Dancing with snakes

Dancing with snakes

In the art maya of the Late Classic period, there are several representations of men dancing with snakes. Although its meaning is not entirely clear, it is possible that it represents the control of man over nature and the domain of fertility. That is to say, represents sexuality and eroticism.
Currently there are several dances that retain the mysticism of these old dances. Among them are the ‘Dance of Mexican’ practiced in December in Totonicapan, Guatemala or the ‘Dance of the Snake’ practiced in several municipalities of el Quiché, Guatemala. Both are dancing in a certain way erotic and both use live snakes. (Images 4, 5 and 6)

The researcher Rafael Romero Sandoval says of these dances
‘The tone of the dance is completely erotic, but also the dancers let the snake slide on their bodies and introduce among his pants. At the end, return the snakes to the mount of where they were captured. In this way, the snakes are seen as phallic symbols at the same time that are considered sacred, as they are related to the earth, and the rain, and through the dance looking to stimulate the reproduction of nature and of the human race’

Images and information taken from the excellent research work: dance with snakes, among the maya of Roberto Romero Sandoval of the
Center for Maya Studies, Research Institute of Philological of the
UNAM

https://www.revistas-filologicas.unam.mx/estudios-cultura-maya/index.php/ecm/article/view/992/1442