People of the Corn
The Maya call themselves “The People of the Corn” not just because maíz is the staple of their current and ancestral diets, but because the Popol Vuh says that they were actually created from corn; it is the fiber of their being. This belief is still widely held today amongst the living Maya.
So consider the implications of biotechnology and corporate control of seed supply in Mexico and Central America. In a recent Indypendent article, journalist John Ross finds that corporate manipulation of the corn crop is a threat to the indigenous Maya as a cultural presence – the native population is not only robbed of its right to nurture its people, but may find that it can no longer commune with the very substance of Maya myth, prayer, and sacrament.
Read Ross’ preeminent article here.
Image: "Mayan Corn Depiction" by Plant Design Online on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.
Tweet- 10-23-08
- Elizabeth Hart's blog
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Plant/Tree of Life
It's sad to see what's happening with all of this. I was just in southern Utah with some of the RS crew and we saw some petroglyphs that were revering corn much like in the picture above. I couldn't help but think how much it looked like the tree of life, or sacred plants of life in other traditions, many of which look like the criss-crossing nerves and energy channels (nadis) coming off the spine, the central energy column of our own bodies.
Martin Prechtel
Svalbard Gobal Seed Bank