Scribal Interaction and the Transmission of Traditional Knowledge: A Postclassic Maya Perspective

Abstract

This article contributes to the discussion of literacy in colonial Mesoamerica by providing a historical perspective concerning scribal practices in the pre-Hispanic Maya region—particularly those relating to the creation and use of screenfold codices—and interactions among different literary traditions. This data set provides an important point of departure for understanding later (colonial-period) practices among the elite of the northern Maya region, for whom reading, writing, consulting, and reciting texts had been deeply embedded within the culture for at least a millennium by the time they first came into contact with Europeans.