formal de idolatría. El artículo analiza los vínculos del bachécon la religiosidad maya y su uso ritual; uso que, pese a las prohibiciones y el reiterado esfuerzo por extirparlo, continua hasta hoy entre lacandones y yucatecos.

No abstract