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Curiously, the Maya concept of selflessness did not sink in with the Spanish Conquistadores. As missionaries of the Holy right of their King to occupy a land of heathen, with their hopes of locating quick fortunes in precious metals. With a myopic mentality, the Spanish crown and its generals did not recognize Maya and Aztec cosmology as evidence of a culture as an advanced grasp of science and mathematics, arts, philosophies and intellectual accomplishments.
Did Paleolithic, or pre-Classical period weavers in the Guatemalan western mountain highlands have access to native animals now extinct as a source of animal fibers similar to wool? We don’t know. Weaving materials and methods previous to Maya contact with the Europeans seem to be confined to cotton, then fibers from cultivated plants such as corn silk, corn fibers, Agave fibers, and tints from sources in local trees and flora.
As for the arts today and Maya expression in them, beliefs recorded in textiles are combinations of geometry, symbols and iconography that originated from Classic and Post-Classic periods. Those images are available to us from carved stone stele at ceremonial sites, murals, and the 6 codexes, sacred books that survived and are conserved in museums. Writing there re-appears as figures and symbols or sometimes glyphs that appear in designs of huipiles, women’s traditional blouses which identify where they are from and are distinct in design from those of other towns.
In Totonicapan, we know of examples of some of the geometry which last appeared in cotton ceremonial robes used the Cofradia in the 1880’s. That geometry was vaguely referred to in wool, when it appears in wool at all, and the intention is decorative. Since then, more symbols, and newer versions of old symbols and icons are used today. Symbols and shapes in wool weaving, volcanos, corn, dancing figures and Quetzal birds in a central diamond shape are standard fare. Figures can appear on bands, or ‘rayos’ along the weft lines, and solid bands will be employed along the warp lines. Recent variations on themes appear in representations of animals, new weavings referring to ancient fables for children, etc.
Other practical pieces in wool are diaper cloth to wrap children called ‘panuelas’, smaller blankets also known as ‘ponchos’ or ‘chamarras’ made to wear in cold or at high altitudes, saddle blankets for horses, then modern accessories.
Weaving traditions of the Maya can represent a town or tribe and occasionally a linguistic group. Weaving traditions are keys for Archeologists and Anthropologists tracking influences and movements.
Weaving tradition in wool differs somewhat from that in cotton insofar as it developed after Contact. Designs in wool are decorative, and do not refer to Maya Cosmology ot intend to resemble older forms in cotton. A wider softer thread is adapted for wool weavings. Also, many weaving traditions in wool can be attributed to outside influences as far away as the Saltillo Culture of northern Mexico. The Saltillo regional cultural influence throuigh commercial contact by mule traders with the Navajo and Hopi. It has been speculated that Saltillo traders could have made it far enough in a southerly direction for their weaving techniques to have been observed by Aztec, Olmec and Maya in the form of a serape or a saddle blanket.
Before contact with the Espanoles in the early 1500’s, the Maya of highland Guatemala have their own history of military and political phases. All of the Americas including Central America were completely occupied by various indigenous groups in tribes, chiefdoms and city states belonging to ruling federations which alternately fought and traded with each other. The military history of this highland area of Guatemala and its social convulsions are background notes that help define fragmented groups among today’s population majority… over 85% Maya Qui-che’in the departments of Totonicapan and Quiche.
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CULTURE AND ITS WOOL WEAVING IN THE HIGHLANDS
Wool weaving today finds its largest production center in several communities and towns in southern and mid-Department of Totonicapan. There, we find at least 300 Maya shamen and nearly an equal number of weavers, mostly men, some of whom are also the same shamen, ‘Shamanes’…priests or practitioners of a sacred link to the Maya spiritual world. A group of distinguished elders called a Cofradia hold double honored positions in the Colonial church-and-municipalities, among other responsibilities. Cofradias were set up by the Catholic missionaries to pull the Maya into their institution or else risk losing a connection to them, the church and everything that goes along with Colonial occupation. Women’s roles provide back-up to the men weavers, with responsibilities to card and spin fibers into wool thread and to regulate family life in traditional Maya matriarchal homes and social organizations. Huge custom-made looms made by hand in the Spanish 15’th century model are still in use in every wool weaver’s home. These grand looms, heavy for the women to manage, are at least one reason why weavers of wool blankets is left mostly to men in this art form or craft. Women in these same towns still prepare their own cotton weaving into their traditional clothing, as has been traditional for them to do for at least 8,000 years according to the PopolVul and the Aztec and Maya Codexes that survive.
Linguistic groups: In the daily lives of contemporary Maya wool weavers, their traditional languages continue to define who and where they are in their territories. The Maya here in the department Totonicapan, first were Mam speakers. In the 14’th century the Mam were pushed out by the more militaristic Maya of the linguistic group Qui’-che’ the dominant language in use today.
The traditional Long Count Calendar recorded by the first European explorers in the 15’th century is very much in use today. The calendar is precise as a measuring system of their time space continuum. This calendar includes all Maya concepts rooted deeply in their spiritual history which involves their relation the universe, a Cosmology that varies little between their 27 language groups. To understand and use the calendar on several levels is complex to try to explain here, other than to remind ourselves that it divides a year of 240 days into 20 almost equal months, and these years belong to larger increments of 3,500 years each. A one year 240-day period of the calendar also precisely identifies proper days for ceremonies and particular petitions, as well as those days propitious for agriculture, social relations, and personal and colleactive decisions.
Traditional Maya have a highly developed perception of where they are in the galaxy. Seen in their art forms, the Maya also have traditional ways in weaving or recording images for representing how miniscule they are as individuals in comparison to the vastness of the cosmos. As they were encountered by Europeans, the Maya were in awe of the vastness of the galaxy, beliefs originating from great antiquity and include a very surprisingly advanced knowledge of astronomy. |
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