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ACTIVITIES NARRATIVE |
I. DETAILED NARRATIVE OF INSTITUTE ACTIVITIES
Flight and ground arrangements will be made to bring each participant to Antigua on Sunday, June 23, where the group will be housed at the Hotel Antigua. The second night we will hold a welcome dinner, at which George Scheper and Laraine Fletcher will make introductions and provide basic orientation to the proceedings of the Institute. Project manager David Berry will speak on behalf of the Community College Humanities Association.
Institute sessions will begin on June 24. Seminar sessions in Antigua will be held in the seminar room provided at Hotel Antigua, generally from 9:00-Noon, followed by the opportunity for participants to lunch with the visiting scholar. In the case of field-study excursions, lecture and discussion will take place both on the coach and on site. During our stay in Antigua, participants will have use of the nearby research facilities of CIRMA (Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica).
The first two days will take advantage of our colonial setting and introduce participants to the history and culture of colonial and modern Guatemala. George Lovell (Geography, Queen's University, Canada) will conduct two seminars on the social, economic and political history of colonial and modern Guatemala, with special attention to the impact of this history on the Maya peoples. Participants will read Lovell's Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala (1992), and articles on the more recent history, as well as selections from Sidney Markman's definitive Colonial Architecture of Antigua Guatemala (1966), Lincoln Verle's The Architecture of Antigua Guatemala (published by the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, 1968).
Each of these first two days, the seminars will be followed, after lunch, by on-site visits to major colonial monuments of Antigua, including the Palacio de los Capitanes (facade 1543), the Catedral de Santiago (founded 1542, ruined by earthquakes and partially rebuilt 1780-1820), the 18th century Palacio del Ayuntamiento, containing a museum of colonial artifacts, the Casa Popenoe (1636, restored 20th c), and the ex-conventos of Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Hierónimo.
The next four days of seminar (June 26-29) will focus on Mayan literature and will be led by Mayan authors Victor Montejo and Gaspar Pedro González. Gaspar González, the first published Mayan novelist, will discuss his works, A Mayan Life (1995) and The Return of the Maya (1998); Gaspar González is also a member of the Guatemalan ministry of education and will discuss Maya educational issues. Victor Montejo (Native American Studies, University of California, Davis) will focus on discussion and analysis of Maya literature and testimonial. Montejo, one of the first Maya to hold a Ph.D. in anthropology and himself author of a powerful autobiographical work, Testimony, Death of a Guatemalan Village (1987), will give participants a chance to discuss his own work in conjunction with that of Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú. Montejo will also introduce participants to the ancient tradition of Maya storytelling, as illustrated in the material collected in his books El Kanil/ Man of Lightning (1984) and The Bird Who Cleans the World and Other Mayan Fables (1991), as well as discussion of the classic Quiché Maya epic, the Popol Vuh. [In subsequent weeks, participants will be able to apply their analysis of the Popol Vuh to the rich iconography of classic Maya archaeology and pottery which draws frequently on the narrative and symbolic material embodied in that work, as we will see in the artifacts at the Museo Popol Vuh and in our field studies in Copán and Toniná.]
The project directors will lead a general roundtable on the topic of teaching I, Rigoberta Menchú. Discussion topics will include the distinctive characteristics of the "testimonio" genre, and in particular the role of Rigoberta's "collaborator," Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, and the recent controversy raised by David Stoll's researches on Menchú's narrative.
This four-day unit on Mayan literature will also include afternoon seminar sessions with other Maya writers. Participants will have the opportunity to meet with the Maya woman poet Domitila Canek or Maya Cu.
Sunday June 30 will be a free day, allowing
for preparation for the field trip to Copán.
On Monday July 1, the group will leave for a two-day field-trip to Copán, Honduras (staying at the Marina Hotel), via the Classic Maya site of Quiriguá, famous for its monumental stelae. During the three days of field study, July 1, 2 and 3, the seminar and site visits at Copán will be led by the "dean of Maya studies," Michael Coe (Anthropology, Yale University), author of the acclaimed Breaking the Maya Code (1992) and many other studies of classic Maya culture. As Coe notes, Copán is one of the most impressive of all Maya cities and one of the most important in the southern lowland region; it includes the most perfectly preserved ballcourt and the 8th century Hieroglyphic Stairway, incorporating the largest known Maya inscription text. Now that the glyphs can be read, the history of Copán and its rulers, and the city's relationships with neighboring city-states can be analyzed in genuine historical detail, as first widely disseminated in Freidel and Schele's A Forest of Kings (1990). Readings will include Coe's overview volume, The Maya (1966), and William Fash's Scribes, Warriors & Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya (1991) and selections from Forest of Kings, as well as Code of Kings by Schele and Mathews (1998), Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens by Martin and Grube (2000); and John L. Stephens' 19th century classic, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán .
After returning to Antigua, the next five days of the Institute (July 4-July 8), led by Carol Hendrickson (Anthropology, Marlboro College), will focus on contemporary Maya culture in Guatemala and its continuities with the classic Maya past. The topic of Professor Hendrickson's two seminars will be "Contemporary Guatemalan Textiles" (one will be held on the premises of Nim P'ot, an establishment with a museum-quality collection of textiles) and will be supplemented in the afternoons by weaving demonstrations and conversations with local weavers and directors of weaving projects in Antigua and in the famous weaving town of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Participants will read Hendrickson's Weaving Identities (1995), and articles by Robert Carlsen and Sheldon Annis.
From July 6-8 Hendrickson will conduct a field trip to Chichicastenango, stopping first at the ancient Cakchiquel Maya capital of Iximché, and the town of Tecpán. Professor Hendrickson, who has done her fieldwork in Tecpán, has arranged for participants to visit and have lunch there in a Maya home. The group will continue on to an overnight stay in the renowned Quiché market town of Chichicastenango, where we will witness the Sunday market and religious activities, including a visit to the shrine of Pascual Abaj.
The group will then go on to Lake Atitlán, for a two-night stay in Panajachel (July 7 and 8). The first evening in Panjachel we will have a seminar with Vincent Stanzione, author of Rituals of Sacrifice (2001). The next day Stanzione will lead our group in a visit to the shrine of Maximón in the town of Santiago Atitlán. Participants will read Stanzione's book, along with Robert Carlsen's trenchant study of Santiago Atitlán, The War for the Heart and Soul of a Highland Maya Town (1997). The group then returns to Antigua for one night.
Tuesday July 9 will be a free day to pack and prepare to leave Guatemala.
Wednesday
July 10 the group leaves Antigua for a one-day study tour in Guatemala City,
led by Guatemalan archaeologist Federico Fahsen, focusing on visits to the Museo Popul
Vuh, containing both Maya and colonial artifacts, the Museo Ixchel (collection
of Maya textiles) and the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología,
containing a collection of Maya sculpture, ceramics and jade. Overnight in
Guatemala City is at the Pan-American hotel.
After overnighting in Guatemala City, the group will travel by coach to San Cristóbal de las Casas, where we will check in at Na Bolom, a traditional center for Mayan studies that provides board and lodging, as well as seminar space and a library and archival photo collection. Na Bolom is the former home of scholar/photographers Frans Blom and Trudy Duby-Blom, and now a research library and treasure trove on the history of Chiapas and the Lacandon Maya.
On July 12 and 13, seminars at Na Bolom will be conducted by Jan de Vos, a Belgian scholar now based in San Cristóbal who is a noted historian of Chiapas and authority on the history of Spanish/Lacandon Maya relations. Jan de Vos will devote part of his discussion to the life and writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, the first bishop of Chiapas, and then to a social/piolitical history of Chiapas from the colonial period through the rise of liberation theology to the recent Zapatista movement. Readings will include selections from Wagner and Parish's The Life and Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas (1967) and Witness/ Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, ed. Sanderlin (1992), as well as articles by de Vos on Las Casas, and on "The Maya in Modern Times" (1999). Recommended for background reading is John Womack, Jr., Rebellion in Chiapas/ An Historical Reader (NY: New Press, 1999).
The afternoon of Saturday July 13 will provide the option of an afternoon study tour of major colonial monuments of San Cristóbal: Santo Domingo [1547-1560], La Caridad [1712], and El Carmen [1597]). Suggested readings will include selections from Sidney Markman's Architecture and Urbanization in Colonial Chiapas México (1984) and Perry's More Maya Missions (1994).
The next two days (July 14 and 15) of the Institute focus on the living traditions of the Maya communities of Chiapas, and will be led by Gary Gossen (Anthropology, SUNY Albany). Gossen, author of Telling Maya Tales/ Tzotzil Identities in Modern Mexico (1999), will lead a full-day study visit to the Tzotzil Maya villages of San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán, with its Black Lord Museum. Gossen has done pioneering work on the study of Maya syncretistic liturgies, especially in connection with the Easter festivals of Chamula.
Readings will also include selections from Carol Karasik's Mayan Tales from Zinacantán (1996), with selected stories and dreams from Zinacantán collected and translated by Robert Laughlin, and articles by Evon Vogt and Victoria Bricker. Recommended for background reading is Guatemalan author Rosario Castellanos' 1957 novel Balún-Canán, translated by Irene Nicholson as The Nine Guardians (1992).
On Tuesday July 16 Robert M. Laughlin (Anthropology, Smithsonian) will offer a morning seminar at Na Bolom will be on the topic, "Sacred Torch, Sacred Mirror: Mayan Cultural Empowerment." Dr. Laughlin and his wife Miriam will arrange for the group to witness Maya theatre presentations by two local groups, La Fomma, a women's group, and Sna Jtz'ibajom, a pair of Maya cultural cooperatives with which Robert and Miriam Laughlin have worked closely for years. The group will have an opportunity to talk with members of both troupes about their work and mission. La Fomma's productions tend to address economic, domestic and gender issues, while SnaJtz'ibajom divides its work between political and mythic themes. Participants will read the script of "From All For All: a Tzotzil-Tzeltal Tragicomedy."
On Wednesday July 17 the group will leave for Palenque, stopping en route for a field study of the classic Maya site of Toniná, where we will have the opportunity to focus on the use of motifs from the Popul Vuh to be found in the scultural iconography at the site. We continue on to Palenque, checking in at the Hotel Las Tulipanes, located on la Cañada, just across the street from the local headquarters of PARI (Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute). The Institute will be based at Palenque from July 17 through the 20th.
Field study from July 18-20 will be led by Alfonso Morales, INAH archaeologist at Palenque, currently co-directing a major excavation project on the Cross Group at Palenque. On July 18 and 20, Morales will lead a study tour of the museum and archaeological site of Palenque, focusing on the inscriptions and history of the city-state. The setting of Palenque is incomparable, allowing unprecedented study of how the Maya related their architecture and urban layout to features of local topography. The site includes the spectacular tomb of Lord Pacal in the Temple of the Inscriptions, and the impressive assemblage of the Cross-group now known through decipherment of the Palenque inscriptions to be the work of Pacal's successor Lord Chan-Bahlum, and the subject of the current excavation project.
In between these two study days at Palenque, the group will make a day-trip on July 19 with Morales to Bonampak, where he will explain the history and archaeology of the site and focus on interpretation of the uniquely well-preserved mural paintings that have made the site famous. As Coe has said, "Few discoveries in the Maya area can rank with that of Bonampak," and the spectacular murals, as Mary Miller has shown, "record a splendid pageant of rulership." (The Maya, 104). From Bonampak, the group will continue on by boat along the Usamscinta River to another spectaculaly situated classical site, Yaxchilan, famous for its carved lintel stones. Readings for this segment of the itinerary will include selections from Schele and Miller, The Blood of Kings, Schele and Friedel, A Forest of Kings, Mary Ellen Miller, The Murals of Bonampak (1986), and Carolyn Tate, Yaxchilan: the Design of a Maya Ceremonial City (1992).
On July 21 the group will check out of Palenque and take the short bus ride to Villahermosa for a one overnight stay, allowing time for a visit to the Parque-Museo La Venta and CICOM, the regional museum of anthropology, which offers the group an opportunity to study the Olmec roots of Maya culture. Our lecturer at Parque-Museo La Venta is Rebecca González Lauck, INAH archaeologist at the orignal La Venta site. Rebecca González takes a particularly careful approach to Olmec artifacts, cautioning against common tendencies to overinterpret the evidence.
On July 22 the group will proceed by coach to Mérida, Yucatán, stopping at Sabancuy along the way, for lunch, and, time permitting, a brief stop in Campeche to see the Maya collection in the Museo Regional de Campeche. Upon arrival in Mérida, the group will check in at the Hotel Casa del Balam.
The next five days of the Institute (July 23-27) will focus on Yucatecan history, beginning with Victoria Bricker (Anthropology, Tulane), who will offer two seminars at the Universidad Autónomo de Yucatán (July 23 and 24) on the subject of the narratives of conquest and resistance in the Yucatán. The seminars will focus successively on narratives of Maya/Spanish relations in the colonial period, and on the life and work of Bishop Diego de Landa. In addition to Inga Clendinnen's Ambivalent Conquests/ Maya and Spaniard in Yucatán 1517-1570 (1987), readings will include selections from both Spanish and Maya chronicles of the encounter; Landa's Relation (Yucatan Before and After the Conquest); and selections from the "Chilam Balam," or Yucatecan prophetic books.
On the afternoon of July 24, Rafael "Rach" Cobos (Archaeology, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatán) will conduct an orientation walking tour of the historic central plaza area of Mérida, focusing on the Yucatecan history embodied in the murals by Pancheco in the governor's palace. Other monuments visited include the Cathedral, Casa de Montejo, Governor's Palace, the Jesuit Church of the Third Order, and La Merced.
On July 25, Francisco Fernández (chair of anthropology, Universidad Autónomo de Yucatán) will offer a seminar on Yucatecan history and Maya/Spanish relations in the period of the Caste Wars. In the afternoon, Genny Negroe, who works with and studies women's groups in Yucatán, will offer a seminar on the roles of women in the modern Yucatecan economy. Readings are drawn from Matthew Restall, the Maya World/ Yucatec Culture and Society 1550-1850 (1997); and articles by Victoria Bricker and Grant Jones. (Recommended background reading is Nelson Reed, The Caste War of Yucatán [1975]).
The next two days of the Institute (July 26-27) will be led by Piedad Peniche Rivero (Director, Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán), who will offer a seminar at the University on the subject of the socio-economic consequences of the rise and fall of the hacienda/henequen system in Yucatán. Her second day with the group (July 27) will consist of a field trip to historic haciendas and to the colonial center of Izamal, where the group will also visit the local pyramid complex. Readings include selections from Wells and Joseph, Summer of Discontent: Seasons of Upheaval, Elite Politics and Rural Insurgency in Yucatán 1876-1915 (1996), and articles on the domestic economy of henequen haciendas by Piedad Peniche Rivero.
Sunday July 28 will be a free day, but with the option of visiting the nearby Maya site of Dzibilchaltun and its Museum of the Maya people. Those opting for this excursion can then go on to the port of Progresso for lunch and a swim. That evening participants prepare to conclude the Institute with a five-day, four-overnight field bus trip to Maya sites and colonial towns in Yucatán.
July 29 through August 2 will consist of a five-day study of Yucatecan Maya culture with Jeff Kowalski (Art History, Northern Illinois University) and Rafael "Rach" Cobos (Archaeology, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatán). En route Professor Kowalski will present an overview lecture on Yucatecan Maya archaeology. On site study will begin at Uxmal, examining the Puuc style of architecture as manifested in such buildings as the Nunnery and the House of the Governor. The next day will be devoted to on site study of the two related Puuc sites of Labna and Sayil. After two nights at Hacienda Uxmal, the group will proceed on August 31 to Chichén Itzá, stopping en route for study visits to the Puuc site of Labnah, and the important colonial churches of Ticul and Mani, the latter famous as the base of operations for Archbishop Landa in the sixteenth century. The group will spend two nights at Chichén Itzá. Study of the site will focus first on the architecture of Old Chichén, and then move on to analysis of the post-classic phase, including the hypothesis of Toltec influences from the Valley of México. Readings for this field trip will draw upon articles by Kowalski, Michael Coe, Linnea Wren, and Karl Taube, as well as selections from Freidel and Schele's Forest of Kings, and Schele and Mathews's Code of Kings.
The project directors will conduct a final roundtable for a general review of the Institute proceedings. At this final roundtable, Institute participants will present brief progress reports on the area of interest they will have identified at the outset and will have been conferring about with each other and with the project directors throughout the Institute.
On August 2 the group will return to Mérida, by way of Ek Balam, where the group will have a chance to see one of the most spectacular of recent Yucatecan Maya excavations. Upon arrival back in Mérida we check in for one more night at Casa del Balam.
The night of August 2 we will host a farewell dinner in Mérida for participants.
Lodging arrangements for the Institute terminate on August 2. Return flights to the United States are scheduled for August 3, with transportation provided to the airport in Mérida.