Reafirmación de la vitalidad de los rituales a las montañas y a la lluvia después del paso de un huracán en el Altiplano Mam de Guatemala
(2014) AIBR Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana — Vol. 9, n° 3, p. 251-272 (2014)
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- The meteorological conditions of the Mesoamerican region are characterized by successive alternations of dry and rainy seasons. During the former, farmers are confronted with a lack of water, while during the rainy seasons they must be able to confront the dangers posed by excessive rains, or even tropical storms and hurricanes. In the Mam altiplano of Guatemala, the unseasonable rains, as well as their excesses or absences, are the principal threat to crops in this mainly agricultural and mountainous region. Thus it is not strange that since the earliest times Mam populations have requested the intercession of the ajq‘ ij (a Mayan priest) to take on an intermediary role in dealing with the “invisible figures” responsible for rain. Ethnographical research work carried out in Guatemala after the passage of hurricane Stan (2005), allowed us to observe both the vivacity and pursuance of these millennial rituals, whose goal is controlling the rain and protecting the mountains. This goes on despite a context of mutation in symbolic systems generated by massive conversions to Evangelism.
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Hermesse, J. (2014). Reafirmación de la vitalidad de los rituales a las montañas y a la lluvia después del paso de un huracán en el Altiplano Mam de Guatemala. AIBR Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana, 9(3), 251-272. https://doi.org/10.11156/aibr.090303 (Original work published 2014)