Reviewed Work: The People of the Bat: Mayan Tales and Dreams from Zinacantan by Robert M. Laughlin, Carol Karasik

Abstract

These reports, sometimes lurid, sometimes comical, of dream adventures, and the mythical and legendary narratives that accompany them in this volume, escort the reader into the world of Zinacantec spiritual reality. One experiences a powerful dislocation on entering habitat of spooks and thunderbolts, of Our Lord and the Earth Lords. Robert Laughlin provides a handy introduction to the Zinacantec cosmos, biographical sketches of his major contributors, and comparative and interpretive annotations of most of the texts.