Editing Qʼuqʼumatz (section)

==Etymology==
''Qʼuqʼumatz'' (alternatively ''Qucumatz'', ''Gukumatz'', ''Gucumatz'', ''Gugumatz'', ''Kucumatz'') translates literally as "quetzal serpent" although it is often rendered less accurately as "feathered serpent".<ref name="Chris52">{{harvnb|Christenson|2007|p=52}}.</ref> The name derives from the [[Kʼicheʼ language|Kʼicheʼ word]] ''qʼuq'', referring to the  [[Resplendent quetzal]] ''Pharomachrus mocinno'', a brightly coloured bird of the [[cloud forest]]s of southern [[Mesoamerica]].<ref name="Chris52" /> This is combined with the word ''kumatz'' "snake".<ref name="Chris53" />  It is likely that the feathered serpent deity was borrowed from the Aztecs or the Maya and blended with other deities to provide the god Qʼuqʼumatz that the Kʼicheʼ worshipped.<ref name="ReadG191">{{harvnb|Read|González|2000|p=191}}.</ref> Qʼuqʼumatz may have had his origin in the [[Valley of Mexico]]; some scholars have equated the deity with the Aztec deity [[Ehecatl|Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl]], who was also a [[Creator deity|creator god]].<ref>{{harvp|Carmack|2001a|p=55}}.</ref> Qʼuqʼumatz may originally have been the same god as [[Tohil]], the Kʼicheʼ [[Solar deity|sun god]] who also had attributes of the feathered serpent,<ref name="Fox60-y87">{{harvnb|Fox|2008|p=60}}.</ref> but they later diverged and each deity came to have a separate priesthood.<ref>{{harvnb|Orellana|1981|p=159}}.</ref>