Acantuns are ritual stone shafts placed at the four corners of a Yucatec Maya village. When night fell, four Balams (Jaguars) were said to arrive and sit on the idols to keep guard over the village.
References
- Brinton, Daniel G. (1882). American Hero-Myths: A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent (Project Gutenberg EBook #11029, online reproduction). Philadelphia: H.C. Watts and Co. OCLC 2461981.
- Freidel, David A.; Schele, Linda (2000). "Kingship in the late preclassic Maya Lowlands: the instruments and places of ritual power". In Michael E. Smith; Marilyn A. Masson (eds.). The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 422–440. ISBN 0-631-21115-2. OCLC 59423537.
- Markman, Roberta H.; Peter T. Markman (1992). The Flayed God: the Mesoamerican Mythological Tradition; Sacred Texts and Images from pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-250528-9. OCLC 25507756.
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