Abstract

CRAVERI, Michela. Rhetorics and Patterns of Discourse in the Ritual of the Bacabs. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2021, vol.57, pp.179-213.  Epub Mar 26, 2021. ISSN 0185-2574.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ecm.57.2021.18657.

The aim of this paper is to study the rhetorical structure of the Ritual of the Bacabs, a colonial document of great importance in the context of Yucatec Maya literature. After a philological analysis, I will focus especially on the study of textual rhetoric and the marks of orality of this ritual document. I will also study the textual symbolism and networks of paronomasias, used to link diseases, body parts, animals and medicinal plants in the same healing action. The analysis of its rhetorical organization and the textual mechanisms of meaning production allows us to understand the functions of ritual language and the presence of a codified system of discourse. The basis of my theoretical approach is the convergence between rhetoric and semiotic study of discourse.

Keywords : Ritual of the Bacabs; Maya literature; indigenous rhetorics; Maya medicine; Maya ritual style.

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