Description: This animated video presents the K’iche’ (or Quiché) Maya myth of the creation of human beings, drawn from the Popol Vuh, the foundational text of K’iche’ Maya cosmology. In this account, the gods attempt several times to create humans from different materials (mud, wood, and finally maize) before succeeding. The myth encodes a vision of the relationship between human beings and the natural world in which corn is the very substance of human life, situating agriculture and the environment at the center of what it means to be human.
Teaching ideas: Before watching, students can reflect on creation myths and discuss what these stories tend to reveal about a culture’s understanding of its relationship with the rest of the world. The myth’s use of maize as the material from which humans are made is a powerful conceptual hook that can lead to a discussion about what this choice implies about the place of corn in K’iche’ Maya culture and compare it with other creation narratives in which humans are made from other materials, using comparative structures and vocabulary. A creative writing exercise can then ask students to write their own short myth about the creation of another species of their choice, using the narrative conventions of the genre and practicing the preterite to narrate a sequence of mythological events.