But the core of his reading lies in “attempting an interpretation of the text in the original language in which it was written” (14). In this recovery recognizing the differences in the style of the K’iche’ language plays an important role, but most importantly the tradition and language before the burst of Spanish invasion. This value does not lie in that, to us, the language seems archaic, but rather it was the form of expression and feeling of the people of these pre-Columbian communities, and it is through the recovery of its forms that the original meaning can be accessed. Just as for the majority of present-day Maya, one of the concerns of Sam Colop is education and literacy. His presentation of the Popol Wuj intends, without separating itself too much from Ximénez manuscript, to be within reach of contemporary K’iche’ (19).
In addition to previous readings of the Popol Wuj in translation, other summaries of critical interpretations could be presented. Because it is beyond the scope of this chapter, we will simply say that in this area there is also a large variety of tendencies, intentions, critical frameworks, and projects. We find readings ranging from parabiblical exegeses to the esoteric; from the most orthodox philology to ethnohistory and ethnolinguistics; from cultural anthropology to structuralism, poststructuralism, psychoanalytical, Marxist theories; and also those derived from cosmo-archeology.
Translations as well as critical studies have always had theoretical frameworks and ideologies strongly tied to very diverse political, epistemological, and religious projects. If this can occur with any text, in the particular case of the Popol Wuj these perspectives have been sharpened by the sociopolitical-cultural contexts of the Maya communities to which the tzijs are actively linked. This can also be seen in what happened to Ms. Rigoberta Menchú Tum. The debates, acceptances, and rejections toward her person, career, activities, and decisions are an example of the close relationships between the conditions of internal colonization with which the K’iche’ live, the plans and agendas far removed from them, and the conflicts within the hearts of the collective native community. The overall view of these stances serves to illustrate to what extent evaluating the conditions of the survival of the Maya culture and the texts that they gave rise to is problematic and controversial.
The synopsis – which has not been complete – shows, among other things, how persistent attempts to appropriate, manipulate, divert, or simply exterminate Mayan cultural discourses have been. These actions have been part-plans that have completed their cycles and have left their imprints, as much on the indigenous nation as on the text of the Popol Wuj. In recent times the most tragic point of these extermination plans was the genocide during the 1970s and 1980s. But military campaigns have had their parallels or counterparts in other activities. Cultural asphyxiation – erasing the presence of Mayan cosmogony, philosophy, ethic, language, and religion – was given a boost through some of the campaigns for religious expansion that are carried out in Latin America, and in particular Guatemala.
The new missionaries, in the same way as the Spanish of another era, have sought to erase the weakened remnants of native traditions and beliefs. The categorization used has been the same as that of the Spanish: they are pagan beliefs. The difference is that the contemporary missionaries have been more radical than the Catholics, because they, to a certain degree, tolerated spaces for ritual negotiation and for beliefs. It is not by chance that the institutional labor of some churches, like the evangelical Pentecostal – closely connected with Ríos Montt and Jorge Serrano, among others – has had a strong penetration into the Maya region.
But it has not been the only church that has laid out a campaign of aggressive expansion. According to a November 2005 report by the US Department of State, the religious composition of Guatemala is 40 percent Protestant, the majority of which are recognized as evangelical, but there is also a strong presence of other churches, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).
Added to this are political agendas, those which during the Cold War were closely linked with the political blocs and ideologies of that time. But once this confrontation ended the penetration of the “global” system began, with its culture of hyperconsumption in the central countries, with technological development and the productivity that often do not respect the environment nor native cultures, and that transforms the collection of peripheral societies to a rhythm of needs and parameters far removed from local conditions. Taking into account this enormous complexity, one can ascertain that the conditions under colonialism during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries have not vanished, although they have changed and operate through different agents.
As readers today prepare to read the Popol Wuj, a legitimate question arises: Why read it? All readings are a form of recovery and re-creation of the text. The idea is to decide from which point we direct our work: From the perspective of the colonizer or the colonized? From the culture that fights to survive and carry on into the future, or from an academic position? From a respect for life in all its forms from all corners of the planet, or from the immediate and increasingly out-of-control urgencies? From the notion that there are privileged cultures and epistemologies, or from the perspective of the existence of cultural pluralism? And perhaps many other questions. What is certain is that the Popol Wuj, just as other native texts of the continent, has been silenced, either by ignoring it or by relegating it to an archaic space. Nevertheless, its resurgence is a fact of contemporary reality.
Its existence and survival have been linked with the fate of the community and culture to which it pertained and continues to pertain. Its survival also has been the result of innumerable repositioning of the subjects and agents that have been tied to these tzijs. This chapter is also subject to the same phenomenon.
References and Further Reading
References
1 Akkeren, Ruud van (2000). Place of the Lord’s Daughter: Rab’inal, its History, its Dance-Drama. Leiden, The Netherlands: CNWS Research School.
2 Anonymous (1935). Isagoge Historica Apologética de las Indias Occidentales y especial de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala. Guatemala: Biblioteca “Goathemala” de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia, Vol. XIII.
3 Brasseur de Bourbourg, C. E. (1861). “Avantpropos” (i–vi), “Notice Bibliographique sur Le Livre Sacré” (vii–xv), and “Dissertation sur le Mythes de l’Antiquité Américaine, sur la probabilité des communications existant anciennement d’un continent a l’autre, et sur les Migrations des peuples Indigènes de l’Amérique, etc.” (xvii–cclxxix). In Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacré et les mythes de l’antiquité américaine. Paris: Arthus-Bertrand.
4 Burgess, P. (1955). “Introducción.” In Popol Wuj: Texto de R.P.F. Ximénez. Trans. Dora M. de Burgess and Patricio Xec. Quetzaltenango, Guatemala: El Noticiero Evangélico.
5 Carmack, R. (1981). The Quiché Mayas of Utatlán: The Evolution of a Highland Guatemala Kingdom. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
6 Christenson, A. (2003). “Translator’s Preface” and “Introduction” (14–56). In Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. The Great Classic of Central American Spirituality, Translated from the Original Maya Text. Vol. I. Winchester, UK and New York: O Books.
7 Cojtí Cuxil, D. (n.d.). “Problemas de la identidad nacional guatemalteca,” Revista Cultural de Guatemala, 5(1): 17–21.
8 de Las Casas, Fray B. (1967). Apologética Historia Sumaria. Vols. I and II. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.
9 Edmonson, M. (1971). “Introduction.” In The Book of Counsel: The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala, pp. vii–xvi. New Orleans, MS: Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University.
10 Gavarrete, J. (1872). El Popol-Buj. “Advertencia” [Foreword]. Typed version of archive at the Academia de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala. June 20.
11 Guzmán Bockler,