Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross (The Anthropology of Christianity)

485 Pages·2010·6.25 MB·English

by  William F. Hanks

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support
of the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund
of the University of California Press Foundation.
THE AnTHroPology oF CHrisTiAniTy
Edited by Joel robbins
1. Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, by Webb Keane
2. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church, by Matthew Engelke
3. Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism, by David smilde
4. Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the
Caribbean, by Francio guadeloupe
5. In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity, by Matt Tomlinson
6. Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross, by William F. Hanks
7. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala, by Kevin o’neill
8. Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS,
by Frederick Klaits
9. Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Chris Hann and
Hermann goltz
Converting Words
Sacra Theología from Diego de Valadés, Rhetorica Christiana,
1579, surrounded by directional glyphs from Copán. see page iv.
Converting Words
Maya in the Age of the Cross
William F. Hanks
UniVErsiTy oF CAliForniA PrEss
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United states, enriches
lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals
and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and los Angeles, California
University of California Press, ltd.
london, England
© 2010 by The regents of the University of California
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hanks, William F.
Converting words : Maya in the age of the cross / William F. Hanks.
p. cm. — (The anthropology of Christianity ; 6)

includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-25770-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-520-25771-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mayas—religion. 2. Mayas—Colonization. 3. Christianity and other religions—Mexico—

yucatán (state). 4. Christianity and culture—Mexico—yucatán (state). 5. Maya language—Mexico—

yucatán (state)—influence on spanish. 6. spanish language—Mexico—yucatán (state)—influence on

Maya. 7. Catechisms, spanish—Mexico—yucatán (state). 8. Catholic Church—Missions—Mexico—

yucatán (state). 9. Mexico—History—spanish colony, 1540–1810. 10. spain—Colonies—America—

Administration. i. Title.

F1435.3.R3H36 2010
299.7'84215—dc22 2009030688

Manufactured in the United states of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997)

(Permanence of Paper).
Frontispiece: Sacra Theología ‘Holy Theology’ from Diego de Valadés, Rhetorica Christiana, 1579, p. 14
(courtesy of The Bancroft library, University of California, Berkeley). in the image, a Franciscan friar,
inspired by the Trinity and surrounded by the protective flames of faith, preaches the mystery of the Trinity,
“three and one,” with three flames rising from his head. He stands atop seven books, whose titles indicate
the three disci plines of the Trivium (rhetoric, logic, grammar) plus the four disciplines of the Quadrivium
(geometry, arithmetic, music, astronomy), derived from Plato’s Republic and taught in monasteries. resting
on this foun da tion, the preaching friar is portrayed as learned in the liberal arts, pointing with his right index
finger toward heaven, where the Father, son, and Holy spirit emanate grace represented as descending lines.
Him self a mestizo friar who mastered nahuatl, latin, and spanish, Valadés compresses the dynamic of con-
vert ing words, informed by knowledge and enflamed by faith, into a single image. The image of a surround
of flames will recur four centuries later in Maya shamanic discourse, where it represents protection of the
shaman against evil unleashed in exorcism. The four glyphs are the inscriptional variants of the Maya car-
dinal directions, from Copán. north (zenith) is at the top, south (nadir) at the bottom, East to the right,
and West to the left (see Bricker 1983). Their placement in this image is intended to suggest the embedding
of Christian conversion in the sweep of Maya space-time.
To the Maya people of Yucatán, who have flourished despite it all
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
1. introduction: The Field of Discourse Production 1
The Making of a Translanguage • The Body as Totality •

A shifting Voice for indian Authors
Part I. The Scope of ReduccIÓn 23
2. Perpetual Reducción in a land of Frontiers 25
notes on the Political geography of Post-Mayapán yucatán •

lópez Medel and the spirit of the laws • Reducción in a regional

Perspective • A land of Frontiers

3. To Make Themselves new Men 59
governance of the Guardianía • Disciplining the senses •

Bishop Toral’s Vision • Cogolludo’s landscape • Guardianía

and Cofradía • Cabildos in the Mission Towns

Part II. Converting Words 85
4. From Field to genre and Habitus 93
Metalinguistic labeling • Production Format and Author

Position • indexical Centering in the Deictic Field •

stylistic Differentiation of genres • Multimodality:

speech, Animation, inscription • iteration