Contemporary Maya spirituality : the ancient ways are not lost / Jean Molesky-Poz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Molesky-Poz, Jean, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mayas--Religion.

Mayas.

Mayas--Guatemala--Social life and customs.

Maya calendar--Guatemala.

Maya calendar.

Rites and ceremonies--Guatemala.

Rites and ceremonies.

Manners and customs.

Guatemala--Social life and customs.

Guatemala.

Physical Description:

xx, 201 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2006.

Summary:

Since the mid-1980s, when Guatemala returned to civilian rule and achieved relative peace and stability, the Maya have begun openly expressing their spiritual beliefs and practices. Jean Molesky-Poz draws on in-depth dialogues with Maya Ajq'ijab' (keepers of the ritual calendar), her own participant observation, and interdisciplinary resources to offer a comprehensive, innovative, and well-grounded understanding of contemporary Maya spirituality and its theological underpinnings. She reveals significant continuities between contemporary and ancient Maya worldviews and spiritual practices.

Molesky-Poz opens with a discussion of how the public emergence of Maya spirituality is situated within the religious political history of the Guatemalan highlands, particularly the recent pan-Maya movement. She investigates Maya cosmovision and its foundational principles, as expressed by Ajq'ijab'. At the heart of this work, Ajq'ijab' interpret their obligation, lives, and spiritual work. In subsequent chapters, Molesky-Poz explores aspects of Maya spirituality-sacred geography (the reciprocal relationship between the earth and humans, sacred places, and the significance of the cross or quatrefoil map), sacred time (how the 260-day sacred calendar is "the heart of the wisdom of the Maya," the matrix of Maya culture), and ritual practice (the distinct way and method of ancestral study, with special attention to fire ceremonialism). She confirms contemporary Maya spirituality as a faith tradition with elaborate historical roots that has significance for individual, collective, and historical lives, reaffirming its own public space and legal right to be practiced.

Contents:

Portal: At the Dawn xi

Part 1 The Florescence of Maya Spirituality 9

Chapter 1 A New Cycle of Light: The Public Emergence of Maya Spirituality 11

Chapter 2 Maya Cosmovision and Spirituality: Selecting, Examining, and Stretching Out Filaments of Light 34

Part 2 A Cultural Inheritance 55

Chapter 3 Ajq'ijab': "To Enter the Mystery Is Our Reality" 57

Part 3 The Aesthetics of Space, Time, and Movement 91

Chapter 4 Sacred Geography: Reciprocity, Ritual Sites, and Quatrefoil Mapping 93

Chapter 5 The Calendar: Unbundling, Interpreting, and Appropriating the Chol Q'ij 127

Chapter 6 Ceremony: The Fire Speaks 154

Part 4 Thinking, Contemplating, and Acting into the Future 169

Chapter 7 The Ancient Things Received from Our Parents Are Not Lost 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-191) and index.

ISBN:

0292713096

OCLC:

63125944

Publisher Number:

9780292713093

Online:

Publisher description