#maya blue

[bolaneno]

añil (indigo) dye-infused clay chunks & thread from the municipality of Santiago Niltepec in Oaxaca, Mexico

IG image credit: NDOnoticias

[cinnamonsikwate]

ah-HA finally I see someone talking about the Talokan world building! One thing that I haven't seen anyone mention is the specific shade of blue the Talokanil turn into on the surface, but I think it's supposed to invoke Mayan Blue! The wiki article on it is (in my uneducated opinion) pretty good, but one thing that stood out is that human sacrifices to Chaac were painted that color, which is just, so profound. The detail of this film, ugh!

I discovered this when I was trying to find symbolic colors that other people would turn into if they joined the Talokanil. It was for a plot bunny that I will likely never catch, but a pre-Black Panther K'uk'ulkan saves a dying N'Jadaka by giving him the Talokanil Herb after mistakingly thinking N'Jadaka was the son of a Talokanil. I thought Haint Blue (a Gullah shade believed to ward off ghosts) would be a good ironic choice for N'Jadaka, but I'm not sure if a color so heavily associated with the American diaspora would be a good choice for a Wakandan like Shuri ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, I partially made this ask to plug my prompt lol. I'm disappointed that not many fanfics are doing the world building that the Talokanil deserve! Instead they're just being treated as people who sometimes go in the water at best, or invoking racist Native tropes as worst. But I loved your detailed post about their clothing! You did an amazing job at researching! Now, if only Ryan Coolger and the crew would release the 200-page bible they wrote about Talokan...

hello and thank you for this ask!

tbh i didn't look up much regarding maya blue when i wrote the clothing analysis posts, but after doing some reading, i definitely agree! many of the scholarly articles on maya blue focus on its chemistry rather than its cultural significance, but the reason researchers find it so intriguing is its near-indestructibility (sánchez del rio et al. 2011, 453-481), which i think ties in neatly to the talokanil ability to self-regenerate.

this passage from arnold et al. (2008, 151-164) is particularly interesting:

when the shaman was trying to convince fen to drink the liquid, we see someone holding what looks like an incense burner in the background. we can take the talokan plant to be a stand-in for the indigo plant, and the vibranium that it contains as a stand-in for palygorskite (a clay mineral). so all three together = maya blue.

the idea that the zamá people were sacrificing themselves for chaac's protection? damn???

anyway. i LOVE your prompt! it's very thought-provoking. i have had somewhat related idle musings, mostly because i'm not sure how realistic it is for the talokanil population to have ballooned to beyond-the-grass-of-wakanda numbers from only a handful of founders in a span of less than five centuries. i like to think that at some point they were regularly rescuing people from the surface, adding to the diversity of their gene pool and also bringing in new customs and technology.

several questions arise though: how long were they doing this, who did they rescue, and how wide was their geographic scope? we know at least one talokanil extra is afro-indigenous; the kids shuri meets in talokan aren't credited on imdb but they looked a lot whiter to me than the other talokanil, so the actors may be mixed. aside from razing haciendas and plantations on the mainland after that first time, would they also have rescued people from the trans-atlantic slave trade? would they have swum around to the pacific and rescued people from the manila-acapulco galleon trade?

which brings me back to your prompt and has me asking more questions - would chaac's blessing cover someone who is not one of his people? is conversion a prerequisite? although the idea that anyone — from indigenous americans to africans to filipinos — can become talokanil is interesting, because would that mean they'd have communities within talokan where they continue to practice their cultures? how would their different worldviews affect how they see and treat k'uk'ulkan? and — would they still be maya blue or would they take on a color more connected to their original culture? if they do take on different colors, haint blue for n'jadaka does sound pretty fitting (especially since it also uses indigo). as for shuri though, since she didn't take the unmodified talokan plant, should her skin color still change?

if i had the stamina to write fic, i'd have run away with this prompt, but unfortunately i don't, so let's put this out there and hope someone takes the bait! (fish pun intended)

i do occasionally come across fics (usually of the shipping variety) that i think do a pretty decent job of world-building, but they tend to focus on the present-day customs of the talokanil and less so on their early years (which is what i'm more interested in). i do dearly wish we get to see more canon talokan lore soon, but if ryan coogler is not involved somehow, idk if i can take it lol.

again, thank you so much for taking the time to read my meta, and i appreciate your engaging with me!

p.s. according to hannah beachler, the talokan guide is 400 pages!

[atlasofprejudice]

A Brief History of the Color Blue

For most of history, the color blue has been an exuberant luxury, reserved for the filthy rich. This is a story about how alchemy and science brought it to the blue-collar masses. Read more

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Censer stand.

Culture/Period: Maya, Late Classic Period

Date: A.D. 700–800

Place of origin: Tabasco or Chiapas, Mexico

Medium: Earthenware; traces of stucco with a dark red and "Maya Blue" paint.

[people-and-colors]

#73bbfd

Kendall Jenner

[brooklynmuseum]

As we have previously described, we have been experimenting with the use of multiband imaging in the Brooklyn Museum Conservation Lab to help with the mapping and characterization of blue colorants on many pieces in our Infinite Blue exhibition.

We have used infrared subtraction imaging, in combination with other analytical techniques, to characterize indigo on Japanese woodblock prints, and on an ancient Egyptian footcase. Most recently, Victoria Schussler provided a detailed description of this technique for the imaging of a small Fabergé watch-clock with lapis lazuli.

Infrared subtraction imaging can also be used to map the presence of Maya blue. Created by heating a mixture of indigo and the clay mineral palygorskite, this colorant was used by the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica to decorate wall paintings, figurines, ceramics and other ancient ritual objects. In 2008 (Antiquity 2008, 82, 151-164), anthropologists found that Maya blue was produced as part of Maya sacrificial ceremonies, when indigo was fused with palygorskite by burning it along with copal incense. The creation of this extremely durable pigment was a remarkable technical achievement, and the colorant has survived for nearly 2000 years in some cases.

On this Maya figurine and headdress (2009.2.18a-b, 600-900CE), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy identified the colorant as Maya blue in two small regions. Infrared subtraction imaging helped to further create a map of the indigo-based colorant throughout, which appears as bright white in the infrared subtraction images. You can currently see this remarkable figurine and its removable headdress on display in our Infinite Blue galleries.

Posted by Dawn Kriss Unknown Maya Artist. Figurine of a Nobleman with Detachable Headdress. Mexico, 600-900c.e. Ceramic, pigment. Brooklyn Museum.

[bolaneno]

Reviving Mayan Blue

A Mexican artist rediscovers a lost color sacred to his ancestors.

[louart1]

Ancient secrets of Maya blue revealed: a second method for creating the iconic pigment discovered | Archaeology News Online Magazine

Ancient secrets of Maya blue revealed: a second method for creating the iconic pigment discovered

Dean E. Arnold has uncovered a second ancient method for making Maya Blue, an enduring pigment used by the Maya in rituals and art