The passage of time : worldviews and agency in the highland Maya Dance of the Conquest
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Date
1999
Authors
Taylor, Scott Forrest, 1972-
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Though the present oppression of Mayans does play a large part in shaping their lives, I do not believe that Mayan's lives are completely 'written' by those forces. My goal is to give the reader a sense of the (possibly unanswerable) questions of how global and local processes intersect in the highland performances of this dance, to convey how such an experience presents itself. Issues of identity in Guatemala are, as one might imagine, extremely entangled and complicated, and themselves would require a thesis to explain in any great detail. I will discuss them here, but only with regard to the purpose of guiding the process of understanding Mayan performance. There are many different language groups, customs, and economies to consider, which may lead us to notions of 'hybridity,' of sameness and of difference. In an age in anthropology when we make an effort to avoid master narratives and essentialist discourse, it will be partially necessary to generalize in this report. However, I will focus these generalizations within the highland area of Guatemala and southern Mexico.