In Shamans, Witches, and Maya Priests, Krystyna Deuss explores the world of Mayan “prayersayers” and other practitioners of traditional religion in the highlands of western Guatemala. She also sets out to document the many changes that she observed between her first visit to the region in 1974 and her most recent trip in 2002 (with particular emphasis on the period between 1987 and 2002).
Prayersayers are elected officials who organize and direct ritual activities in their community. They are adherents of costumbre, which is a blend of Mayan and Catholic beliefs and practices that competes with mainstream Catholicism and various Protestant sects for the hearts and souls of Highland Mayan people. In his classic study, Oliver La Farge (1947) refers to these traditional religious authorities as “prayermakers.” Deuss states that she prefers the label “prayersayer” because “prayers are said rather than made” (16). I think this is a misstep; as her vivid depictions make clear these men do much more than simply utter words. A combination of factors, including pressure from other religious groups, a devastating civil war, and economic development, have all led to a steep decline in costumbre during the period Deuss visited Guatemala. She describes how the prayersayers that she interviewed had to endure harassment and worse from their non-traditionalist neighbors. She found that there were fewer and fewer men remaining who possessed the necessary willpower, experience, and resources to take on the many responsibilities of a prayersayer. Consequently, it was becoming harder and harder for costumbreros to pray for bountiful harvests, honor their saints and ancestors appropriately, and perform the sacred rites that usher in each new year.
The bulk of Shamans, Witches, and Maya Priests consists of a detailed account and comparison of ritual activities in six communities, all located in and around the Cuchumatanes Mountains, several hours north of the bustling city of Huehuetenango. Parts I, III, and IV of the book are devoted to the Q’anjob’al communities of Santa Eulalia, Soloma, and San Juan Ixcoy. In Part II the author focuses on ritual activity in the Akateko community of Chimbán. And in the fifth and final part of the book, she briefly describes the rituals that she encountered in the Chuj communities of San Sebastián Coatán and San Mateo Ixtatán. Deuss concludes her book with a brief look at the impact that the pan-Mayanist movement is having on Highland Mayan religion. She makes the provocative point that while Mayan intellectuals and the pan-Mayan movement deserve credit for reviving local interest in costumbre, they seem intent on replacing the Q’anjob’al, Akateko, and Chuj practices that she has so lovingly documented here with a very monolithic version of costumbre that is based largely on K’iche’ Mayan practices. I hope that her remarks will spark some good discussion.
I approached Shamans, Witches, and Maya Priests warily, both because it was published by the author’s own foundation and because of its sensationalist title (witches and shamans, oh my!). Also, given that the rituals she discusses combine indigenous and European practices it seemed rather disingenuous of Deuss to label this as a study of “native” religion. Fortunately, her book exceeded my expectations in many respects. It is filled with excellent hand-drawn maps, illustrations of ritual spaces and activities, and dozens of gorgeous black-and-white photos that capture both sacred and quotidian moments in the lives of her Mayan interlocutors. Few academic presses would have the inclination or resources to produce such a beautiful monograph. It also includes three generous appendices: one that maps out the relationship between the Mayan and Gregorian calendrical systems, one with detailed lists of Mayan Day Lord names and attributes that the author collected in each community, and one with sixteen transcribed and translated prayer performances that she compiled with the help of members of the Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. Deuss herself does not do a close reading or critical discussion of these texts, but scholars of Mayan discourse and verbal art will find them to be of inestimable value.
I feel compelled to say a few words about Deuss’s writing style, too. She explains that she wrote her book in a more informal style rather than “the usual impersonal report beloved of academics” (16) in order to make it accessible to a wider audience. This is a perfectly sensible choice, and yet at times I felt that her style gets a little too informal. For example, in a passage describing a ritual that is meant to ensure a decent harvest of maize—a staple food which custumbreros treat with great reverence—she interjects, “We were served yet a third version of maize gruel. One certainly did not go hungry but thank God I had brought along water” (89). And some readers might be put off by her running commentary about the accommodations, the food, and the stresses of life on the road in Guatemala, not because she writes anything especially offensive but because it shifts the focus away from the prayersayers and their struggles.
While Shamans, Witches, and Maya Priests does not offer the reader much in the way of analysis or interpretation, it provides a rich and riveting description of the vanishing traditions of Highland Mayan costumbreros. Deuss’s book will have lasting value as an archive of Highland Mayan beliefs, practices, and aesthetics and as a historical account of the challenges that costumbreros faced during the tumultuous decades of the 1980s and 1990s.
Work Cited
La Farge, Oliver. Santa Eulalia: The Religion of a Cuchumatán Indian Town. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947.
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[Review length: 920 words • Review posted on March 23, 2009]