Las entidades anímicas y la muerte en la etnografía de los Altos de Chiapas

Abstract

The human being in Mesoamerica has been understood as a set of various soul entities that grant individuals vitality to distinctive characteristics, such as personality. Generally speaking, there are three animistic entities: the bird of the heart, ch’ulel, and lab (according to Pitarch for the Tzetzals). Thus, death has been conceived as the separation of these entities. However, what happens to them when the human being dies? To answer this question, the text offers an ethnohistorical analysis on the fate of animistic entities after death among the modern Maya, comparing regional and temporal conceptions concerning these beliefs.