This book will bring as many mixed emotions as the number of mixed metaphors that Thompson uses. The book is a potpourri of Thompson’s many interests, resulting in an infelicitous arrangement. He has dragged in some papers (on tobacco, and on trade relations) previously published in minor outlets, which do not fit well here. His mixed metaphors are often hilarious, like this one: “History without a little prejudice is dull as ditch-water. Naturally, if you oversalt the dish you ruin it.” Apart from disliking even unsalted ditch-water, adults may resent the statement that, “like soiled blue jeans, acne, and a taste for pizza, that attitude should be discarded with intellectual adulthood;” pizza sales should not be expected to decline because of this pronouncement.
Thompson has a valuable chapter on the Putun Expansion, although I might add that the Lacandón stronghold on Lake Miramar was on the northern edge of the lake, and that not only one island was occupied, but two. There is some evidence that there was a Lacandón town on the savannah at the junction of the Perlas and Jatate rivers, which he ignores. But enough of quibbling.
Beginning with Chapter 7, on Lowland Maya Worship, Thompson presents the results of many years of hard work and travel in Mayaland and of the widest possible reading. He presents the most complete view of Maya religion of any author, carefully examining each deity as to origin and relationship to the rest, and then reexamining the whole. He presents his thesis that the Itzam Na had monotheistic tendencies, which were not held by commoners. He links up historical writings with archaeological excavations and brings modern ethnography to his aid to explain any remaining gaps or discrepancies.
Though his organization is often irritating, the wealth of information he presents is worth any mental shifting a reader must make to jump from point to point in what turns out to be a masterful argument. He ransacks the entire literary storehouse to bring up summaries of Maya creation myths in a tour-de-force of scholarship, alone well worth the price of admission. I would not recommend this book to a beginner though, unless he first goes through some of the major texts on the Maya, because it is difficult to follow Thompson through his literary rain-forest. Thompson knows where he is going but beginners had better stick very closely on his heels or they will never find their way out again.
