Telling Maya Tales

Telling Maya Tales offers an experimental ethnographic portrait of the San Juan Chamula, the largest and most influential Maya community of Highland Chiapas, in the late twentieth century--the era of the Zapatistas. In this collection of essays, the author, whose field work in the area spans two generations of anthropological thought, explores several expressions of Tzotzil ethnic affirmation, ranging from oral narrative to ritual drama and political action. His work covers the current era, when the Chamula Tzotzils mingle chaotically and sometimes violently with the social and political space of modern Mexico--most recently, in the context of the Maya Zapatista movement of 1994.

Telling Maya Tales offers an experimental ethnographic portrait of the San Juan Chamula, the largest and most influential Maya community of Highland Chiapas, in the late twentieth century--the era of the Zapatistas. In this collection of essays, the author, whose field work in the area spans two generations of anthropological thought, explores several expressions of Tzotzil ethnic affirmation, ranging from oral narrative to ritual drama and political action. His work covers the current era, when the Chamula Tzotzils mingle chaotically and sometimes violently with the social and political space of modern Mexico--most recently, in the context of the Maya Zapatista movement of 1994.

Through performance and the spoken word, Yucatec Maya storytellers have maintained the vitality of their literary traditions for more than five hundred years. Telling and Being Told presents the figure of the storyteller as a symbol of indigenous cultural control in contemporary Yucatec Maya literatures. Analyzing the storyteller as the embodiment of indigenous knowledge in written and oral texts, this book highlights how Yucatec Maya literatures play a vital role in imaginings of Maya culture and its relationships with Mexican and global cultures. Through performance, storytellers place the past in dynamic relationship with the present, each continually evolving as it is reevaluated and reinterpreted. Yet non-indigenous actors often manipulate the storyteller in their firsthand accounts of the indigenous world. Moreover, by limiting the field of literary study to written texts, Worley argues, critics frequently ignore an important component of Latin America’s history of conquest and colonization: The fact that Europeans consciously set out to destroy indigenous writing systems, making orality a key means of indigenous resistance and cultural continuity. Given these historical factors, outsiders must approach Yucatec Maya and other indigenous literatures on their own terms rather than applying Western models. Although oral literature has been excluded from many literary studies, Worley persuasively demonstrates that it must be included in contemporary analyses of indigenous literatures as oral texts form a key component of contemporary indigenous literatures, and storytellers and storytelling remain vibrant cultural forces in both Yucatec communities and contemporary Yucatec writing.

**WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL 2013-2014 MORNING CALM MEDAL** This multicultural children's book presents a heartwarming Korean fairy tale about a little girl and a fortunate encounter. Poverty is all Maya has ever known, but she doesn't allow it to stop her from caring for her father, and others, as best she can. Kind and gentle, she is a lovely young girl who always puts others first. One day, she finds a little turtle and takes him home, raising and loving him, never knowing that he will play an instrumental part in her destiny. Similar to The Korean Cinderella, Maya and the Turtle, is an original Korean fairy tale by authors John Stickler and Soma Han that teaches children that the road to greatness lies in selflessness and that the loving kindness of a pure heart can awaken great love and power in another. Beautifully illustrated by Han, this book contains fascinating bits of information about Korean culture and is a poignant tale about the rewards of kindness, patience and courage.

In all the world's stories, a major type of tale is missing. Telling Maya is one version of many possible. This category of stories is missing because the central characters are women who would upset the balance of world power if they were known to exist. They are, in fact, unthinkable and dangerous to the status quo that they don't even exist in stories. Maya Solari, the oldest living of these women, decides it's time to tell her tale. Meet a handful of americans as they become privy to these women's lives and vital to realizing their brightest hopes and dreams.

Four Creations is a collection of seventy-four stories told to Gary H. Gossen by Tzotzil Maya storytellers in San Juan Chamula, Mexico. Spanning four cycles of creations, destructions, and restorations from the dawn of cosmic order to the present era, this epic history reveals a distinctly Maya vision of the universe, grand in scope yet leavened with local humor, irony, and the Tzotzil narrators’ own critical commentaries. Four Creations includes mythic accounts of modern history, such as the Wars of Independence, the Mexican Revolution, and the current Protestant evangelical movement. Given in both transcribed Tzotzil and English translations, the texts are enlivened by more than one hundred Maya Indian drawings and by Gossen’s extensive ethnographic and historical notes based on his conversations with the narrators and more than thirty-five years of study. Miguel León-Portílla’s Foreword situates Four Creations within the broader context of Mesoamerican culture and traditions, while the Afterword by Jan Rus relates this work to recent events in modern-day Chamula.

Transcribed from Mayan hieroglyphs, the Popol Vuh relates the mythology and history of the Kiché people of Central America. There is no document of greater importance to the study of pre-Columbian mythology.

Enrich your family life, connect with your children, and celebrate your ancestors by learning to tell family stories, folktales, and nursery rhymes. Telling Tales: Storytelling in the Family is a fascinating guide to the art of gathering and telling stories. Written by three renowned storytellers, Telling Tales includes personal stories, how-to tips and extensive resource lists, and builds upon the success of the acclaimed first edition.