A surprising discovery in a colonial Maya manuscript
##In the so-called Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua, there exists the only baptismal record in this whole group of Maya colonial documents. To identify this particular baptism might help to locate the dubious place of origin of this document. It was possible to identify the baptism in the official church records in Merida, Yucatan. The baptised child was found to be the son of two mulatos. It turned out that the record in the Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua was a falsification of the official record, replacing the information about the child's black heritage with data that have to be interpreted as if the child's parents were either Indian or white. This falsification in one of the Books of Chilam Balam, one of the documents that are often called "the sacred books of the Maya" seems to be worth mentioning and invites for speculation about the reason for its existence.##
Keywords: Chilam Balam of Kaua, Maya manuscripts, baptism and Maya
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