How Our Mother Beloved Maiden was Saved from an Untimely Death:  A christianized version of the Xkik’ tale of the Popol Wuj
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Research Year:  2001
Culture:  Maya
Chronology:  Pre-Classic to Contemporary
Location:  Rab’inal, Highland Guatemala
Site:  Xkik’ story from the Popol Wuj

Table of Contents

Introduction
Xkik’ or Blood Woman
Qachu Kilaj Qapoj or Our Mother Beloved Maiden
Tz’onoj or Petitioning
Exegesis and Comparison
Creation of New Era
Human Sacrifice
Etiology
Flower Staffs
Torn Away from Home
Xkik’ Tale in Pre-Columbian Wedding Context?
Illustrations
Sources Cited

Introduction

This project comprised the transcription, translation and interpretation of a traditional Achi-K’iche’ hand-petitioning text recited during a marriage ceremony called Tz’onoj, "Petitioning". The text of some 1100 lines was recorded in Rab’inal from a Maya priest, don José León Coloch Carniga, who is also the dance-master of the well-known K’iche’ dance called Rab’inal Achi. This document is a christianized version of the Xkik’ story from the Popol Wuj. A first translation was made together with the priest. I made a second at home, and then returned to do a final check to ask about the phrases that had remained obscure. In all I lived in Rab’inal for almost two and a half years, and during one of my stays I was able to witness a Tz’onoj-ceremony.

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How Our Mother Beloved Maiden was Saved from an Untimely Death:  A christianized version of the Xkik’ tale of the Popol Wuj  (400 KB)

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Submitted 12/31/2002 by: