My professors regularly reinforce in me and the other students, temperence and moderation in respect to an anthropologist's inner desire to "help." It is certainly true that the only things that stick will be things that come out of their own agency. But still, before any new initiatives in Chocola can begin, there is a tremendous amount of legwork that needs to be completed, to quantify the demographic and economic status quo. Campesinos who spend 4/5ths of their day working in order to feed their families just don't have the time for things like this.




If anyone is to help Chocolenses help themselves, this is the first order of business; The second then, is theoretically where I come in, is to establish an ethnographic understanding of the K’iche Maya of Chocolá. Of particular interest to such a study is coming to understand the K’iche cultural space, and how the Maya might construct, maintain, and leverage their identity within a globally oriented market of agribusiness and tourism.

A Nearby Success Story?
The Kaqchikel Maya street vendors that work popular tourist stops such as Antigua and Panajachel display an intriguing example of identity management that has embraced change while allowing the essence of their identity to thrive. They have and continue to face many social, political and economic issues that await the Chocolenses, should they decide to turn to tourism as a new subsistence activity. As such their experiences will likely provide invaluable insight. These vendors are Maya that did not have to enter the tourism market, but have nonetheless, and have done so in calculated ways: “incorporating themselves into the global while continuing to reinscribe significance in the local.”

Of particular interest is how the women of these Kaqchikel families are actively remaking their cultural space, emerging as a recognizable icon of Guatemala and modern Maya cu lture. Generic family structure is consistent between the Kaqchikel and K’iche; though the eldest male carries the highest level of status in a family, there is little to no power differential between women and men. In Chocolá, it remains to be seen how powerful women might too remake themselves and thereby help their community better face new global influences and greater economic diversity.

Seems like there's been a lot of weird 'activity' in Guatemala this year. Survivor when to Tikal, there was a devastating mudslide in October, and now their volcanoes are going nuts! If this volcano pops its top in a bad way, Antigua and the language school I want to attend may not be there anymore! Antigua has been ruined twice in history from the same volcano.. in fact it used to be the capital of the nation....

*crosses fingers and prays for the residents

Continuing preparations to return... Even though so much time has now passed since I've been there, the pull to go back and live with and learn from these people remains immense. Really the biggest thing in the way is the language. I need to focus on this.

A friend of mine from my volunteer group in Chocola just sent me a link to the language school she went to in Antigua, Guatemala. She took me there when we spend a couple of days in Antigua after our time on the dig. They teach immersion Spanish and K'iche Maya! When I go back, I want my first few weeks to be at this school - Dina's spanish was fantastic, considering she had only taken spanish in High School, like me.

I'm combining a number of approaches to build my spanish: I'm listening regularly to music by a Mexican band called Mana, that Dina turned me on to. I've bookmarked a couple of Guatemalan newspapers online, to read regularly, thinking this will help with my vocab. I also have a copy of The Rosetta Stone PC software, which seems very effective, if I could only stay devout enough to use it every day!! I also have asked the language department here if I can audit an intermediate spanish class next semester...

Reading what I just wrote It sounds like I'm better at spanish than I claim.. maybe I am - Dina did tell me regularly that my problem wasnt not knowing the language but lacking the confidence in it..

From Philip's personal Journal... dated 06-05-2005
"We went to see Don Nicholas, a Maya Shaman in the pueblo of San Pablo, to meet and consult with Maximon (St. Simon), a powerful local deity. The walls of his foyer were covered with letters from a hundred and one recipients of Maximon's miracles, each with a photo of the sender in the corner. He was a surprisingly androgenous figure, with masculine hands but a feminine figure and voice. He served us some kind of juice as we waited for him to finish preparing Maximon's altar.


"The effigy of Maximon was a frightening, life-size wooden mannequin, with empty eye sockets, gagged at the mouth, dressed in the clothes of a traditional Mayan campesino. Candles, piles of pom (incense), and circles of sugar and maize surrounded it in an esoteric pattern. The largest pile of incense, sugar and corn at the center was lit into a huge blaze. Every so often the incense would catch fire in a certain way to create a tornado of smoke and flames. Nicholas served us all sips of Johnnie Walker Red, after first pouring a generous amount into the mouth of Maximon. Nicholas repeated some unintelligble prayer, over and over, as he continued to feed liquor to us and to the effigy. Between the blaze and the whiskey every part of me was on fire.

"One by one Nicholas led us to a chair facing the effigy. Maximon's cowboy hat was removed and placed on our heads. He asked me if i was married or had any children. He asked me if there was anything that I lived with that I was sorry for. He told me my father missed me.

"I felt like all the toxins in my body, chemical and psychological, were escaping through the sweat the fire brought. All the badness that had built up in my lifetime was leaving with the smoke and the steam. I took another sip of whiskey...

"The ceremony over, I felt the same way I felt the first time I jumped out of an airplane: I didn't want to leave. I wanted to be there, be involved with anyone else who was about to feel the great release and rebirth I had just felt. I wanted to share it. And Ididn't want mine to fade."

It hasn't.

I spoke today with the head of the anthro department. I'd been getting a general feeling from much of the faculty that I might be in the wrong place to study Central America. In all honesty I can understand such a response. When I applied to UAF I hadn't yet been to Guatemala. I applied with the intentions of studying circumpolar anthropology. I'm a technologist, not a Mayanist. He was remarkably supportive though, he talked a lot about cross-cultural similarities, universalizability, and the benefits of keeping a wide focus. "This is an anthropology department in the north, not of the north."

I don't yet know what my master's thesis will be about, even if it will involve the Maya, ancient or modern. But Peter's words definately gave me some comfort that I'm not in the wrong place to develop these passions.

To see what's left of the ancient splendor of the Maya, one can pay $99 US for a flight from Guatemala City to Tikal. But to shake hands with the Maya as they are today, one needs to visit a small co-op village like Chocola. They may be a far cry from the civilization builders of an earlier time, but despite the cultural turmoil and poverty they’ve been forced into, many of the ancient culture’s hallmarks still shine through. They are a resourceful, practical, and intelligent people, with a straightforward and egalitarian family, social and political structure. They prefer efficient, multi-use tools and disposable pottery. Maize and beans are still their primary staple foods. They value Jesus, a tangible, chthonic deity they can see, touch, and yell at when things go wrong. They even still love a good ballgame, although in soccer they don’t ritually sacrifice the losing team. :)

I want to go back. There are schools in Antigua that offer immersion classes in Spanish, but also in dialects of Maya, which most of the Chocolenses speak in their homes. I spoke with Jonathan and some of the other volunteers, and there's talk of organizing some sort of non-profit to help Chocola get out from under the heel of globalization. Anything will grow there, but noone will buy it.

From Philip's personal Journal... dated 5-31-2005

The women use nondescript orange plastic bowls of various sizes for everything, washing, carrying fruit, even as collection plates at church. They are essentially the modern version of the clay vessels I dig out of the ground.