Abstract

This study is designed to develop a method by which the values of a particular culture can be made more tangible to an investigator. Values most often find expression in metaphor. In Western culture, metaphoric expression is most evident in religion and the arts; in the more holistic and generally nonliterate culture, metaphoric expression should be evident in all that the people are and do. The development of an investigative model for the examination of the metaphoric process in a nonliterate culture requires that it not be limited by the literary and philosophical traditions in which it is most often articulated. ;The development of the investigative model included the examination of traditional Western sources for those elements of the metaphorical process that appeared to be universal and not limited to the literary context. Four additional conditions were applicable to the investigation: the model is visual and of a form similar to that of metaphor itself; presence in metaphoric expression is established by specific relational forms of which juxtapositioning is generally the most tensive; the primary form for metaphoric entailments is the complement of which the time-space complement is the most universal; the context of metaphoric expression is significant in all its aspects. The cultural context that includes the psychophysiological differences between cultural groups is the least understood. ;The pragmatic application of the investigative model was made to the Maya culture, in specific to the pre-Columbian Maya site of Palenque. Two root Maya metaphors and their entailments were examined in some detail. The metaphoric process associated with ritual was of particular interest and appears to be confirmed by other Maya sources. This initial application of the investigative model validates it sufficiently to warrant its continued development in the synthesis of other Maya source material. Additionally, the model offers potential for assistance in the examination of the value systems in other cultures