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527 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 123 December 1955 easter Ceremonies at Santiago Atitlan in 1930 Elsie McDougall of the alcalde mayor, the smaller of the two rooms, adjoins the courthouse. There was a small crowd, mainly of boys, at the foot of the porch steps, which were directly in front of the door of the main room. The door was open, and native officials were arriving at a brisk pace along the paths radiating from the plaza. Apparently acting officials as well as ex-officios were assembling in the room, arriving individually, invariably serious, some carrying their official wands with them. The door of the large room was at the end, where long benches were set against the wall, and, presumably in preparation for the reception, three or four chairs had been placed between the lines of benches. Officials, as they entered, deposited wands on a rough desk set to one side before ceremonially saluting the native alcalde and certain other officials, particularly those of greatest age. About noon the ladino alcalde mayor and his ladino secretary arrived, exchanged greetings with the native alcalde, who stood before one of the chairs, and seated themselves. The writer, courteously greeted by the native alcalde, sat next to the alcalde, who had invited her to enter, and who from time to time volunteered information likely to be of interest. Apparently the alcalde mayor was principal guest and had arrived when the assemblage of native officials was about complete. Through the open door, part of the plaza could be seen, and the assembled officials faced the main part of the relatively large room, which had been strewn with fresh pine needles and decorated with cedar and pine boughs. The ceremonies of Easter week at the Zutuhil village of Santiago Atitlan are a strange blending of Christian and pagan rites which have briefly been described by S. K. Lothrop (1929a, 1929b) and E. B. Lothrop (1948). The relatively large village lies at the foot of Volcano Atitlan, on an inlet of the lake of the same name, and is dominated by the seventeenth-century church, once imposing but now badly damaged by repeated earthquakes. When I reached the village on the morning of Wednesday of Holy Week (April 16, 1930), the main door of the church was open, and a few men were busy on the terrace in front. The crudely rebuilt façade had been freshly whitewashed. An arch of two upright cedar poles and a cross pole had been erected at the foot of the broad flight of stone steps leading to the church, and a second arch stood opposite it on the north side of the plaza. Men were decorating the two arches with boughs of cedar and pine. Twenty-five years ago the village was very isolated, and I was the only outsider at the Easter ceremonies. The two-roomed municipal building, diagonally across from the church, on the north side of the plaza, was also the scene of activity. The main room, raised a few feet on wooden posts, is the council room and courthouse of the native administration, headed by an elected president, who, as alcalde segundo , is, is all dealing with the national administration , subordinate to the ladino alcalde mayor, appointed by the national administration. The office eLSie mcdougALL 528 The ceremony for which the officials had assembled was evidently well organized, and timed for minimum delay. Almost immediately after the entrance of the alcalde mayor, a native brought a large palm-woven mat which he quickly unrolled in the center of the floor. The boom of a big drum (tun), rapidly crescendo, announced the approach of a procession to the courtroom. Drummer and flutist remained on the porch, as a double file of young men, intent solely on their mission, entered the room at a brisk pace. Each wore the typical Atitleco wide cotton drawers, European-type coat of indigo-dyed woolen cloth, and palm-woven hat. They bore traditional products of the Pacific lowlands which, according to information volunteered by the alcalde mayor, they had been officially commissioned to fetch from the coastal area. The produce was inspected on the return of the young men, and any...

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