Authorship: Knowing the authorship of a work is important because it gives insight to the audience and
why they were writing and sheds light on any possible double meanings or motives behind the writing. It
is important to ask who wrote the text because it is then easier to identify bias within the text. Knowing
when a text was written puts the piece into context and allows the reader to better understand the
purpose for the text as well as why it was written the way it was.
Example: Broken Fingers – shows the role of scribes and the way that what they wrote was politically
controlled by the elites – the power of texts; scribes wrote the text, elites controlled them.
Viewership: Knowing who is going to view the text dictates the medium as well as the content. The
intended audience will influence the writing itself – how and where they are distributed, as well as the
actual information relayed by the text or images. Research must be done when reading a primary text to
understand how the original intended audience would have interpreted the text. Specific words or
images would have had various connotations depending on the different audiences. The research will
help one to get a better picture of the text as well as any contemporary biases associated with the text.
Example: stelae, art text connection – public viewership, pseudo glyphs; petitions to the King – using
religious language to appeal to the convictions of the Spanish/intended audience; Rigoberta Menchu,
EZLN – internet letters, story book;
The Texts Themselves:
Agency & Effects: Agency can often be attributed to texts, at least in the minimal sense that texts are
often intended to be used as tools to accomplish certain goals. The authors of texts often have certain
aims in mind that their texts are intended to satisfy, so knowing about these motivations can be helpful
in understanding a text. The metaphysical question of what sort of agency, if any, can properly be
attributed to texts, is controversial [Latour, Geil, Dennett]. However, for the purposes of interpretation,
answering this question is not necessary. The crucial questions are whether the texts were intended to
accomplish some purposes, what these purposes were, and whether they were actually accomplished.
Certain texts are intrinsically goal-oriented, such as petitions and items of propaganda.
Example: The First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, authored by the EZLN leadership, declares that
the aim of the Chiapas rebellion is to defeat the Mexican army and take control of the Mexican
government in Mexico City. The sheer implausibility of this content being meant seriously suggest that a
major point of the Declaration was to send a message.
What is the Medium Used?
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Maya texts can be found in a wide variety of mediums. The earliest Maya texts are often found
in art or on monumental works that were able to survive the test of time. Monumental stone
pillars known as Stelae are one of the most common mediums that remain today. After
European conquest resulted in the colonization of the Maya world the mediums through which
texts were recorded and transmitted increased greatly. Spanish missionaries wrote first hand
accounts of Maya life and translated and transcribed original Maya texts. Today Maya texts can
be found on any textual medium one can imagine. Nobel prize winning books, magazines, blogs,
etc. can disperse Mayan texts around the world.
What are the topics of the texts:
- Mayan texts were used to represent, record and explain many different topics. From topics as abstract
and fantastic as religious myths to ones as mundane as business transactions, the Maya were
prolific creators of texts of all types. One of the most common subjects found in Maya texts is
tales of nobility. King and lesser nobles commissioned the creation of countless texts with the
soul purpose of recording their life’s triumphs for posterity. Scribes were invaluable to rulers to
help maintain their power and authority through propagandist texts.