The Year Bearer's People: repatriation of ethnographic and sacred knowledge to the Jakaltek Maya of Guatemala

Extract

In the early decades of this century, ethnographers who believed that the indigenous cultures of the Americas were in imminent danger of extinction undertook a variety of methods to record the vestiges of these cultures. Often carried out in collaboration with the controlling political powers, these ethnographic nonetheless became both instruments of persecution against traditional religious practices and the last records of these practices. One such ethnography, The Year Bearer's People, recorded by Oliver La Farge in 1927, became the only remaining record of this religious ceremony that commemorated the new year and was central to the life of the Jakaltek Maya in the Kuchumatán highland region of Guatemala. In this article, the author recounts the translation of this ethnography and the return of this sacred knowledge to the Maya community.