Abstract

MALDONADO CANO, Daniela  and  RODRIGUEZ BALAM, Enrique. Entre el Cielo y el Porkatorio: concepciones mayas sobre el destino del alma. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2005, vol.26, pp.137-148. ISSN 0185-2574.

The Mayan person, thinks, perceives and constructs himself in multiple dimensions and, as such, this person lives and dies. Diverse Mayan groups attribute different components of the soul to every individual, which is much more diversified than the Western-Christian conception of the three parts of the human being (body, soul and spirit). According to Mayan ideas, each component belongs to a different space after physical death. Thus, places such as hills, mountains, rivers and cemeteries are added to the Christian idea of heaven and hell as the soul's final destiny. In this article we study these elements as we put forward an ethnographic analysis to help the understanding of the way the person, as part of a historical and social (community) milieu, constructs an idea of death and his own final destiny.