The sound may vary as much as from Atút, in one language, to Ichó, in another but the different forms are connected by gradations. In the case of the meaning I spoke last of, it happens that the different words, from language to language, are historically all one. “The actual sound of the words depends on the language. Plan of the model interior as drawn by Robert Burkitt in the Burkitt catalog. But if you consider the house as a habitation, and talk about My house, or Your house, or ask if a man is at home, then you have to use the other word. It is the word to use when you say a big house, or a small house, or simply, a house. One word takes the house as a mere building. “Most of the Maya languages-though not all of them have two distinct words for a house.

He explains the words used for a house and its parts: Quotations are excerpted from his description with the author’s comments in. These views of the house model provide an indication of Burkitt’s insistence on accuracy. This will be their first and only public display because of their fragility, the models will not travel to the exhibition’s other venues. Visitors to the exhibit Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya at the Penn Museum will have a unique opportunity to see the house model, as well as a model diorama he had made of three dolls illustrating three stages of weaving. Today’s travelers will find traditional Maya houses have changed very little. He provided the Museum with a precise explanation of how to build a Maya house, along with an accurate model of such a house, and had it shipped to Philadelphia in 1929. Although not a trained cultural anthropologist, he was interested in the Maya he knew, how they lived and worked, what they ate, how they dressed, what stories they told, and what they believed. This went beyond his interest as an archaeologist or his desire as a linguist to understand and record the highland Mayan languages. Robert Burkitt, who was Penn Museum’s “man in Guatemala” from 1912 to 1937, had an insatiable curiosity bout all things Maya. House Model, 50 cm long x 40 cm wide x 30 cm high. The house model was made by a Maya carpenter and, according to Burkitt, is an accurate representation of the houses in use in the Guatemala highlands at that time.

Maya house model