Maquech
A maquech (also Makech ) is a man-made beetle that is sold as a living brooch on the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan and traditionally worn on clothing. This custom goes back to a legend of the indigenous people of the Yucatan, the Maya .
The name Maquech comes from a Mayan language . As Zopherus chilensis , the maquech belongs to the order of the beetles. 19 species of Zopherus are native to North and Central America.
Description of the beetle
The maquech belongs as Zopherus chilensis to the subordination of the Polyphaga and the superfamily Tenebrionoidea . It is long and cylindrical, the fused wing-covers are very thick. The wing covers are fused together so that these beetles cannot fly. Therefore, these species have only been able to spread within certain areas. The species living north of the Rio Grande are almost all uniformly colored black, while the tropical species almost all have black and white patterns.
The maquech belongs to the wood-boring species and feeds mainly on rotting wood and the bark of rotten trees, but also on the soft parts of dead animals.
Use as jewelry
In some areas of the Yucatan, especially in Mérida and the surrounding area, some women and men traditionally wear a maquech as a brooch on their clothing. It is available for purchase in many shops and markets, the prices vary depending on the season.
With a glue stick, cut gemstones made of glass or other material and a short chain are attached to the body of the beetle. The Maquech is visibly attached to the outerwear with a safety pin at the other end of the chain. In order to keep it alive, it is now usually kept in a kind of terrarium , which often only consists of a small glass or plastic vessel filled with pieces of wood.
The Mayan legend "The Princess and the Beetle"
The legend La princesa y el escarabajo provides the reason why the Maquech is considered a love charm and a symbol of longevity among the descendants of the Maya:
According to her father's wish, the favorite daughter of the Mayan ruler Ahnú Dtundtunxcaán, Cuzán, was to marry Prince Ek Chapat. But she fell in love with his companion, a simple young man named Chalpol, who reciprocated her feelings. They met secretly under the ceiba , the sacred tree where the gods answer the prayers of mortals. When the king learned that Chalpol was his daughter's lover, he ordered that Chalpol be sacrificed. Cuzán begged his father for mercy and promised never to see him again and instead would become the wife of Prince Ek Chapat.
When the princess was alone in her room at night, a shaman came and handed her a beetle. This animal, he said, was Chalpol, her lover who had been given life. But the ruler had demanded that Chalpol be transformed into an insect; as punishment for his presumption to love the princess. Cuzán took the beetle in her hands and said to him: "I have sworn I will never leave you and I will keep my promise."
She had the beetle covered with precious stones by the best jeweler in the kingdom and held it by one of his legs with a gold chain on her breast and said: "Maquech, you are a man, listen to the beat of my heart, you will live in it for eternity. I swore to the gods never to forget. " He added: "The gods have never known such a love, so intense and so alive, as this one that consumes my soul."
So the princess is connected in love with her lover Chalpol as a maquech about the laws of time.
literature
- Michael A. Ivie: American Beetles: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. Volume 2 of American Beetles, Eds .: Ross H. Arnett & Michael Charles Thomas, CRC Press, 2002 ISBN 978-0-8493-0954-0
- N. Souza: El Maquech. Apuntes y leyenda maya. Compañía Tipográfica Yucateca, SA México, 1933
Web links
- Jewelry with beetles is a hit in Mexico. on www.derwesten.de
- Maquech beetles - Mexicos controversial living breathing jewelry. , English, at www.odditycentral.com
- Jesús Miss Domínguez, Virginia Meléndez Ramírez, Enrique Reyes Novelo: El maquech “La joya viviente” ¿Qué se sabe de esta especie? Bioagrociencias Vol. 6, No. 1, June 2013, pp. 32-37 , Spanish, on www.ccba.uady.mx (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan)
- Leyendas mayas: La princesa y el escarabajo spanish, on yucatantoday.com