Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures

Description

In Mayalogue, Native Mayan scholar Victor Montejo provides an alternative reading and interpretation of cultures, challenging Western ethnocentric approaches that have marginalized Native knowledge and worldviews in the past. He proposes instead a methodology for studying culture as a unified whole, a radical departure from the compartmentalized sections of knowledge recognized by Western scientific tradition. Offering a strong critique of traditional anthropological studies, with its terms and categories that have denigrated Indigenous cultures throughout the centuries, Montejo's postcolonial work aims to dismantle the colonialist construction of Indigenous cultures, giving way to a Native approach that balances insider and outsider descriptions of a particular culture. Developed from an Indigenous Maya perspective, Mayalogue is a contribution to the dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, students, and general audiences in the social sciences and humanities, and will be an essential text in decolonizing the minds of those who engage in the study of cultures anywhere in the world in the twenty-first century. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: An Indigenous Point of View 2 Anthropological Theories and Indigenous People 3 Decolonizing Maya History and Cultures 4 Mayalogue: The Treaty of Maya Ideas: Q’inal: Time, Life, and Existence Bases of Mayalogue Mayalogue and the Cosmic Unity of Life: The Popol Vuh 5 Mayalogue: From Oral Histories and Traditions to Written Ethnographies Oral Tradition: A Personal Experience Oral Tradition and Indigenous Methodologies 6 Native Methods for Documenting History: Oxlan B’en: The Cyclical View of Time and History The Telescoping of Time The Halo of Mystery and the Mythification Process 7 Mayalogue: Ohtajb’al: Maya Knowledge and Epistemology Maya Ways of Knowing, Epistemology The Jakaltek Maya Names of the Days: Their Nature and Omen 8 Mayalogue, the Interactionist Model: Humans, Nature, and the Supernatural World The Mayalogue Model Mayalogue: Nature as Part of the System The Natural World Mayalogue: Humans as Part of the System Mayalogue: The Spiritual World as Part of the System 9 The Tonal or Spirit Bearer: Human Nature/Animal Nature or the Theory of the Self The Yijomal Spixan or Spirit Bearer (A Theory of the Self) Spirit Loss, Illness, and Death Nawalism: Shape-Shifting and Transformation of a Witch 10 The “Cargo System” and World Maintenance The Maya Community The Cargo System 11 Mayalogue as a Cosmocentric Paradigm 12 World Building, World Maintenance, and World Dismantling World Building World Maintenance World Dismantling (K’ayilal) 13 Prophetic Cycles and World Renewal World Renewal (Ch’ak’b’i Satyib’an Q’inal) Prophetic Cycles, 2013, and Beyond Bibliography Index