A specialist in Mayan culture, Bassie-Sweet (U. of Calgary) identifies and describes the agricultural nature of deities the Maya considered responsible for the initial creation and ordering of the world and its cyclical renewal. She draws on the 16th-century Popul Vuh, Maya art, and hieroglyphic texts and draws analogies with contemporary sources. Corn, of course, plays as big a part in creation as it does in daily life. Other topics include the thunderbolt triad, the paternal grandmother and her daughters-in-law, the landscape of the night sky, and the core myth. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)