Peyote Veneration in Challenging Times: Issues of Land and Access in South Texas

Members of the Native American Church in the United States need reliable supplies of peyote, an entheogenic plant that they can today only obtain from licensed peyote dealers in South Texas. These dealers have supplied church members with their sacrament since the early twentieth century. Their predecessors, meanwhile, harvested peyote for Native Americans since before the mid-nineteenth century. In recent decades, though, issues of land access and plant scarcity have made it more difficult to acquire peyote. Better handling of peyote habitat and better harvesting methods are needed to meet increasing demand for peyote

Mayas, spirituality, and the unfinished history of conflict in Guatemala [Los mayas, la espiritualidad y la historia incompleta del conflicto en Guatemala]

Maya spiritual practice in Guatemala has been actively challenged by mainstream religions and by pressures originating from other institutions. Many Maya ritualists have been directly reproached by religious leaders and have been targeted by a state apparatus that associates rural Maya life with insurgency. As a result, many Maya spiritual elements have been pushed to, and kept at, the margins of society. Focusing on the past two decades, this essay reviews how Mayas nevertheless maintain an active ritual life. They do this by engaging in a close relationship with the spirit-owners of the landscape, beings upon whom humans depend for their sustenance and life. They do this, also, in the face of many challenges from organized religions, the educational system, and the military. Having considered the effects of these institutions upon Maya spirituality, I then put forward some concerns Mayas face when addressing how to value and promote Maya spiritual practices in Guatemala. In addition to encouraging young Mayas to uphold their heritage, Mayas may need to prevail upon Catholic and evangelical Protestant congregations to suspend judgment about Maya spirituality and to acknowledge its far-reaching importance in culturally pluralistic society. - Las prácticas espirituales mayas en Guatemala han sido desafiadas activamente por las religiones institucionales y por otros sectores públicos. Muchos ritualistas mayas han sido hostigados por líderes de otras religiones y han sido atacados por un aparato estatal que asocia la vida maya rural con la insurgencia. Como resultado, muchos elementos espirituales mayas han sido alejados hasta las márgenes de la sociedad. Dirigiéndose a las últimas dos décadas, este trabajo examina cómo, a pesar de esto, los mayas mantienen una vida ritual activa. Logran esto mediante una relación estrecha con los dueños espirituales de la tierra, seres de quienes dependen los humanos por su sustento y vida. Logran esto, además, mientras que enfrenten muchos desafíos de parte de las religiones institucionales, del sistema escolar y del sector militar. Habiendo apreciado los efectos que tienen estas instituciones sobre la espiritualidad maya, articulo unas dificultades que enfrentan los mayas cuando asesoren y promuevan las prácticas espirituales en Guatemala. Además de fomentar un interés patrimonial entre la juventud maya, los mayas tendrán que exigir que las congregaciones católicas y evangélicas dejen de reprochar a la espiritualidad maya y, en lugar de esto, concedan su importancia amplia en la sociedad pluricultural

Ritual Effigies and Corporeality in Kaqchikel Maya Soul Healing

To treat some cases of soul-loss, Kaqchikel Mayas use ritual effigies of the sufferer. These effigies, called k’al k’u’x, are made by wrapping the sufferer’s clothing around a wooden armature. For the effigy to be a viable ritual surrogate, the ritualist must douse it with water, heat it, and strike it during a soul-calling ceremony. This handling instantiates corporeality in the effigy by kindling normative body states in it, states that must be stimulated in the sufferer’s own body for it to spiritually reintegrate. Such Maya ritual substitution practices are how Kaqchikels deploy ritual surrogation processes that hinge on both an understanding of the body and knowledge of the sacred landscape. This article explores the settings and applications of ritual surrogation, which is a recurrent feature of Maya healing

MAYAS, SPIRITUALITY, AND THE UNFINISHED HISTORY OF CONFLICT IN GUATEMALA.

Maya spiritual practice in Guatemala has been actively challenged by mainstream religions and by pressures originating from other institutions. Many Maya ritualists have been directly reproached by religious leaders and have been targeted by a state apparatus that associates rural Maya life with insurgency. As a result, many Maya spiritual elements have been pushed to, and kept at, the margins of society. Focusing on the past two decades, this essay reviews how Mayas nevertheless maintain an active ritual life. They do this by engaging in a close relationship with the spirit-owners of the landscape, beings upon whom humans depend for their sustenance and life. They do this, also, in the face of many challenges from organized religions, the educational system, and the military. Having considered the effects of these institutions upon Maya spirituality, I then put forward some concerns Mayas face when addressing how to value and promote Maya spiritual practices in Guatemala. In addition to encouraging young Mayas to uphold their heritage, Mayas may need to prevail upon Catholic and evangelical Protestant congregations to suspend judgment about Maya spirituality and to acknowledge its far-reaching importance in culturally pluralistic society

Authorizing tradition: vectors of contention in Highland Maya midwifery

In Guatemala, midwives deliver the majority of children and play an important health care role in rural areas. Maya midwives, using time-proven methods, are the chief providers of care for mothers and infants in these areas. In recent decades, however, the medical establishment has become interested in Maya midwives, and is currently engaged in training and certifying many of them. This study examines how Guatemalan health authorities have sought to change Maya midwifery, refashioning its vocational framework and retooling it in accordance with Western medical principles. I focus on the place of obligatory formal training and the use of biomedical materials in the experience of Kaqchikel Maya midwives, and consider how the health officials employ these means to undermine the midwives\u27 knowledge base. Encounters between midwives and formal health personnel reveal an ongoing privileging of biomedical knowledge, one that preserves asymmetrical relationships between these practitioners. This creates an environment favorable to health personnel, and helps them to extend their influence through the midwives into the community. Given this, I contend that health personnel value local Maya midwives primarily for their role in furthering the goals of biomedicine

K’u’x como vínculo corporal en el cosmos

Today, for the kaqchikel maya of the Guatemalan Highlands, the word k\u27u\u27x has gained great importance. Generally translated as corazon k\u27u\u27x has a strong sense or viral force. In the community under study, k\u27u\u27x has its expression in three significant ways: focusing on life and sensibility, as a placenta and as the creator-sustaining deity. Among its multiple aspects it shows a spiritual character interlacing with the physical dimensions of human life. The purpose of this paper is to approach co an integral understanding of k\u27u\u27x, taking in regard its position in several domains of Mayan experience. I present the fundamental quality of k\u27u\u27x as a corporal bond within the spiritual Maya world. - Para los mayas kaqchikeles del altiplano guatemalteco, el vocablo k´u´x cobra gran importancia en la actualidad. Traducido generalmente como \u27corazón\u27, k´u´x conlleva fuerte sentido de fuerza vital. En la comunidad bajo estudio, k´u´x se manifiesta de tres maneras significativas: como enfoque de vida y sensibilidad, como la placenta y como la divinidad creadora sustentadora. En sus múltiples aspectos de muestra un carácter espiritual entre laudo con las dimensiones físicas de la vida humana. El objeto de este ensayo es intentar un entendimiento integral de k´u´x, tomando en cuenta su ubicación en varios dominios de la experiencia maya. Planteo la cualidad fundamental de k´u´x como vínculo corporal en el mundo espiritual maya

Golpes, shock, y el vehículo corporal en la ritualidad maya

En el panorama ritual de Mesoamérica, destacan unos elementos de alta importancia. Se observa el empleo de técnicas físicas en muchos conjuntos rituales dirigidos hacia el cambio espiritual. La aplicación de golpes y shock llama la atención porque se realiza con entidades humanas y no–humanas, pero siempre con el objetivo de despertar o activar alguna potencia. Tanto en casos de sustitutos rituales, o sea efigies, como en los de cuerpos reales, el impacto físico corre paralelo con el estímulo espiritual. El presente trabajo explora cómo la transformación espiritual depende del vehículo corporal para realizarse. Dirigiéndome a un conjunto de casos mayas y de otras etnias, examino el papel de la dimensión física en el ritualismo actual

The Hands Know : Bodily Engagement and Medical Impasse in Highland Maya Bonesetting

In southern Middle America, highland Maya bonesetters are called on to treat many cases of bodily injury. While Guatemalan Maya bonesetters vary greatly in their techniques and specialties, they prioritize manual treatment modalities, using their hands to address problems in clients\u27 bodies. For bonesetters, the hands achieve direct knowledge of the suffering body, enabling them to work and securing the trust of those they treat. Nonetheless, Maya bonesetters face opposition from physicians who argue that bonesetters are untrained in Western trauma techniques and can inflict irreparable harm on people. This article examines how Maya bonesetters work in an environment hostile to their craft and explores some important vectors of bodily and ideological engagement between Maya bonesetting and Guatemalan biomedicine