information:extraction, structural:summarization, linguistic:paraphrasing
Priesthood

The traditional Maya have their own religious functionaries, often hierarchically organized, and charged with the duties of praying and sacrificing on behalf of lineages, local groups, or the entire community. In many places, they operate within the Catholic brotherhoods (or 'cofradías') and the so-called civil-religious hierarchy (or ' cargo system '), organizations which have played a crucial role in the preservation of pre-Spanish religious traditions. The two most important male deities (Martín and Maximón) of the Tz'utujil Mayas of Santiago Atitlán, for example, have their own brotherhoods and priests. Public ritual focusing on agriculture and rain is led by the 'godfathers of the wet season' (padrinos del invierno) among the Ch'orti's – in a particularly rich and complex system – and by the village priests (jmenob) in Yucatán. In the private realm, nearly everywhere diviners ('seers', 'daykeepers') are active, together with curers. The performance of many of the indigenous priests, but especially of the curers, shows features also associated with shamanism.

Knowledge of the earlier Maya priesthood is almost entirely based on what their Spanish missionary colleagues have to say about them (Landa for Yucatán, Las Casas and others for the Guatemalan Highlands). The upper echelon of the priesthood was a repository of learning, also in the field of history and genealogical knowledge. Around 1500, the Yucatec priesthood was hierarchically organized, from the high priest living at the court down to the priests in the towns, and the priestly books were distributed along these lines. The role model for the high priest is likely to have been the upper god Itzamna, first priest and inventor of the art of writing. The most general word for priest, including the Yucatec high priest, appears to have been ah k'in 'calendrical priest'. Some priests were ordinary diviners, while others had specialized knowledge of the kingly katun cycle. Aside from calendrical learning, however, priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to managing the monthly feast cycle, and held special offices, such as that of oracle (chilan), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings (nacom). In the K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj, the most important deities (Tohil, Awilix, Jacawitz and Gukumatz) had their own high priests. At all levels, access to late Postclassic priesthood seems to have been restricted to the nobility.

Little is known with certainty concerning the Classic Maya priesthood. Iconographically, there can be no serious doubt but that the aged, ascetic figures depicted as writing and reading books, aspersing and inaugurating dignitaries and kings, and overseeing human sacrifice, represent professional priests and high priests at court. Certain hieroglyphic titles of noblemen have been interpreted as priestly ones (e.g., ajk'uhuun, possibly 'worshipper', yajaw k'ahk 'master of fire'). The king (k'uhul ajaw or 'holy lord'), too, acted ex officio as a priest.