The Dog Who Spoke and More Mayan Folktales represents a unique approach to scholarship in that it appeals to a larger and more varied audience. The book provides important data that will add to the current academic research of historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and folklorists. For example, in his explanation of the tale of the crying woman, la llorona, and the informant’s perception that this tale is unique to that culture gives folklorists and cultural anthropologists the opportunity to examine this and other folktales contained in the work as they pertain to parallel stories throughout Latin America and other parts of the world.
James Sexton gives an analysis of the tales based on his informant’s esoteric understanding of the Mayan culture. His affiliation with his informant, Fredy Rodríguez-Mejía, as well as his association with the area affords additional cultural understanding of the overall text. In this respect, Sexton supplies a peek inside an ancient culture as it applies to his present scholarship. Stepping back for a number of years and then taking a fresh look, Sexton revisits specific cultural elements pertaining to Mayan oral tradition. Sexton’s integration and then re-integration into the community from which he derived his data is distinct in that he is able to apply comparative analysis of his data over time.
Though some of the folktales may resemble tales found in other cultures, there are those that seem unique to the Mayan culture. For this reason, students and scholars of oral tradition and the African American folktale will find many similarities between them and Mayan folktales. The most striking of these similarities is the fact that the Mayan tales, like African American tales, carry a didactic message which provides a blueprint for living. These tales embrace a worldview that clearly shows how the Maya account for the supernatural and the unexplainable. As such, cultural anthropologists will find Rodríguez-Mejía’s scrutiny of his culture’s folklife to be an important addition to the study of self-identity. Sexton also provides the reader with an in-depth look at the culture of the Mayan communities through a revelation of certain socio-cultural aspects that help to define how Mayans are viewed by the greater population. In addition, transcribing in Spanish and then translating into English removes one layer of translation, which decreases the likelihood of misinterpretation; of course, transcribing in the original language and dialect would be the preferable methodology.
For the general public, this book will prove to be entertaining, and the tales are submitted in Spanish and English, making it accessible to a much larger audience. Sexton provides sufficient Mayan history to help the reader frame subsequent folktales within the worldview of the Maya. Readers will delight in these tales and find that they have, in some cases, parallels with tales that they might be familiar with from their own culture. In the global community, examining divergent worldviews is essential to acknowledging, appreciating, and celebrating world cultures. The Dog Who Spoke and More Mayan Folktales presents an opportunity to do just that.
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[Review length: 499 words • Review posted on May 12, 2011]