Thursday, March 1

Class lecture today concerned the very early and incredibly beautiful Maya murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala. The west wall, not fully published, appears to illustrate an account of creation for no known text or oral tradition can explain, involving a deity sacrificing animals from each realm of the cosmos (fish for water/underworld, deer for land, bird for sky). See detail above. The north wall, in contrast, involves a narrative that has many parallels to the account of creation as the regeneration of the Maize that is enacted in classic Maya ceramics, in the conquest period central narrative of the Popol Vuh, and in contemporary Semana Santa (Holy Week) rituals in places like Santiago Atitlan. Our discussion after the break concerned the issue of testing for changes and continuities rather than assuming complete continuity of ideas, as some iconographers do, or complete change, as some sceptics do.

After Rita's Spanish class, we met at the private textile collection of Sergio Castro. Mr. Castro is a renaissance man, an agronomist by training who, to aid the Indigneous people of Chiapas, has also taken up medical work, school construction, engineering for potable water, and much else. His collection emphasizes tradition: he laments Zinacanteco switch to aniline dyed blue from natural red/pink in their traje, and doesn't even acknowledge the contemporary Chamula blouse, mentioned in an earlier posting, that involves an industrial item subsequently embroidered by Chamula women. His talk is therefore old-fashioned ethnographic without historical context and without acknowledging change. But we were all far more positive about his approach than at Na Bolom because he speaks with such affection and respect and because he seems clearly devoted to material aid for Maya and Zoque people of Chiapas. I was also pleased that he didnt try to sell us on the "symbolism" of the clothing as many guides have been trained to do from the writings of Chip Morris. Mr. Castro's tour involved mainly a single room with trajes of men and women, everyday and ceremonial, arranged by municipio and cabecera around the periphery of the room. He followed this with a slide show that went into dailing activities, the techniques of curanderos, fiestas, and his own work with the people. About half of us met at Cafe Maya for a discussion but we were generally so positive about the experience that the discussion quickly went on to non-academic issues.