De rerum natura: On the Nature of Existence and the Existence of Nature in the mundo maya and Beyond

In Mayan languages, as in many other Indigenous languages around the world, there is no traditional word for ‘nature.’ Th e lack of such terminology stems from the fact that the division between the human realm and the environment we live in has not been (historically or culturally) as separated as it is in the modern world. However, while there are no traditional words for ‘nature’ in Mayan languages, some of the languages use descriptive terms or neologisms that are oft en translated as ‘nature’ in dictionaries and other linguistic sources. Th e focus of this article is to understand the concept of nature in the Maya worldview based primarily on linguistic sources.


Introduction
In Mayan languages, as in many other Indigenous languages around the world, there is no traditional word for 'nature. ' Th e lack of such terminology stems from the fact that the division between human beings and the environment we live in -and the division between populated and unpopulated areas -has not been (historically or culturally) as separated as it is in the modern world 1 . However, while there are no traditional words for 'nature' in Mayan languages, some of the languages use descriptive terms or neologisms that are oft en translated as 'nature' (or related terms) in dictionaries and other linguistic sources. Th ese include K'iche' uwach uleew ("face of the earth") for 'nature ' and Jakaltek stx' otx' alq'inal for 'biotope' (from stx' otx' al, 'earth of ' and q'inal, 'life'). Th e main focus of this article is to understand the concept of nature in the Maya worldview based primarily on linguistic sources. Besides the Maya area, the article explores the concept of nature -and its personifi ed and gender-specifi c manifestations -in other cultures and languages around the world for comparative purposes. Th e title of the article invokes Lucretius's didactic poem De rerum natura as well as McTaggart's Th e Nature of Existence and seeks to see whether Western concepts can be used to describe non-Western ideas, concepts, and beliefs.

Th e linguistics of nature in the Maya area
While a few Mayan languages have constructed terms (mostly neologisms; see below) that are translated as 'nature' (naturaleza in Spanish) in dictionaries, most Mayan languages operate with descriptive terms, such as "face of the earth, " or use the dichotomy town vs. forest (see below). In Mayan languages there are a number of terms for 'earth' that are used when forming the concept "face of the earth. " One of them, kab, can be reconstructed all the way back to Proto-Mayan (Kaufman 2003:414, 2017, although the term is restricted to Yukatekan languages today as a reference to 'earth' (Yukatek kàab 'land, world' [Bricker et al. 1998:118], Itza' kab 'world' [only in derived words, compounds, or fi xed phrases] [Hofl ing and Tesucún 1997:332], and Mopan kab 'world' [Hofl ing 2011:227]), while in other languages it has either gone through a semantic shift -or it only appears in restricted compounds -as in Tzotzil chob 'milpa' (Delgaty 1964:14), and various terms for 'earthquake, ' including Tzeltal liki chab (Kaufman 2003:414), K'iche' kabraqän (ALMG 2004a:63), and the reconstructed Greater Q'anjobalan *kix kab (Kaufman 2003:414) and Greater Mamean *kab(-la) junab (Kaufman 2003:414).

Th e concept of 'nature' in the European linguistic landscape
As regards the terms for 'nature' in other languages around the world, the concepts and their etymologies are as varied as the languages. However, some interesting patterns that can be observed. Some are due to lexical borrowings, some attributable to linguistic areas (sprachbunds, diff usion areas), and some to common human concepts of the surrounding environment. Moreover, it is diffi cult to assess how culture aff ects people's ideas of nature -and how the terminology (or the lack of it) related to nature aff ects how the speakers of a given language perceive the natural environment around them. Evidently, each individual has a diff erent relationship with nature 6 , but culture and society also aff ect it, and the terminology related to nature shapes how people perceive it and talk about it. Th e semantic fi eld of the English word 'nature' includes terms such as natural, innate, raw, uncontrolled, wild, primitive, free, untouched, and uncultivated. However, when we look at the etymology of the word, a somewhat diff erent semantic scope arises. Th e Latin term nātūra, from which the English term 'nature' derives from (along with more than half of the terms for 'nature' in all European languages), translates as birth, character, quality, essence, substance, element, disposition, inclination, temperament, the natural world, the universe, and male organ, all deriving from nātūrus, future active participle of nāscor ~ gnāscor ("to be born"), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh1-"beget a child, to give birth, be born" (Lewis and Short 1879Short :1189Short -1190Mallory and Adams 2009:474;Streng 1933:481-482).

On the personifi cation and gender of nature
Nature is also personifi ed in many cultures around the world. "Mother Earth" and "Mother Nature" are widespread concepts with a myriad of artistic, linguistic, and mythological representations around the world and throughout human history. However, as artistic representations of "Mother Earth" predate written records and attested linguistic terms, it is not always easy to connect later cultural phenomena to earlier manifestations in material culture. In spite of this, archaic cultures have produced symbolic imagery with affi nities to the later manifestations of the concept of "Mother Earth, " as demonstrated by Marija Gimbutas (1991) and Nikos Chausidis (2012). According to Gimbutas (1991:228), "[f]rom the Upper Paleolithic, symbols appear representing the Goddess's fertility. She is portrayed as a naturalistic nude with hands placed on her enlarged belly, her pregnant form apparently likened to the fecundity of the seeded earth and all its creatures. " Furthermore, Gimbutas (1991:230) adds that " [t]here is no doubt that the prehistoric veneration of Mother Earth survived intact up to the time of the worship of Demeter and Persephone in Greece, Ops Consiua in Rome, Nerthus in Germanic lands, Zemyna or Zemes Mate in the Baltic area, Mother Moist Earth in Slavic lands, and elsewhere. Her power was too ancient and deep to be altogether destroyed by succeeding patriarchal religions, including Christianity. " Although neither Gimbutas nor Chausidis discuss Indigenous ideas of "Mother Nature" or "Mother Earth, " the concept appears to be near-universal.
While there are male "earth gods" and female "sky gods, " the idea of the nature being feminine is quite widespread. One of the well-known Indigenous American manifestations of "Mother Earth" is the Quechua Pachamama, from pacha ('earth, land, time, universe') and mama ('mother') 8 (DQEQ 2005:294, 373, 375). Others include widespread Native North American concepts of "Mother Earth. " According to the interviews carried out by Jostad et al. (1996:572) with members of nine Native North American groups (Blackfoot, Coeur d' Alene, Colville, Kalispel, Menominee, Nez Perce, Salish, Spokane, and Warm Springs), "[i]n the traditional context, the language used by those interviewed was completely gender-specifi c; Mother Earth is "she, " the rivers are her blood, and we come from her womb of creation. " However, although the fundamental concept surely exists, it is worth not-ing that none of the Indigenous languages of the peoples interviewed in Jostad et al. (1996) have gendered pronouns. While some, such as Okanagan (Colville-Okanagan), has gender suffi xes and some, such as Blackfoot, has grammatical gender (although animate-inanimate, not sex-specifi c 9 ), none of the languages mark pronouns with gender. Consequently, the interviews were probably carried out in English. However, this does not mean that the underlying concept of "Mother Nature" would not be present in the language, culture, and worldview of the said groups.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that the gender of the various terms for 'nature' in Indo-European languages is feminine: Sanskrit (prakŕti), Latin nātūra (along with descendant terms in, e.g., French, Italian, and Spanish), Slavic природа (priroda), Lithuanian gamtà, as well as Greek φύση (fýsi). However, one ought to be careful when interpreting gender categories based solely on grammatical gender without understanding the underlying semantics of these terms.

"Mother Earth" and the mother of the earth in the Andes
Aft er the Spanish conquest in the Andes, the image of the Virgin Mary was associated with Pachamama (Yetter 2017:2). Although there is some controversy as to the forms and extent of this syncretism (see below), the connection can be observed on many levels, including language, art, religion, and worldviews. Th e linguistic connection is manifested in the terms wirjunn (or wirjen) Pachamama (Harris 2000), a clear connection to the Virgin Mary. Artistic representations are epitomized in the anonymous Andean painting from 1720 titled "Virgen del Cerro" ("Virgin of the Hill, " "Virgin of the Mountain, " or "Virgin of the Mountain of Potosí" in English translations) 12 which portrays the Virgin Mary within a mountain. Th e mountain itself represents Cerro Rico, the main source of silver of the Spanish Empire and the largest single source of silver in the history of mankind. Known also as the "mountain that eats men, " due to the harsh conditions and treatment of the Indigenous miners (Ferry 1999; Izagirre 2019; Lane 2019), the Indigenous attitude towards Cerro Rico is rather mixed. Th e aforementioned painting shows the Virgin Mary merged with the mountain, exhibiting adits (entrances to the mines), trees, llamas, and Indigenous people, and surrounded by dignitaries and religious icons, and fl anked by the Sun and the Moon. While the connection to the Indigenous past of the area is clear, the symbolism is almost entirely imported. Furthermore, although the connection between mountains and Virgins existed already in Spain (e.g., the Virgin of Montserrat), and this connection might have had an infl uence on the Andean tradition (Damian 1995;Duncan 1986), the fusion of the mountain and the Virgin Mary appears to be motivated by local ideology. For example, as far as I know, none of the images of the Virgin of Montserrat portray the Virgin merged with the mountain. Instead, the fi gure is always shown in front of it. Consequently, although the connection between the Virgin of Montserrat and the Virgin of the Mountain of Potosí seems obvious, there is no reason to suggest that these two are related (see also Nair 2007:211-212).
However, this does not mean that the Virgin Mary and Pachamama were not associated with each other. Derks and Heessels (2011:304-305) point out that right aft er the introduction of Catholicism in Bolivia, the Indigenous people of the area associated the Virgin Mary with Pachamama as protective and fertile mother fi gures. According to van Kessel (1992:1), both Pachamama and the Virgin Mary give and take care of life, watch over the fertility of the cattle, the crops of the farm, and secure the rains and the next agricultural cycle. In return, both ask for "payments" in the form of off erings: fl owers, fruits, and seeds 13 .
On the other hand, as Salles-Reese (1997:38) observes, the "association with lust […] renders impossible the Pachamama's syncretization with the Virgin Mary; unlike the Mother of Christ, the Indian deity is nor virginal, chaste, or pure. " Consequently, according to Tola (2018:28), the assimilation of Pachamama into the Christian framework was rather complicated, as for the European missionaries, "Pachamama and the Andean women who revered it also evoked lust, lasciviousness and moral chaos. " Furthermore, as Dean (2010:36, 68, 91) points out, while the earth or Pachamama is conceptually feminine, many distinct parts of the earth, such as individual stones (especially named ones), outcrops, and mountains, are oft en masculine while, e.g., caves, as places of origin or birth, are feminine. Moreover, according to Dean (2010:44, 45,68), commonly, the wank' a (rocks that were perceived as "petrifi ed owners of places, such as fi elds, valleys, and villages") were related to masculine issues associated with male semination, such as fl ood, drought, and warfare.
Th e relationship between people and Pachamama in the Andes was that of reciprocity. As Tola (2018:28) points out, "[w]hen treated with respect, the earth could respond with abundant harvests. Failure to pay proper attention to Pachamama, however, could lead to arid soils, illnesses and even death. " Consequently, "[a] lthough capable of generating life, the pre-Hispanic Pachamama could hardly be described as a benevolent, all-giving mother" (Tola 2018:28). Th e association and partial fusion of Pachamama and the Virgin Mary is a prime example of European and Indigenous surface-level syncretism where the entities are not entirely fused but, instead, co-existing and -to some extent -complementary or even contradictory. Consequently, the nature of the relationship should be labeled as pericretic -to coin a term -rather than syncretic 14 .
To elaborate the relationship and circumstances further, Yetter (2017:3) points out that "[e]ven though these beliefs were syncretized with the model of the Virgin Mary, the Spanish male conquerors were blind to the Andean motives of the preservation of their own cultural ideologies. " Consequently, as Vuola (2019:105) observes, "Pachamama does not merge into Mary. Rather, they co-exist and share common elements, but also have characteristics of their own. " Furthermore, Tola (2018:28-29) notes that in Western modernity, the relationship between nature and society has been based on a rigid opposition in which the earth is a feminized setting for human endeavors, whereas, in the Andean ontology, the relationship is complementary and fl uid.

"Mother Earth" in the mundo maya
As regards the concept of "Mother Earth" in the Maya area and Mayan languages, a dictionary search of 30 Mayan languages produced only one direct reference regarding the concept, i.e., Achi (ALMG 2001e:72) qachuu ulew, glossed as "madre tierra. " Although references to "Mother Earth" do exist in the modern Mayan languages, the concept itself seems to be a modern development in the Maya area. Based on discussions with speakers 15 of various Mayan languages in 2021, the concept was known but its historical depth contested. Nevertheless, eight out of ten people who took part in a survey 16 carried out among speakers of six Mayan languages in Guatemala answered that they do use the concept of "Mother Earth" in reference to the earth. However, only one provided a term in a Mayan language for the concept. Furthermore, while many people who took part in the survey answered that the earth is feminine, many also replied that earth does not have gender -or it is composed of both genders. One answer was particularly revealing: "In general, we refer to the earth as our mother, but there are also specifi c spaces or areas that can be masculine, such is the case of some mountains that are recognized as masculine and bear masculine names, but most of them are feminine. It is also important to mention that there are some places that are not defi ned by sex -it is only known that they are sacred and have names.
[…] In our community, for example, in general it is Qatut Ak'al, but if we refer to the Volcán de Agua, we say the Yuuk' Jun Ajpú or Qatat Yuuk' Jun Ajpú -and Jun Ajpú in our thought and oral tradition is masculine, although it is still part of a whole. " 17 Yet, according to Hé ctor Aj Xol Ch' ok (personal communication, 2021), the concept was all but unknown a few decades ago but has become more common -especially among the Maya who have worked in NGOs and studied in universi-ties. He also notes that the new concept ignores the concept of duality in the Maya thought.
Nonetheless, the concept does exist in the modern Maya parlance -and also in more traditional surroundings. According to Kerry Hull (personal communication, 2021), the Ch' orti' regularly refer to the earth as "Mother" -especially in ritual contexts. Furthermore, as there is no grammatical gender in Mayan languages, the gender shows up in explicit nominal references. Hull (2003: 146) notes that "gender association parallelism results from the common frame of reference of the sun and the earth, or as the Ch' orti' say today, "Padre Jesus" and "Madre Tierra. "" In addition, Hull (2003:174) notes that "[t]he earth, like all other 'good' beings in Ch' orti' mythology, have 'evil' counterparts. All the principal angels have Underworld counterparts who are responsible for causing illnesses. Even Jesus Christ has his evil equivalent in Ch' orti' thought. " Furthermore, the femininity of the earth is obvious in the Ch' orti' planting rites, with references to Mother Earth and Our Mother [the Earth] (Kerry Hull, personal communication, 2021).
Th e concept is also used in Yucatan -although it is conspicuously absent in the Yucatec linguistic sources. However, the concept does exist in the ritual language of some elders today, as recorded in 2010 by Harald Th omaß (In Press) who documented the following phrase voiced by Don Antonio: Tin k'ubik waay lu'um kaabile', para empezar y cerrar: in na' lu'um "Lo entrego aquí en la tierra, para empezar y cerrar: mi madre tierra" ("I give it here on earth, to start and close: my mother earth") How traditional, common, or widespread the concept na' lu'um is, requires more research. Interestingly, however, it has found its way into modern phraseology and names of, e.g., organizations, businesses, and merchandise, including Na'Lu'um Cacao Institute (Belize), Koox Na'Lu'um Eco Hotel (Tecoh, Yucatán), Na' Lu'um Restaurant (Mérida, Yucatán), Instituto Ná Lu' Um, (El Soberbio, Misiones, Argentina), Colectivo Na'lu'um -environmental and social community organization (Yucatán), Grupo Ecologista Na Luúm (Campeche), Ak na'lu'um educational website, Espacio Pachamama U Nai Na Luum cultural center, In na lu'um Facebook blog, Ná Lu'um Art, Na Lu'um Cosmética Nativa (Quintana Roo), Na'lu'um health and beauty products (Yucatán), Na' Lu'um artisanal soaps (Mexico City and Quintana Roo), Na Luum ecological products (Quintana Roo), Na'luum wood products (Yucatán), Lu'um Na' apartments and condos (Campeche), Artesanos Na ' Lu'um (Cancún, Quintana Roo), and Th e Swallows of Na' Lu'um song by Nicholas Gunn. Similarly, we have the "Mother Earth" concept appearing in Guatemala, including Asociación Tuut Ak'al Chib'aatz' (tuut ak' al for "mother earth" in Poqomchi').
Besides the earth itself, the Maya concepts of earth beings/deities (from the ancient Maya texts 18 and iconography to modern Maya concepts) personify aspects of the earth -much the same way as in many other cultures around the world. Refl ections of these ideas are found in concepts such as Mam or "grandfather" -with connections to earth and mountain spirits of great antiquity 19 . However, these beings have, more than oft en, other aspects and attributes -making it problematic to associate them with earth exclusively. For example, God N is associated with the aforementioned Mam but it also has other attributes that are not connected with terrestrial phenomena (Taube 1992:92-99). Another example is God D whose celestial association is widespread. However, he is also associated with the earth, especially during the Postclassic and Colonial eras -much the same way as Tōnacātēcuhtli in the Aztec worldview. Similarly, the Central Mexican deities with connections to the earth, including the aforementioned Tōnacātēcuhtli, as well as Tlāltēcuhtli, Tōnacācihuātl, Chicomecōātl, and Cōātlīcue, also possess other aspects beyond the earthly associations (Seler 1887:227, 234;Taube 1992:36-41). Th e fl uidity of these beings makes their classifi cation as mere earth deities problematic.

Concluding remarks
Th e terminology around the concept of nature is in constant motion in the languages and cultures around the world, and the Maya area and Mesoamerica are no exceptions. Although there are no traditional terms for 'nature' in many languages, new concepts based on changing perspectives of the world around us emerge in all languages. Th ese include neologisms as well as semantic extensions of existing terms. Furthermore, besides the terminology itself, nature and earth are oft en personifi ed in Indigenous cultures. However, although the idea of "Mother Earth" has recently gained currency in the Maya area, the concept is not autochthonous. Instead, it appears to be a borrowed concept -albeit falling into a fertile ground. Moreover, rather than being based on rigid oppositions, the Maya idea of the earth and the natural world surrounding us is complementary -rather than markedly either feminine or masculine.

Notes
1 Th e modern world (modern era, modernity) refers here to the socio-cultural values, attitudes, and norms, as well as the world system and historical era from roughly the 16th century onwards, characterized fi rst by European hegemony and later by globalization, and associated with capitalism, technological progress, individualism, and urbanization (see, e.g., Braudel 1979;Goody 2004;and Wallerstein 2004). 2 Sakapultek has also kajulew, glossed as 'naturaleza' ('nature') in ALMG (2001c:38 Barbosa (1956:83, 385-386), in Old Tupi, the superlative particle, eté came to clarify confusion aft er the contact with European languages. Certain lexical items, especially specifi c domestic animals that were unknown to the Indigenous people of the area, were named aft er similar familiar entities, including: wine: kaûĩ ('cauin'); ox: tapiira ('tapir'); and dog: îagûara ('jaguar'). Subsequently, the native terms were augmented with the eté particle to produce kaûĩ-eté for 'cauin'; tapiir-eté for 'tapir'; and îagûar-eté for 'jaguar, ' or "onça legitima, grande. " Still today in modern Guarani, jagua means 'dog' while jaguarete is 'jaguar. ' However, 'tapir' is mborevi and 'ox' is guéi (an obvious loanword from Spanish). 5 Note also <heecto quiih> (/Ɂae:kto ki:Ɂ/) as "cazar (estar en el monte) [hunt]" and <heecot coom> (/Ɂae:kot ko:m/) "buscar visión [seek vision]" in Seri (Moser and Marlett 1998:17). 6 As demonstrated in the (linguistically ambiguous) movie line "this is not natural" in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting (Welsh 1993), with a reference to outdoors in the Scottish nature. 7 Th e term understood as 'nature' is a modern concept in Sami languages, infl uenced by the Finnish term luonto. Th e primary meaning of the term is 'nature' or 'character' as is "human nature. " 8 Although Pachamama is oft en translated as "Mother Earth, " the concept is far more comprehensive, encompassing time along with space. Furthermore, as Yetter (2017:11) notes, "Pachamama [is] mother earth as well as the mother of earth. " 9 Furthermore, as Kilarski (2007:334) points out, "[…] the principal diff erences between Algonquian and Indo-European gender, […] involve the type of assignment criteria: in contrast to Algonquian, semantic criteria in Indo-European are usually weaker, being combined with formal ones (morphological or phonological). Furthermore, sex, rather than animacy, is the primary distinction, similarly to many other language families of the Old World, as well as, e.g., Northern Iroquoian among North American languages. " However, it is also worth noting that the animate-inanimate contrast (rather than pure sex-based distinction) was also present in the Proto-Indo-European pronominal system. 10 Žemyna derives from the reconstructed name of the Proto-Indo-European earth goddess *Dʰéǵʰōm, meaning 'earth. ' Th e term *dʰéǵʰōm (and specifi cally its derived form *ǵʰm ̥ mṓ, "earthling") is also the source for Proto-Italic *hemō and Latin homō ("human being"), and its descendant terms: Italian uomo, French homme, and Spanish hombre, as well as Latin (etc.) humus ("earth, soil"), and English human (Mallory andAdams 1997:174, 2009:471). 11 As Mother Earth in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (Fratantuono 2017:15-17). 12 Th ere are two versions of the painting: one at the Casa Nacional de Moneda de Bolivia (Th e National Mint of Bolivia) in Potosí and the other at Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia. 13 "[…] ambas -Pachamama y la Virgen -son las que dan y cuidan la vida y la salud de sus hijos y ambas piden en "pago" elementos idénticos que observamos en el culto que se les rinde. En el ambiente rural, ambas han de vigilar por la fertilidad del ganado, los cultivos de la chacra y la oportunidad de las lluvias. Ambas reciben las ofrendas de fl ores, frutas y semillas y ambas han de cuidarles y regenerarlas en el próximo ciclo agrícola" (van Kessel 1992:1). Note also an interesting recent Indigenous ritual that was performed in the Vatican, with a "dance resembling the 'pago a la tierra, ' a traditional off ering to Mother Earth" (see Mares 2019). 14 I.e., 'around or near, ' rather than 'together' with "Cretans. " 15 Dora Maritza García Patzán (Kaqchikel), Romelia Mo' Isem (Poqomchi'), Hé ctor Aj Xol Ch' ok (Q' eqchi'), and Crisanto Kumul Chan (Yucatec). 16 Carried out with the help of Romelia Mo' Isem in October 2021. 17 "De manera general nos referimos a la tierra como nuestra madre, pero igualmente hay espacios o áreas especifi cas que pueden ser masculinos tal es el caso de algunas montañas que son reconocidas como masculinos y llevan nombres masculinos, pero en su mayoria es femenino. Tambien es importante mencionar que hay algunos lugares que no se defi ne si tiene sexo, solo se sabe que es sagrado y tiene un nombre. […]. En fi n en nuestra comunidad por ejemplo en su generalidad es