Translated Christianities

Translated Christianities
Author: Mark Z. Christensen
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2015-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0271065524

Beginning in the sixteenth century, ecclesiastics and others created religious texts written in the native languages of the Nahua and Yucatec Maya. These texts played an important role in the evangelization of central Mexico and Yucatan. Translated Christianities is the first book to provide readers with English translations of a variety of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts. It pulls Nahuatl and Maya sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals out of relative obscurity and presents them to the reader in a way that illustrates similarities, differences, and trends in religious text production throughout the colonial period. The texts included in this work are diverse. Their authors range from Spanish ecclesiastics to native assistants, from Catholics to Methodists, and from sixteenth-century Nahuas to nineteenth-century Maya. Although translated from its native language into English, each text illustrates the impact of European and native cultures on its content. Medieval tales popular in Europe are transformed to accommodate a New World native audience, biblical figures assume native identities, and texts admonishing Christian behavior are tailored to meet the demands of a colonial native population. Moreover, the book provides the first translation and analysis of a Methodist catechism written in Yucatec Maya to convert the Maya of Belize and Yucatan. Ultimately, readers are offered an uncommon opportunity to read for themselves the translated Christianities that Nahuatl and Maya texts contained.

Nahua and Maya Catholicisms

Nahua and Maya Catholicisms
Author: Mark Z. Christensen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780804785280

Nahua and Maya Catholicisms examines ecclesiastical texts written in Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya to illustrate the role of these texts in conveying and reflecting various Catholic messages--and thus Catholicisms--throughout colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan. It demonstrates how published and unpublished sermons, confessional manuals, catechisms, and other religious texts betray "official" and "unofficial" versions of Catholicism, and how these versions changed throughout the colonial period according to indigenous culture, local situations, and broader early modern events. The book's study of these texts also allows for a better appreciation of the negotiations that occurred during the evangelization process between native and Spanish cultures, the center and periphery, and between official expectations and everyday realities. And by employing both Nahuatl and Maya religious texts, Nahua and Maya Catholicism allows for a uniquely comparative study that expands beyond Central Mexico to include Yucatan.

Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-century Belize

Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-century Belize
Author: Elizabeth A. Graham
Publisher: University of Florida Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Belize
ISBN: 9780813036663

Based on her analysis of archaeological evidence from the excavations of Maya churches at Tipu and Lamanai, Elizabeth Graham seeks to understand why the Maya sometimes actively embraced Catholicism during the period of European conquest and continued to worship in this way even after the end of Spanish occupation. The Maya in Belize appear to have continued to bury their dead in Christian churchyards long after the churches themselves had fallen into disuse. They also seem to have hidden pre-Hispanic objects of worship in Christian sacred spaces during times of persecution, and excavations reveal the style of the early churches to be unmistakably Franciscan. The evidence suggests that the Maya remained Christian after 1700, when Spaniards were no longer in control, which challenges the widespread assumption that because Christianity was imposed by force it was never properly assimilated by indigenous peoples. Combining historical and archaeological data with her experience of having been raised as a Roman Catholic, Graham proposes a way of assessing the concept of religious experience and processes of conversion that takes into account the material, visual, sensual, and even olfactory manifestations of the sacred.

Contemporary Maya Spirituality

Contemporary Maya Spirituality
Author: Jean Molesky-Poz
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2009-06-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0292778627

An authoritative study of the indigenous religion still practiced in Guatemala based on extensive original research and participant observation. Jean Molesky-Poz draws on in-depth dialogues with Maya Ajq’ijab’ (keepers of the ritual calendar), her own participant observation, and inter-disciplinary 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 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. Molesky-Poz then explores aspects of Maya spirituality, including sacred geography, sacred time, and ritual practice. 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.

Idolizing Mary

Idolizing Mary
Author: Amara Solari
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Christianity
ISBN: 9780271083322

Investigates the origins of Maya veneration of the Virgin Mary and the processes of religious transformation during the first two hundred years of Spanish colonization in Yucatán.

Object and Apparition

Object and Apparition
Author: Maya Stanfield-Mazzi
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0816530319

"Based on thorough archival research combined with stunning visual analysis, Maya Stanfield-Mazzi demonstrates that Andeans were active agents in Catholic image-making and created a particularly Andean version of Catholicism. Object and Apparition describes the unique features of Andean Catholicism while illustrating its connections to both Spanish and Andean cultural traditions"--Provided by publisher.

The Anthropology of Catholicism

The Anthropology of Catholicism
Author: Kristin Norget
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520963369

Aimed at a wide audience of readers, The Anthropology of Catholicism is the first companion guide to this burgeoning field within the anthropology of Christianity. Bringing to light Catholicism’s long but comparatively ignored presence within the discipline of anthropology, the book introduces readers to key studies in the field, as well as to current analyses on the present and possible futures of Catholicism globally. This reader provides both ethnographic material and theoretical reflections on Catholicism around the world, demonstrating how a revised anthropology of Catholicism can generate new insights and analytical frameworks that will impact anthropology as well as other disciplines.

Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis

Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis
Author: John D. Early
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2016-11-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813059917

"A landmark achievement that will no doubt be cited again and again for years to come. It is a thoroughly-researched and authoritative work."--Allen J. Christenson, author of Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community "While this book explains what brought about the Maya uprisings in Chiapas and Guatemala and answers questions about the role of the Catholic Church in the development of the uprisings, the heart of the book is about the Mayan quest to live with dignity as Maya in the modern world."--Christine Gudorf, author of Catholic Social Teaching on Liberation Themes In his most recent book, The Maya and Catholicism: An Encounter of Worldviews, John Early examined the relationship between the Maya and the Catholic Church from the sixteenth century through the colonial and early national periods. In Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis, he returns to delve into the changing worldviews of these two groups in the second half of the twentieth century--a period of great turmoil for both. Drawing on his personal experiences as a graduate student, a Roman Catholic priest in the region and his extensive archival research, Early constructs detailed case histories of the Maya uprisings against the governments of Guatemala and Mexico, exploring Liberation Catholicism’s integral role in these rebellions as well as in the evolutions of Maya and Catholic theologies. His meticulous and insightful study is indispensable to understanding Maya politics, society, and religion in the late twentieth century.

Moon Guatemala

Moon Guatemala
Author: Al Argueta
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 795
Release: 2015-11-03
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1631211323

This full-color guide includes vibrant photos and detailed maps to help with trip planning. Part-time Guatemala resident Al Argueta provides travelers with an insider's view of Guatemala's best, from idyllic surf spots to popular volcanoes. Argueta offers in-depth coverage of Lake Atitlan and La Antigua, as well as Guatemala City's diverse selection of museums. With expert advice on where to eat, sleep, relax, and explore, Moon Guatemala gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscape

Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscape
Author: Joel W. Palka
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 0826354742

Through cross-cultural comparisons, archaeological data, and ethnographic insights, Joel W. Palka addresses central questions about Maya pilgrimage practice and discusses the broad importance of Maya ritual landscapes and pilgrimage for Mesoamerica as a whole.