GENDER AND ROLES OY LUNAR DEITIES IN POSTCLASSIC CENTRAL MEXICO AND THEJR CORRELATIONS WITH THE MAYA AREA SUSAN MILBRATh Study of colonial period sources, Precolumbian iconography, and ethno- graphic data provide'l insights about the different roles played by male and female lunar deities. 1 The multiplicity of lunar deities probably re- flects the many "pcrsonalities" of the moon as it undergoes rapid trans- formaticn over the course of a month and disappears for a period of up to three days during conjunction with the sun (new moon phase). Ethnographic data and colonial period dictionaries indicate that the moon's monthly transformation is a process of aging, with the penod of the new moon to first crescent representing the newborn moon (Báez- Jorge 1938: 247; Lamb 1981: 246-47; Neuenswander 1981 ).2 There is also evidence from sorne ethnographic accounts that different phases oI the moon are associated with different sexes (Báez-Jorge 1988: 246; Jiicklein 1974: 285), and in sorne instances the moon may be visualized as changing gender over the course of the month (Tedlock 1985: 296- 7, 328). This paper investigates whether the moon was as,..,igned a dif- ferent gender during different phases and studies the nature oí the 1 1 would like to thank Andrea Stone, Clemency Coggins and Elizabeth Ba- quedano for reading this paper and providing comments that were useful in revi- sions. Weldon Lamb's comments on Maya historical sources and glyphic writing have been very helpful in developing the Maya analysis. 2 The colonial period dictionaries confuse the new moon (moon in conjunction with the sun) and the first crescent, referring to the hokzah u ("to make appear the moon") as the new moon, when it c1early describes the first crescent; and they provide different interpretations about the lunar phase associated with the "mature moon,", with sorne sources identifying it as the waning moon, while others say the mature moon i5 the fulI moon (Lamb 1981: 246·47). A confusion about the "age" oí the fulI moon is also evident in ethnographic accounts. The Zaques say that the full moon is a mature person after marriage and the waning moon is a person of 65 years or older (Báez- Jorge 1988: 247). Nonetheless, the Tzotzil 5ay the fulI moon i5 already old, and the waning moon i5 exhau5ted and worn out (Lamb 1984).