Names, Power, and Memory Theme Analysis

Naming, both the naming of other things and the naming of oneself, is how characters in the Popol Vuh gain power. The Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Sea gods want humans to be able to "name their names," and when humans and gods are victorious, announcing their names to their adversaries is often a part of their victory. Because this relationship between naming and power applies to an extensive cross section of characters in the text, the Popol Vuh insists that the greatest power comes from knowing and sharing one's own name and the names of other powerful individuals.

What this system does, in essence, is mark for the reader who is worthy of remembrance. By offering individual names, the text insures that the reader has the language to speak about individuals and their deeds specifically, which in turn gives those individuals power in the real world. By creating this link between naming, power, and memory, the text implies that it's a worthy goal to accomplish deeds that will lead one to be named as an individual. For the gods, this means that they'll be able to be worshipped, particularly when they also get to name what kinds of sacrifices they want as well. For humans, this means inclusion in the final sections of the text, where the authors list twelve generations of revered Mayan leaders and officials.

This system is especially important because it functions on a deep structural level within the text. In most cases, the heroic victors are individuals who state their names when they win a victory. Their adversaries, however, are often named as groups, not as individuals, as with the human conflict between the first four humans (Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Not Right Now, and Dark Jaguar) and groups of people who are simply referred to as "the tribes." During the divine conflicts, this deviates somewhat: though groups are still named as groups (as with the Xibalbans, the people of the underworld), the leaders of the Xibalbans are named specifically. By naming One Death and Seven Death as individuals, the text acknowledges that as gods, those two individuals are powerful—just not as powerful as the heroic gods Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the victors of this particular conflict. In turn, this reinforces the hierarchy that dictates that human foes such as "the Castilians" or "the tribes" are infinitely less powerful than heroic individuals or are simply unworthy of being named at all, while divine antagonists occupy a unique role wherein they're worthy of individual remembrance because of their divinity.

Throughout the final sections of the Popol Vuh, which concerns human activities and historical events, this system expands to include not just people, but places as well. As the human tribes, led by various named individuals, move around the Quiché kingdom and establish citadels, they name those citadels and the landforms they pass. In these situations, the humans assert their own power (by taking land), the power of their gods (by creating a place to worship those gods and remember their names), and finally, assert their power over the land (by naming that land and preserving those names for future generations). The success of those individuals is evidenced by the inclusion of maps in the text: the names of those places have persisted for nearly a thousand years, exactly because the Mayans named them and recorded the names in the Popol Vuh.

However, this is all thrown upside down with the framing of this particular version of the Popol Vuh. The text was written by Quiché people in Latin not long after the Spanish invasion, though recording their native stories was a crime and they had to do so anonymously to protect themselves. In this way, by refusing to identify themselves, the writers stand up to their Castilian conquerors and show that even this system set out by the bulk of the Popol Vuh isn't one that's entirely infallible. The definition of power must necessarily change with the times in order to ensure that these stories are remembered, so that these anonymous individuals can continue to identify those who are powerful, and make sure their names live on.