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Transcription: [01:13:27]
In, In Macca anyway we did a survey in 1980 and uh, this summer we're redoing a survey and um, uh, just looking at it's happening right now, um, just looking at some of the preliminary uh reports are finding an increase in uh the im- the impact of uh the language has increased uh children's uh speaking. Um, I think it's tribe to tribe... there are so many different languages and there are so many different uh groups doing different things and some of them are ahead of each other. There are national, uh, educational Indian Educational Programs which try to monitor some of this. They also try to monitor some of the curriculum that that happens in the high schools, the elementary schools, and also the collages. I wanna thank all of you for being here, and we're very proud to be here and discuss this and share with you, and if you'd like to question some of the participants here after the discussion you may do so. Thank, thank you very much. [clapping] Thank you. Uh, for those of you who are interested we have a continuation of cultural discussion, we have the Mayan Indians who will be here following us, ok? so you can remain seated. Thank you. [clapping] [jazzy music plays] Good afternoon, today we have a discussion on the uh, traditional um... music and culture of uh... the Maya of Guatemala. I have with me I uh... A uh... Hockelteck Maya from Guat- originally from Guatemala now living in exile in uh... Indian town, Florida, along with about what six hundred other? About six hundred other people hoping to not be returned home because of the uh, the government violence against the Indian people there. Um [clears throat] but today we thought we would talk a- a little bit about uh... music in the context of uh... dance performances, and also about uh, something about the Marimba, playing which we're going to do again at three o-clock today [clears throat] well I'm no gonna do it uh, thiodimo and uh, three of his companions will be doing it. My name is Duncan Earl I'm an anthropologist from Dartmouth College, I've been studying this for some time. The music that you just heard at the beginning of this is music um, played on a drum and a reed instrument called a chidimia, perhaps some of you have seen the photograph, there's a couple of copies of the photograph around here, one in the entrance, the cultural survival area, a man with a drum and another man playing what looks to be a reed instrument. [clears throat] this, these are the uh instruments they're played for a dance called the Dance of the Conquest. The Dance of the Conquest is a, um... a da- a theater dance, a dance which is done to enact a historical event. And it's done with masks like this, so the people don't see the uh, real faces, in fact uh, you can see some masked dancers here this is a different dance that they're doing. I'll tell you a little bit about that later, but they wear different kinds of masks [clears throat] and they often carry also with them rattles like this [shakes rattle] and sometimes horns, I didn't bring my horn today. Um, and other noisemakers they often also carry flags. But what they're carrying out in this, to the sound of the drum and the chidimia or in this case to the miremba, you se the miremba in the background of this photo, uh, are, uh... eh... different sorts of uh... symbolic uh... communications. With their own people, in a kind of coded language which they understand very well, and which appears to the outsider for example the tourist who comes and watches them as though th- the- the natives are having a gay old time. But the gay old time that they're having actually is a form of, of uh, communication between themselves which leaves them with certain messages, and the dance the Conquest Dance is very important in that it leaves people with a message about why the Mayan people although they are the majority of Guatemala are not in a position to have any political power in their, in their own uh in their own country. And, in contrast to the dominant uh... uh culture's position which is that there's, it's because they are um, racially inferior or culturally inferior whatever. The, the dance clearly indicates in the process of it that it's because they lost the war. they lost a war in fifteen twenty four, which they reenact once a year um, in all it's complexity. There's um... about uh, seven generals or, or leaders on the um, Spanish side all dressed up as uh... like Spanish they're not actually of course Spanish they're all uh Indian dancers also about twelve dancer uh, who play the uh, uh... roles of the kichei or other kings, kings of Guatemala, a folk hero folk general leader who's called tegumuman, who is considered the um... the foremost warrior of the Mayan at the time of the conquest, and uh, there's a diviner, a uh, what we might call a shaman or a um, a curer, someone who views into the future, and his assistant, and there's also a uh, um... a prince and a princess, played by children, who dance around- all of the different groups have, have dances that they do and there are musical pieces for all of them. And they also have uh, lines which they deliver, that they memorize, sometimes in Spanish sometimes in a Mayan language. Uh, interestingly enough, the, the Mayan folk hero, tegumuman, in the course of this drama, uh, as he's conquered by alvarada who's the head of the Spanish he's killed uh, and he dances uh, a dance of being dead, and when he's done with the dance of being dead he's he's he rises again. He returns to life again. And, uh, this serves as a kind of um... a forum where the, the young people and the older people who see this dance say well tegumuman may have died in fifteen twenty four but his spirit is still alive. He's still with us. And the diviner may have been uh... his table may have been overthrown by the uh, the uh, dominant religion of Christianity, but we're still out there in the wilds we're still divining today. We're still uh, we're still doing the shamanistic traditions today. In fact th- the shaman runs off at the end of the, of the whole show, this takes three or four hours sometimes even more, and says, uh, I will never submit to Christianity, I am gonna run off into the wilds and you will find me there when you want me. And in fact, this is the only public place that you will ever see divining ever done. The diviners are all out there, the the these, these uh for- uh, I suppose we could call them elderly fortune tellers but in fact it's more complicated than that, it's a spiritual calling, um, they are still in all of these Indian towns in Guatemala but they're sort of in hiding. They don't, come out in a public place. But once a year in this dance someone will act the role of the diviner and will come out. This is just one of oh... in the town that I was in maybe... fourteen different dance theaters to be carried out in the course of a year. I don't know how many there would be in, hakaltenango, uh a dance, in different dance groups [someone else speaking] yes there are different, uh, some of them very traditional some of them from eh, the start of colonial times, [first person speaking again] colonial times. Dance of the- for example, there's a dance of the Moors and the Christians, which is actually from, it began in the twelfth century in the area around Barcelona, and was passed into the new world. Interestingly enough, in the town I was in the Moors always won [chuckles] um, uh, but uh... in addition to those there are also traditional dances which don't derive from the, from either the colonial experience or from Spain, such as a deer dance that we were, that we talked about last time, what other dances? [second person talking] deer dance, bailar el torito, bailar el mono, [first person talking] that's the monkey dance, [second person talking] ah, ((speaks Spanish)) [first person] ah, yes. [addresses the audience] There's this one dance, which is he says it's a satirical dance, it's very interesting because it's done as a devotion usually to a female saint who's very pure, but what they do on the, in the dance is very um... outlandish. Uh... they often dress up in burlap or old clothes, torn apart clothes, um, and they tie dead animals, dried out dead animals, to themselves, all over, all over their bodies, and they carry uh sometimes whips with them which they whip each other with, and hit each other with, and they often have a number of wom- of men dressed up as women. Who various men, particularly old men, or those dressed up as old men, sort of bent over, jump on top of and try to violate. Um, all to the sound of the tinkly little marimba, and sometimes they also handle lots of live snakes, live venomous snakes, uh... a very deadly snake in particular is used called the, we would call it a form of Cottonmouth Rattler here. Although there it's a kind of uh, rattleous pit viper, called a kandi or a kandil. And, they say that by burning, by burning the incense and uh, by being pure, by being abstinent from uh, sexual activity for uh, a period of time like forty days before the dance, that the snake won't bite them. Even though they're doing all of these, sort of semi-nude rocket things in the dance, in fact they have purified themselves to do this dance, um, prior to doing this and uh, it's said that the saint very much likes this. That this uh, is the kind of entertainment for the saint, and uh, uh... clearly this is something that uh, provides not only entertainment but a, um, a kind of a dis-order, a, a, a chaos that reinforces telling what the real order of things is for the community as well. It's a lot of, it's a lot of fun as well. As long as you don't get bitten. [second person speaks in Spanish].[first person] Also the um, uh... dance is not just something to entertain the town and to have a good time, but it's a, it's a devotion. It's something that you do... because you're asking for a particular help. Maybe you're son or daughter is ill or maybe you yourself are ill, um, and through the dance, through doing- through following the ancestral ways with the dance it's a way of giving, of yourself, a very fundamental way, in order to gain some favor with the deity. [second person speaking in Spanish]. [first person] There are dance masters which are called capitanes, or captains, who will give, sacrifice tremendous amounts of the money they have raised during the year sometimes remaining permanently impoverished as a result of this, some will do this every year, in order to keep the dance going, uh [asks the other man something in Spanish] how long, how long do they practice I'm asking. [second man responds in Spanish]. [first man addresses the audience] They practice none months or as much as a year every Sunday from eight in the morning to sundown once, once a week for uh, for nine months or as much as a year, because in many cases these incredibly complicated series of dances that are done, and everyone has to know their appropriate role, yeah.

Transcription Notes:
There is a small part in Spanish that I could not translate, as well as the Mayan words.