Rites of Passage, Religion, and Cosmology: A Decolonial Approach to Maya Indigeneity in Diego de Landa's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (c. 1566).

This article critically examines Fray Diego de Landa's 16th-century *Relación de las cosas de Yucatán* and its colonial misrepresentations of Maya religion and culture, focusing specifically on the Maya puberty rite called *caputzihil*. It employs a decolonial approach to reinterpret Landa's ethnographic data, revealing that the rite was a structured, symbolic passage involving phases of separation, transition, and incorporation that aligned with Maya cosmology, astronomy, and calendar systems. Contrary to Landa's demonizing Christian framework, the puberty rite functioned as a sacred ritual embedding initiates within the cosmic order through interactions with deities such as Sun God, Moon Goddess, Venus (Kulkulkan), God K (Bolon Dzacab), and Chak, thereby affirming Maya indigeneity and social cohesion. The study highlights how colonial narratives obscured the complexity and spiritual significance of Maya rites of passage, underscoring the importance of analyzing indigenous practices on their own cultural terms.