Ch'orti Maya Area: Past and Present

14. Dualism and Worldview among the Ch′orti′ Maya

14 Dualism and Worldview among the Ch′orti′ Maya Kerry M. Hull Recent gender studies have provided some of the more insightful advances in Mesoamerican studies (Taggart 1983; Klein 2001; Joyce 2000; Arden 2002). Identifying and defining the dualistic gender traits of ancient and modern deities and agricultural items has substantially added to our understanding of Mesoamerican conceptual patterning. In this paper I offer data from Ch′orti′ Maya ritual contexts, arguing for an underlying dual-gendered ideology that pervades both the sacred and the secular realms. Dual genderedness has two forms in Ch′orti′ thought as I interpret it: “inherently dual-gendered supernaturals” (at once embodying female and male aspects) as well as “dual-gender paired supernaturals” (complementary but separate female and male entities), which form the liturgical underpinnings of spiritual interactions between this existence and the Otherworld.1 This paper will investigate the notions of dual gender in relation not only to supernaturals, but also to sacred places and objects . The broad application of this ideology throughout Ch′orti′ ritual and spiritual life argues for locating dual gender as a central conceptual construct for the Ch′orti′. Multiple-Gender Associations among the Maya Many researchers have provided evidence for a commonly dual-gendered pantheon in ancient Mesoamerica (Joyce 2000; Klein 2001; Bassie-Sweet 2002; Tarn and Prechtel 1986). The most commonly cited example is the Maya Young Maize God, who is regularly shown clad in a female jaded skirt. The Popol Vuh mentions Balam Quitze, Balam Acab, Mahucutah, 187 188 · Kerry M. Hull and Iqui Balam, the first people created, as “our first mothers and fathers ,” a reference that places dual-gendered deities in pre-creation times (Christenson 2001: 196). Among the K′iche′ today, chuchkajawib⬘ is a title for the lineage head or priest that similarly translates as ‘mother-father’ (McAnany 1995: 25). In many cases, even where discrete genders are discernible in such dual-gendered deities, it is often not possible to determine a dominant gender. Klein argues that such distinct genders “combine to form a single, male-plus-female whole” in which both genders may be seen “either simultaneously or in alternation, but they are never ambiguous or ambivalent because there is nothing uncertain, unpredictable, or incomplete about them” (Klein 2001: 188–89) According to Klein, while such genders can be interpreted as “additive” or “doubled,” never “do the individual aspects or components that make up the unit ever change their gender , nor do they represent an intermixture of gender traits within themselves ” (189). The notion of “gender duality,” Klein contends, “refers to entities who simultaneously incorporate within themselves both a wholly male and a wholly female aspect” (186). This “fluidity of gender” (Joyce 2000: 109–10, 177) is nowhere more apparent than in the dual-sexed nature of many deities of the ancient and modern Maya. Among the Ch′orti′ Maya of eastern Guatemala, dual-gendered supernaturals comprise a significant portion of the native pantheon. Ch′orti′ Ritual Specialists Today, ritual specialists, such as healers, are the principal repository for information surrounding these ancient conceptions of female/male pairings —the literal building blocks of the universe. In some Ch′orti′ communities today, curanderos, or traditional healers, still play an important albeit diminishing role. There is roughly an even distribution of female and male Ch′orti′ healers practicing today. In many respects female healers are held in higher regard than their male counterparts since female healers are also usually midwives. This elevates the relative status of female healers above that of males as they can serve a much broader portion of the population. It is in the ritual prayers of Ch′orti′ healers where the richest data on dualism in Otherworld beings and sacred locations are retained. A dualistic view of divine beings can be traced to larger cultural conceptions of the Ch′orti′. According to ancient Ch′orti′ traditions, the universe itself is constructed on dualistic principles. All things in this world have a counterpart, be it a complementary equivalent or an opposite in the Otherworld. Spirits in the Otherworld are said to live just as we do here. In Ch′orti′ healing texts, spirits are often talked about as sitting in chairs, Dualism and Worldview among the Ch′orti′ Maya · 189 reading books, and performing other mundane activities. This counterrealm , however, is said by some to be “upside down” since the Ch′orti′ conceive of it as a kind of mirrored...