Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 3: Literatures

207 Pages·1985·26.545 MB·English

by  Victoria Reifler Bricker (editor), Munro S. Edmonson (editor)

SUPPLEMENT TO THE HANDBOOK OF MIDDLE AMERICAN INDIANS
Volume 3 Literatures
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SUPPLEMENT TO THE HANDBOOK
OF MIDDLE AMERICAN
INDIANS
VICTORIA REIFLER BRICKER, General Editor
VOLUME THREE
LITERATURES
MUNRO S. EDMONSON, Volume Editor
With the Assistance of Patricia A. Andrews
U N I V E R S I TY OF T E X AS P R E S S, A U S T IN
Copyright © 1985 Reprinted by permission of the Smithsonian In-
by the University of Texas Press stitution Press from Smithsonian Contributions to
All rights reserved Anthropology, No. 19 (1975), The Great Tzotzil
Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán, p. 17;
Requests for permission to reproduce material No. 23 (1977), Of Cabbages and Kings, pp. 372-
from this work should be sent to: 373; No. 25 (1980), Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing
Permissions Wax, pp. 208, 215-216; all by Robert Laughlin.
Box 7819
Austin, Texas 78713 Grateful acknowledgment is also made to the fol-
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING lowing for permission to reprint previously pub-
IN PUBLICATION DATA lished material as cited in the text: Cambridge
Main entry under title: University Press for material from Ethnography of
Literatures. Speaking; Harvard University Press for material
(Supplement to the Handbook of Middle Ameri- from Chamulas in the World of the Sun; Instituto
can Indians ; v. 3) de Asesoría Antropológica para la Región Maya,
Bibliography: p. Asociación Civil, for material from a Writers'
1. Indian literature—Mexico—Addresses, es- Workshop program pamphlet; Instituto de Inves-
says, lectures. 2. Indian literature—Central tigaciones Históricas for material from Tlalocan;
America—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Ed- Mouton and Co. for material from Meaning in
monson, Munro S. II. Andrews, Patricia A. Mayan Languages; Princeton University Library
III. Series. for material from the Robert Garrett Collection of
PM3051.L57 1985 897'.4 85-3361 Manuscripts in the Indigenous Languages of
ISBN 0-292-77593-8 Middle America.
To our eagles flying
One sleep ahead
THELMA D. SULLIVAN
FERNANDO HORCASITAS
ALFREDO BARRERA VÁSQUEZ
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CONTENTS
General Editors Preface ix
Victoria Reifler Bricker
1. Introduction 1
Munro S. Edmonson
2. Nahuatl Literature 7
Miguel León-Portilla
3. Yucatecan Mayan Literature 44
Munro S. Edmonson and Victoria R. Bricker
4. Tzotzil Literature 64
Gary H. Gossen
5. Quiche Literature 107
Munro S. Edmonson
6. Cyclical Patterns in Chorti (Mayan) Literature 133
John Fought
Bibliography 147
Index 171
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GENERAL E D I T O RS PREFACE
The aboriginal literatures of Middle America have enough recorded examples to permit
received little attention as such in the Hand- description of their genres and styles. We
book of Middle American Indians. An article hope that the treatment of literatures in this
on the Precolumbian literatures was tucked volume will give ethnographers and linguists
away in one of five archaeological volumes the incentive to collect texts representing the
(M. León-Portilla 1971). Narrative folklore full range of functional categories so that in
was assigned to the social anthropology vol- the future there will be sufficient information
ume (Edmonson 1967). And bibliographic on the literatures of other Middle American
chapters on native prose sources appeared in languages to justify additional volumes with
the last of four ethnohistorical volumes (Gib- this theme.
son 1975; Gibson and Glass 1975). While Our decision to devote a volume of the
useful and informative, the treatment of the Supplement to the Handbook of Middle
native literatures of Middle America could American Indians entirely to literatures coin-
not, in the space allotted to it in the Hand- cides with an increasing interest in this sub-
book, even begin to do justice to the richness ject in the scholarly community. The first
and variety of the verbal arts in the region. issue of a new journal, Latin American In-
In this volume, we sample that richness dian Literatures, appeared in 1977, and the
and variety by considering, at greater length first annual meeting of LAILA/ALILA (Latin
than was possible in the Handbook, litera- American Indian Literatures Association/
tures representing five Middle American In- Asociación de literaturas indígenas latino-
dian languages: Nahuatl, Yucatecan Maya, americanas) took place in April 1983. In addi-
Quiche, Tzotzil, and Chorti. The first three tion, several sessions organized by linguists
literatures are exceptionally well documented at the annual meetings of the American An-
for both the Classical and Modern variants of thropological Association in December 1982
their languages. The literatures of many lan- were concerned with the stylistic charac-
guages, such as Tzotzil and Chorti, are oral, teristics of American Indian formal speech.
not written, and in only a few cases do we There is, then, a growing consensus that Na-
ix
VICTORIA R. BRICKER
tive American literatures have literary, as
well as historical, cultural, and linguistic
value. The five literatures represented here
illustrate some of the dimensions of that
concern.
V.R.B.
x