Cacao Beans and Chili Peppers: Gender Socialization in the ...

Sex Roles, Vol. 39, Nos. 718, 1998

Cacao Beans and Chili Peppers: Gender Socialization in the Cosmology of a Yucatec Maya Curing ceremony1 Betty Bernice Faust2 Centro de Investigaci6n y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN Mhida, Yucathn, Mexico

Maya ymbols associate cultural interpretations of biological reproduction with gender roles within a cosmological model of the natural world. These traditional ymbols were used in a ceremony pegomzed to cure the pubescent daughter of a modernizing family. She was suffering "ataques de nervios" (nervous attacks, including muscle spasms and loss of consciousness) believed to be caused by a delay in the onset of menarche. Analysis of the symbols relied o n multiple approaches that allowed decoding of ceremonial ymbols as references to ( I ) the gendered pairing of marriage, (2) the social reproduction of gender through the generations, (3) the reproductive aspects of human bodies as ymbols of interdependency, and (4) maleness and femaleness as primary forces of the Maya cosmos. The traditional ymbols, combined with the teachings of the healer, provided an interpretation of the biological differences between male and female bodies within a n overarching cosmological system. The primary symbols referred explicitly to male and female genitalia and menstrual blood as ymboks for the reproduction of gender through generations of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. The ceremony he research began in 1985-1986 and was funded by Shell International Foundation for Research in Developing Areas and subsequently by the Wenner-Gren Foundation (1992 and 1993) and the Centro de Investigaci6n y Estudios Avanzados del IPN (1994-1998). I wish to thank E. Anderson, G. Balam, G. Bascope, M. Cervera, A. Emmett, J. Erickson, W. Folan, T. Foreman, J. Frazier, G. Gossen, E. Kintz; S. Wadley, and S. Zalk for their many helpful suggestions. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the author, who reserves the right to publish modified versions in other publications. 2 ~ whom o correspondence should be addressed at Seccion de Ecologia Humana, A. P. 73, CINVESTAV, Unidad MCrida, MCrida, Yucatin, MCxico C. P. 97310; e-mail: [email protected].

036041251981lWO4M13$15.lX)IUO 1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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was apparently effective-despite a context of rapid modernization in which family planning, formal education, and new economic opportunities increasingly result in employment of women outside the home.

INTRODUCTION This article examines the processes by which a Maya "coming of age" ceremony placed in cosmological context the gender roles learned informally by observation, imitation, and practice. It dramatically illustrated through displays of ritual symbolism the role of gender differences in human biological and social reproduction. The ceremony examined has not previously been reported in the ethnographic literature, but some of its symbols show surprising similarity to those of a rite practiced at the time of European contact, reported by Landa (156611967) in the sixteenth century. Its symbolic associations refer back even farther, to the creation story of Classic Maya Civilization, as recorded in the Pop01 Vuh manuscript of the QuichC Maya of Guatemala. At the height of the Maya Classic (A.D. 600-800), scenes from this story were painted on mortuary ceramics and carved on stone monuments in ceremonial plazas throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, including those of Palenque and Tikal (Coe, 1973, 1989; Freidel, Schele, & Parker, 1993). The ceremony relates gender roles to a cosmology that integrates the Celestial World, this Earth, and the Underworld, in cycles of generations. A complex cosmological system is communicated gradually by the healer in a narrative process associated with the preparation of ritual foods to be offered to ancient, supernatural beings, the Lords of the Winds and the Lord of the Underworld, now conceived to be local agents of the One True God of the Catholic Trinity. Symbolic references to genitals are not presented for pornographic purposes, but rather treated as sacred symbols of the fundamental, creative forces of the universe. These gendered forces together thought, planned, conceived, and gave birth to the universe (D. Tedlock, 1985, pp. 71-86). The symbols thus refer to the underlying principles of traditional Maya environmental ethics and religion, within which gendered economic activities were (and to some degree still are) part of the "true way of life." The ceremony uses these cultural symbols to dramatically illustrate the relations between interpenetrating dual principles of equal value, relations of interdependency and complementarity. The male and female symbols show remarkable continuity with the pre-Columbian culture; however, they do not communicate by themselves. Interpretations of their meanings are guided by the h-men (the Maya ritual healerlpriest). Throughout the

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ceremony, he explores the understandings of the participants and gradually adds to them, building an understanding of the ways in which their experiences of gender fit within a complex, organized Maya model of the universe. In this process, gender roles are portrayed and legitimized for the next generation of mothers and fathers. The h-men uses both cognitive explanations and affective linkages to guide the patient and her family to improved understandings of the nature of their bodies and their environment, and the relevance of these for culturally specific gender roles, despite a context of rapid modernization. The connection between biological reproduction and gender identity is fundamental to Mayan thought. Sexual beings conceived the Maya universe and gave birth to it, in the ancient creation myth. This story is known neither by the healer nor by today's villagers, but the basic structure of the Maya cosmos is still portrayed through the symbolic associations of ritual, which survived the Collapse of the ninth century, the Conquest of the sixteenth, and may yet survive the onslaught of modernization. The traditional Maya ceremony analyzed in this article combined aspects of a "coming of age" ceremony with procedures customarily used to heal a class of illnesses locally understood to be caused by "attacks of the Winds." The research was done in the rapidly modernizing community of Taj," in the State of Campeche, on the western side of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Today's 1,500 residents (Tajeiios) are racially somewhat mixed, but predominantly Maya in cultural heritage (Faust, 1998, pp. 29-36). The ceremony was done only for the patient, in the privacy of her home. The healer has only performed this ceremony one other time, and it is not otherwise documented in the ethnographic literature. Despite its rarity and its attenuated form compared to a sixteenth-century version, the ceremony was effective in curing the girl of her ataques and orienting her to her future role as a wife and mother, which has included not only continuing modernization but also migration to a nearby city. Although herbal medicine, dietary improvement, and family counseling were involved in the curing process, this article will focus on the aspects of gender socialization that were associated with the ritual symbols and symbolic actions of the ceremony, as taught by the healer throughout the ten-hour ceremony. It is argued that this symbolic socialization, in combination with "counseling" sessions with the healer, lessened the patient's anxiety concerning future dangers by associating her physiological changes and future role as a mother with the fundamental structures of the Maya cosmos. The symbolism of the ceremony will be analyzed as a culturally 3~seudonymsare used for the names of the community, the healer, and other participants.

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specific mode of gender socialization (or enculturation) based on Maya interpretations of biological reproduction, including continuities with ancient Maya symbolism. Methods for analysis of the symbolism are ethnographic ones pioneered by Geertz (1973), Levi-Strauss (194911969, 1963), Rappaport (196411984), Richards (1956), and Turner (1967), which have been applied in the Maya area by Gossen (197411984, 1994, 1996), B. Tedlock (1982), D. Tedlock (1985), Vogt (1976), and their students. These techniques include the decoding of symbols by a combination of paradigmatic, syntagmatic, and contextual interpretations, including the exegesis offered by ritual experts and other participants. The contextual interpretations depend on long-term participant observation in the community, in this case focusing on gender roles in daily life. Description of the ceremony includes not only an analysis of the symbolic meanings involved but also of the process whereby some of these meanings were gradually unfolded by the h-men to the patient and other participants in the ceremony. Due to the multiple referents of traditional symbols, various aspects of their meanings would remain latent, stored in the memory of an awe-inspiring ceremony (with a trail of clues left by the healer's remarks), available to aid the patient and other participants in their interpretations of future life events. Symbolic systems from many cultural traditions conserve ancient understandings of human participation in the natural world and the cycles of generations, providing sustaining roots as people struggle to maintain a sense of identity and balance, buffeted by the accelerating winds of change in the technological world of our own creation.

DISCUSSION OF THE LITERATURE

Gender and Modernization

Traditional environmental knowledge, gender roles, and other forms of social life are the results of long-term processes of cultural adaptation to local environments, organized by symbol systems dramatically presented in memorable ceremonies, including those for healing and "coming of age," (e.g., Comaroff, 1985; Geertz, 1973; Richards, 1956; Turner, 1967; van Gennep 190911960). Processes of rapid social change, particularly under conditions of external domination (colonial, national, or ethnic), tend to be disruptive of these adaptive processes and to result in both social disorganization and rapid degradation of natural resources (Burger, 1987; Bodley, 1988, 1990; Clay, 198811990; Lansing, 1991; Wallace, 1956).


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Anthropologists such as Anderson (1996), Bodley (1988, 1990), Burger (1987), and Maybury-Lewis (1992) have argued that many diverse traditional cultures provide (or once provided) satisfying life styles without the high levels of consumption, gender inequality, psychological distress and environmental destruction that are associated with modernization processes in much of the Third World. Theorists from other disciplines have also made use of studies of traditional cultures in critiques of modernization. Ecopsychologists (e.g., Glendinning, 1995; Gomes & Kanner, 1995), feminists (e.g., Buckley & Gottlieb, 1988; Davis-Floyd, 1992; Martin, 1987), and environmentalists (e.g., Dompka, 1996; Kemf, 1993; Pilarski, 1994; Redford & Mansour, 1996) have found clues in the anthropological materials for analyses of contemporary social, psychological, and environmental problems. The loss of ceremonies, oral histories, and traditional knowledge of local environments are common consequences of "modernization," often assumed to be a natural development of human societies, and one that will eventually fulfill human potential and improve the quality of life for all people. This widely held assumption has been put into grave doubt by recent social and environmental evaluations carried out by respected scientists and policy makers from diverse disciplines, cultures, and nationalities (e.g., Brandon, 1996; Fairlie, 1995; Gadgil & Guha, 1995; IUCNKJNEPIWWF, 1991; Ludwig et al., 1993; Myers, 1992; The Royal Society & US Academy of Sciences, 1992; Schwartz-Nobel, 1981; Tolba et al., 1993; ul Haq, 1995; ul Haq & Jolly, 1996; WCED, 1987; WCS, 1980). They have identified perverse environmental and social consequences of modernization, which Frazier (1997) links explicitly to mistaken assumptions concerning the viability of both continuous economic growth and a consumer life style. The later two processes directly affect the modernization of traditional gender roles as women increasingly work outside the home for wages, often doing so in order to buy more consumer goods for their families (Harris, 1981; Henry, 1965). People feel they "need" ever more and better goods: bicycle, radio, television, car, VCR, camcorder, etc. Production to meet the demand for such goods has resulted in escalating rates of resource depletion and environmental contamination. Even within these conditions, however, traditional symbols tend to endure, lasting longer than many other cultural aspects; transmitted through coming of age ceremonies and other rituals, they are often reinterpreted to form the basis of resistance to cultural domination (Burgos, 1984; Comaroff, 1985; Gossen, 1994, 1996; Neihardt, 1961; Wallace, 1956). From these symbols are born revitalization movements, as well as cultural renaissances that honor folklore and reinforce ethnic identities, even while many aspects of the traditional roles are being altered (Balzer, 1996; Burgos, 1984; Comaroff, 1985; Gossen, 1994, 1996; Turner, 1974; Wallace, 1956).

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Coming of Age Ceremonies A common unifying theme in symbolic systems is gender, reflecting the division of traditional knowledge into male and female domains, associated with their respective roles (Douglas, 1970; Gottlieb, 1988; Gross, 1989; Richards, 1956; Turner, 1967). One of the most "sensitive" periods in the establishment of gender roles is puberty. For a woman, menarche is a clear marker of physical and physiological changes in the body, signaling the potential for bearing children and calling for the learning of the adult role of wife and mother. Coming of age ceremonies emphasize the sexual basis of gender roles, articulating social structure, human biology, and the natural world in a cosmology informed by local environmental knowledge and cultural values (Gottlieb, 1988; Gross, 1989; Ortner, 1974; Richards, 1956; Turnbull, 1961; Turner, 1967). Symbols are instrumental in coming of age ceremonies, first analyzed by van Gennep (190911960) as rituals of transition from one social status to another. His cross-cultural analysis indicated that these rituals typically included three stages: (1) separation from childhood and the previous role in the nuclear family, (2) a state of transition where adult roles are taught by authoritative figures in a special context that creates feelings of awe, and (3) public re-incorporation in the society as fledgling adults, ready to begin assimilation of adult gender roles. These rituals, or ceremonies, build on previous informal enculturation in the home, but dramatically highlight gender roles in a symbolic context that links them to the culture's cosmology and charter myths, while emphasizing culturally accepted norms. Deviations that arise within individual households are corrected, ensuring that cultural values and ethnic identity (including gender roles) are passed on to the next generation. Cross-cultural analysis indicates that girls are initiated in thirty-five percent more societies than boys (Schlegel & Barry, 1979, 1980). Typically, the ceremonies for girls are done for each individual at menarche, in contrast to large collective ceremonies for boys. Female ceremonies focus on the role of adult women, including cultural interpretations of physical aspects (menstruation, sexual intercourse, pregnancy and childbirth), as well as references to the cultural norms for proper behavior. Attention to genitals and wombs is common, as they are "natural symbols" for social roles built on sexual differences (Bettelheim, 1954; Douglas, 1970; Mead, 1949). Typically, initiation ceremonies are dramatic events (for the whole community, a lineage, or an extended family) that reinforce and confirm the cultural preparation of new adult members, who will reproduce the ethnic and gender identities of their culture. In many parts of the world, such ceremonies have been seen as resistance to "progressive" forces and


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targeted for elimination by various agents of modernization (missionary societies, colonial administrations, etc.). Thus, it is not surprising to have found remnants of a coming of age ritual hidden in a ceremony conducted for an individual girl within the privacy of her home. In this ceremony, secrecy was sufficiently important to make necessary the closing of the front door, an unusual (and asocial) action in the afternoon heat, but said to have been necessary because "Some people don't approve."

Maya Gender Roles in a Context of Modernization O n e of the largest contemporary strongholds of indigenous traditions is Mesoamerica, including the Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. In this region, the ancient Maya (2000 B.C.-A.D. 1500) developed patterns of adaptation to an environment intermittently stressed by extreme climatic events such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts (Curtis e t al., 1996; Kintz, 1990). The roles of women and men, although generally well-defined, are easily reversed or shared during emergencies in order to assure the necessary performance of productive and maintenance activities, such as farming, cooking, and house maintenance (Elmendorf, 1986; Faust, 1988, 1998; Kintz, 1990). This flexibility contributed to creative forms of resistance to colonial domination (Farriss, 1984) and continues to facilitate the adaptation of gender roles to changing conditions (Elmendorf, 1986). A woman's role is complemented by that of her husband, including separate areas of expertise in managing the local environment and using local resources. Women care for small animals, tend fruit trees, grow herbs for cooking and medicine, and know where to look for wild food species when crops fail due to drought, flooding, hurricane, insect invasions, etc. They also cook, wash clothes, and clean the house, occasionally battling arthropod and rodent invaders. Men hunt and make swidden fields in the forest, construct and maintain houses, furniture, and tools; the wealthier also care for herds of cattle. Women d o most of the gathering of wild medicinal plants and firewood, although men frequently contribute, bringing home what they encounter returning from their fields. Both parents frequently give affection and supervision to their children. The mother provides most of the care for small children, with considerable help from older children, grandparents, other relatives, and the father, when he is home. Boys begin accompanying their fathers to the fields as early as six years of age. Girls begin helping their mothers in the house and the yard even earlier. Both learn the details of their own roles through imitation and everyday practice. They also learn enough of each other's role to be able to

assist a spouse when needed, or even to substitute when the spouse is absent or disabled (Elmendorf, 1986; Faust, 1988, 1998; Kintz, 1990). Both men and women earn cash in part-time and temporary employment, as well as by selling some of their domestic production; however, men generally earn more than women do. Increasingly, Tajeiios are being absorbed into the national culture of Mexico through wage labor, urban migration, public schools, a village clinic, television and radio, government programs, religious evangelism, political activism, improved transportation to the state capital, and increased exposure to consumer products. These are the most recent factors in a long history of accommodation (and resistance) to outside domination that has included various forms of involvement in the world economic system, notably via the port city of Campeche. Spanish is spoken by everyone in the community; almost all the young adults understand at least some Maya language, but few speak it properly, whereas most of the children do not even understand it. Economic and language changes are part of a broader pattern of modernization that includes primary reliance for health care on government clinics with doctors trained in national schools of modern medicine. Most people combine new and old ways, going both to the clinic and the traditional healer. Some abandon the old ways for the new, a few cling to the old. (See Young & Garro, 1994, for similar medical choices in another Mexican village.) RESEARCH METHODS

The ceremony was performed for the daughter of a family I had known well for five months. Field notes were written the morning after the ceremony and checked for accuracy during interviews with participants, including the traditional healer. The ceremony was interpreted with reference to information obtained by participant observation during fourteen months of continuous residence in the community and return visits of shorter duration during the subsequent twelve years (Faust, 1988, 1998), which has included research focused on medicinal plants and ritual symbols (Faust, in press). I have been in a position to know the events leading up to the ceremony, the relationships among all the participants, and the long-term results. During the ceremony, I closely followed the h-men, Don Miguel. After a while, he began treating me as an assistant, handing me objects to carry and explaining the meanings of certain ritual actions and symbols. Interpretation of the symbolism expands upon his explanations by analyzing ritual operations and positions with reference to the community's beliefs, practices, and social roles.


OBSERVATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS The Illness: Precipitating Stresses, Symptoms, and the Family's Response Maria was eleven years old when she began to experience the "ataques de nervios." During the months before the onset of this illness, Maria and several of her female cousins had expressed to me their fears of getting married and having children. Childbirth is considered dangerous, and they all knew of women in the community who had died giving birth. After Maria's own birth, her mother had nearly died from hemorrhaging following a cesarean section in a city hospital. Another major concern of the girls was wife beating; recent increases in this problem were being discussed and denounced throughout the community. Maria's father sometimes beat her mother when he came home after drinking with male friends. I was visiting the family when Maria suffered her most severe ataque, the one which led to the decision to visit Don Miguel. At first she complained of a headache for nearly twenty minutes, eventually lying down in a hammock. Then her arms and legs began to jerk, in spastic motions, with increasing intensity. I sat with her and held one of her hands; with her other hand, she held the medallion of the Virgin that she wore around her neck. She tossed and moaned between spasms, and became more and more rigid. Her eyes closed, and she did not respond to questions; the tossing and moaning increased. Eventually her whole body became rigid, then calm, and she appeared to be sleeping. Her grandmother whispered to me that Maria's breasts had begun to develop, but "her (menstrual) blood has not come down yet, and this congested blood can eventually result in the death of a girl; if it stays inside too long it can rot and cause her to die." Approximately forty minutes later Maria's eyes flickered open. After a few minutes, she slowly asked what had happened and requested water. She stayed in her hammock for another ten minutes or so, looking in different directions around the room, as though she needed to get reacquainted with her surroundings before getting up slowly. The entire incident lasted a little more than an hour; however, the family discussions about it lasted until bedtime and continued the next day. The grandmother finally ended the lengthy family discussions saying, "Ya basta!" (That's enough!). It was time to go see the h-men, Don Miguel. The week before, the mother had insisted on taking Maria to both the village and regional clinics, but the doctors had only said that her symptoms could be the result of "stress'' from her father's behavior after drinking. The government doctors suggested that he abstain from drinking, but the only way he knew to accomplish that was by converting to one of the very

restrictive Protestant religions, which would isolate him from Catholic kinsmen. The regional clinic doctor had added that if the ataques did not stop, the family might eventually want to take Maria to a neurologist in the city of MCrida. But that was too far, too much money, they did not know how to find a neurologist, and besides they were afraid he might open her skull and remove her brain to look at it under a microscope. Clearly, neither of the alternatives proposed by the doctors fit in the family's cultural logic. The day after the bad ataque, the grandmother invited me to walk with her, Maria, and Teresa to Don Miguel's home. He diagnosed Maria's illness as resulting from the blockage of her menstrual blood by the Winds, whose attack was in turn caused by the failure of the family to provide the traditional offering of a ritual corn beverage in their yard. He advised a k'er, a curing ceremony in which a chicken (or turkey) is sacrificed. Additionally, Maria's diet was to be restricted to traditional foods prepared by her mother-nothing from a bottle, box, or can (this resulted in considerable dietary improvement, in addition to re-connecting her to traditional ways). Consultations would be required as well: two in the coming week, before the ceremony, and one every Fridaf after the ceremony, until it was clear that Maria was strong and out of danger of any recurrence. The illness was classified as belonging to a type suffered by women, involving muscle spasms and loss of consciousness, referred to as "ataques de nervios," (nervous attacks; for a detailed description, see Faust, 1988, pp. 341-350). Such attacks are most likely to occur during life crises (e.g., menarche, first pregnancy, miscarriage, death of a loved one). In this case, the patient was a pubescent girl and her repeated ataques were associated with a delay in the onset of menstruation. Because she was in this "delicate" stage of life, the normal ceremony for ataques de nervios was expanded to include aspects of a sixteenth-century ritual reported by Landa (156611978, pp. 44-45). It was a large public one involving both boys and girls, attended by elders of their own gender, under the authority of a presiding priest. It was done only once in a person's lifetime, after which marriage arrangements could be made.

Ceremony Participants: Humans, a Sacred Plant, and the Invisible Lords The family that hosted the ceremony included the grandparents Doha Mari and Don Pablo, the parents JosC and his wife Teresa, the patient Maria, and her older brother Pablito. Twenty-two relatives eventually assembled to participate in the ceremony. These guests ranged in age from a ten-month-old cousin to an adopted great-aunt of eighty-four. There was 4~ridaysand Tuesdays are considered propitious days for curing.


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considerable variation between the nuclear families that comprised this extended family, but in general they were middle-income Tajeiios. The occupations of the men included mason, construction worker, lumberjack, and truck driver, although most of them were also swidden farmers. The grandfather was no longer able to farm, and his only income was from mending hammocks. The father worked exclusively as a mason and carpenter, doing no farming. All participants, except the anthropologist, were baptized Catholics who believed the Maya spirit beings are "under God, like the Saints," but connected to "this Maya land." The healer, Don Miguel, is the only h-men in a large area around Taj and has a reputation that has brought him patients from nearby cities, and occassionally even from other states in Mexico. He usually sees five to ten patients per day, more on week ends and on days when he travels to other communities. When he is away, his wife provides emergency care for patients in Taj. As is common for traditional healers, the "sliding scale" of fees for his services depends on the patient's ability to pay. Normally his daily income is the equivalent of between three and five U.S. dollars, in cash or in goods of equivalent value; the family produces most of its own food in their houseyard and milpas (traditional swidden fields; see Faust, 1998, pp. 113-152). The practices of Maya healers are creative and flexible variations on shared principles (cf. Freidel, Schele, & Parker, 1993; Hanks, 1990; Kintz, 1990; Sosa, 1986). Each healer performs ceremonies in his own individual manner, often varying the details in response to the individual patient and the family context (for similar cases, see Barth, 1987; Kendall, 1996). Don Miguel, like traditional healers in many present-day indigenous cultures, does not have an apprentice and is concerned that his knowledge may die with him. This is his principle motivation for asking me to help record the information. Common to the tradition of Yucatec Maya healers is the treatment of medicinal plants as active Beings; thus the herb rue (Ruta graveolens), referred to traditionally as "The Little Girl," was considered by Don Miguel to be a participant in the ceremony. Rue is employed throughout rural Mexico for blessing as well as for curing many common ailments. Its physiological effects include the stimulation of both menstrual flow and abortions (Martinez, 1969, p. 283); La Nueva famzacopea mexicana (1970, p. 371) describes its chemical composition as principally "metilmonilcetona." In Yucatec Maya ritual practice, it often functions as a "green cross," or axis mundi, being used in symbolic gestures to the four cardinal directions and the vertical one. Doiia Mari showed me how the new leaves emerge in threes, forming green crosses.

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In addition to the human participants and the herb rue, Don Miguel believes that invisible Beings are present: the Lords of the Winds and the Lord of the Underworld. The Winds have two critically important functions for human beings: they bring the Sacred Rain and they cause illness by entering into the body. Their Lords, or Owners, can command the Winds to leave a patient in response to ritual offerings and prayers of a h-men. There are five Lords of the Winds, one for each cardinal direction, and another (alternately described as all of them together or as their commander) who is associated with the center of the sky and the vertical direction. Opposite Him is the Lord of the Underworld, who is expecting to feed on the patient's dead body. When a successful cure deprives this Lord of his food, he becomes angry and can send calamities. H e must therefore be given a substitute: parts of a sacrificed fowl served with other ritual foods in a burial pit, in the k'ex (exchange) ceremony. All of these invisible Beings are male, but Our Mother (the Virgin Mary) is the intercessor with God, and must be asked to obtain His consent before the Maya Lords can do their work removing illness.

The Ceremony There were five different rituals in Maria's ceremony. The first involved the marking of Maria as initiate, a symbolic separation from her childhood role. The three intermediate rituals involved symbolic and verbal instruction in the role of gender in the Maya cosmos. The last ritual re-integrated Maria in her family as a woman-to-be. The rituals were performed in four different locations within the house and yard of her family's home, near the center of Taj. The four-room house was divided in two, with Maria, her brother, and parents living in two rooms and her father's parents in the other two rooms. The ceremony began with a temporary altar on the floor in the grandparents' living room (see Fig. 1). T h e three intermediary rituals occurred in the solar, a walled yard shared by all three generations of the family that included water storage tanks, clothes washing facilities, fruit trees, pigs, chickens, and many culinary and medicinal herbs hanging in pots. The last ritual was in front of the grandparents' everyday altar, ending the ceremony in the room where it began, in the grandparents' living room, a clear indication of the degree to which grandparents continue to be the cultural center of family life.


ground squash seeds

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s a c r i f i c e d chicken ( h a l f -grown)

H NORTH

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Fig. 1. Altar for presenting patient to the winds.

Separation from Childhood: Marking the Initiate and Introducing the Symbols Teresa opened the front door just enough for me to squeeze in, cautioning me to be quiet and gesturing to the east side of the front room, where I saw a ceremonial altar on the floor, with a dead chicken near the center. The floor altar was delimited by five burning, white candles: one

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in each corner, with a fifth in the center, forming a quincunx, an ancient Maya symbol for a square world, where the four sides face cardinal directions and the central point indicates the vertical direction, as well as the unity of the many in one (Freidel et al., 1993, pp. 127-131). Next to each candle were two cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) and two dried, red chilis (Capsicum sp.). By the north candle was a bowl of the same chilis, the south had a bowl of cacao beans, next to the east candle was a bowl of ground squash seeds (Cucurbita moschata Duch.), and in the northeast was a frying pan with coals and copal (Protium copal) incense (see Fig. 1). The cacao beans and chili peppers have strong sexual connotations. References to chilis and penises are often interchanged in jokes that play on the similarity between the sensation of intense heat caused by placing chili peppers in the mouth and the genital heat of sexual arousal and intercourse. The symbolic meaning of cacao beans is not so transparent. I suggest that they represent female sexual organs because of (1) their contrast with chili peppers throughout the ceremony, (2) their appearance and that of the pod in which they grow, and (3) jokes and comments concerning the preparation of a chocolate beverage made from cacao beans. These beans are elongate and have a longitudinal crease, resembling a vulva. The cacao pod is also elongate with longitudinal ridges; in addition, when ripe it is purple-red in color and seeps a white sap (Wagner, 1987, pers. corn.). The beans are toasted and ground with sugar and cinnamon and combined with boiling water in a large, egg-shaped wooden vessel (about 10 inches by 5 inches) to make hot chocolate. This beverage is agitated with a special stick (sometimes referred to as a "penis") until it becomes frothy. During preparation of this beverage, women frequently joke about the similarity of the agitating action to movements in sexual intercourse. Maria may not have entirely understood these references, but she had been exposed to comments and actions of this type in the home. Hot chocolate is a very much appreciated beverage; it is often served to honor guests and to celebrate special family occasions. In addition, it is expected after childbirth, after baptism (a social birth, involving naming and the introduction of the child to the community), and in the traditional ceremony in which an older man represents a youth in formally requesting betrothal to a young woman. Hot chocolate is also served, not at funerals (where coffee is expected), but for the Day of the Dead, when the souls return from another world, temporarily reborn to this world (Faust, 19861998, pers. obs.). Through prior participation in such ceremonies, Maria had been exposed to these present-day cultural associations of cacao with fertility and regeneration. In the iconography of Maya archeological sites, cacao is also associated with women and with the Underworld, where sprouting and regeneration are portrayed (Barthel, 1978, pp. 81-90).


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The symbolism of pairs of cacao beans and chili peppers was multidimensional: there were two pairs of opposite sexes, referring to parents and grandparents, as well as two same-sex pairs, referring to mother-anddaughter, father-and-son. Generally, parents in Taj both want and expect to have at least one child of each gender. When this does not occur, the parent without a child of like sex expresses sadness and is given sympathy for this lack. Both grandmothers and grandfathers take immense pleasure in having at least one grandchild of the same sex. These feelings are related to pervasive Maya beliefs in both the importance of socialization by elders of the same gender, and that of cooperation and interdependency between husband and wife (Elmendorf, 1976; Faust, 1988). Throughout the various ritual presentations of the ceremony, cacao beans and chili peppers were repeatedly placed at the critical points determining the quincunx, indicating the importance of sexuality and reproductive cycles in the structure of the universe. This is congruent with the mythic beginnings of time and space, as described in the Pop01 Vuh: gendered forces in the darkness joined together to think, talk, plan, conceive, and give birth to the cosmos (D. Tedlock, 1985, pp. 71-86). After initial explanations, Don Miguel turned to Maria and asked if she had the "stone." She opened her left hand to reveal a dark grey, polished ax head about two by three inches, of the kind found in ceremonial caches in Maya archaeological sites. The ax in ancient Maya symbolism represented the god K'awil and also represents blood as k'awil, a precious, flowing substance embodying spiritual force, the most precious gift that could be offered to the gods. The axheaded K'awil not only embodied the spiritual force of blood, but was the instrument by which it was released from bodies to feed the gods. The ax wielded by K'awil and the many Chak gods [rain gods] . . . was the principal instrument of decapitation sacrifice . . . (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 202)

Don Miguel later told me that axes like the one he uses are hurled down from the sky as lightning by the Winds, and sometimes people find them in the woods. As I had missed the beginning of the ceremony, Teresa explained to me that Don Miguel had given this ax to Maria to hold before praying her illness into the chicken that he held on her head. After "suffering ataques de nervios" (i.e., having spasms)" and dying, the chicken was placed just south of the center candle with its head toward the east. Don Miguel explained to all of us that the ceremony was for the Winds, but that the sacrifice of the chicken was an offering to the Lord of the Underworld, in exchange for the patient, so that she might live. The chicken had to be a cockerel, one that was "pure, innocent" that had "not crowed yet, not been with a hen yet." I was later to learn that the requirement of youth and

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innocence of the sacrificial fowl was a requirement of all healing ceremonies, no matter the age of the patient. The fowl sacrificed must also be male, like the Lord of the Underworld. Don Miguel went on to point out to me that the total number of chilis plus cacao beans that had been placed in pairs next to the candles was twenty, "the number of a complete human being." When I appeared confused, he asked me how many fingers and toes I had, as though that should make the matter abundantly clear. Later I discovered that the number twenty has ancient Maya associations with a complete human being, as well as being the basis for both the calendar and the number system (vigesimal) of the pre-Columbian culture. After the reference to the numbers of cacao beans and chili peppers laid out by the candles, Don Miguel waved his hand at two bowls and told me that they contained the remainder of five piles of thirteen cacao beans and five piles of thirteen chili peppers, respectively, from which he had taken the pairs. The number thirteen, he explained to me later, is the number of "steps" or levels in the sky, which he drew as a pyramid with six steps going up, a seventh step at the top, and six coming down the other side, explaining that the sun climbs this sky pyramid every day, the moon every night. There is a corresponding inverted pyramid of nine "steps" in the underworld, with four steps going down, a fifth at the bottom, and four going up (traversed by the sun during the night, and the moon during the day). Don Miguel told both parents that they would have to decide when they would repeat the ceremony for Maria; it could possibly be in two years, four, six, even twelve, but it had to be done again after an even number of years but before thirteen years were up. They could do it themselves, if they learned how. After discussion with his wife, Jose said that they would do it in two years, but they hoped Don Miguel would be there to help. Even numbers are associated both with pairing and with this earthly life, because the milpa and the earth are four-sided. In contrast, the Celestial World has thirteen "steps." Thus, the requirement that the ceremony be repeated in an even number of years, but before thirteen years had passed, includes references to both life on earth and to the celestial world, where the male sun and the female moon together establish cycles of time. Their cycles together determine traditional planting times. While her parents and the healer were standing around this altar, discussing the future, I noted that Maria was sitting very quietly watching the candles. She gradually became more and more involved in the games of the children. The hierbatero (Don Miguel) watched her carefully but without overt worry, checking, pleased, reassuring others, telling them, "D(iala, de'jala jugar (let her, let her play) . . . . She always gives him


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a very special smile. She trusts him, feels safe with him, knows he likes her and that she is going to be fine. "We'll see," says my skeptical self (I was afraid she had epilepsy). . . . They smile at each other as though they have a very special, wonderful secret. (Faust, 1986, p. 5)

Transition, Part I: Teachings Concerning the Place of the Patient in the Generations of Her Family and the Importance of Sexuality in Cosmological Context We moved to the kitchen to see if the cooks (the grandmother and an aunt) had finished preparing the sacred beverage, sak-ha'. This ritual beverage must be made of ground white corn, not yellow. It must not have been soaked in slaked lime to remove the epicarp (a tough outer membrane) of the kernels, the normal procedure for reducing the cooking time. Don Miguel explained that soaking in lime is to be avoided because it turns white corn slightly yellow and the sak-ha' must be pure white and in its whole state-with nothing removed. White is associated with purity, north, the sun, the zenith of the sky, proper order, and male essence. The white sak-ha' would be presented to the male Wind Lords, guardians and bearers of the Rain Lords (Chako'ob; o'ob forms the plural in Mayan), who bring the "pure rain" from the Celestial World. Don Miguel asked for a dishpan and a "luch," half of a dried calabash shell (Crucentia cujete), which serves as a cup, bowl, and dipper in traditional households. I had previously heard an elder refer to a calabash fruit hanging on a tree as "Hunahpu." When I asked what the word meant, I was told that it was an old Mayan word for a skull. This is the name of the skull-father of the Hero Twins, in the ancient creation story, who conceived them in the Underworld by spitting into their mother's hand. Her name was Little Blood and she was a daughter of one of the Lords of the Underworld. When her pregnancy was discovered her father condemned her to death, instructing some owls to cut out her heart and bring it to him. Instead they helped her escape to the surface of the earth and substituted the resin of a tree for her heart (D. Tedlock, 1985, pp. 113-119). The appearance of the "little blood" of menstruation is a necessary prelude to conception, through which the essence of the ancestors is passed on to a new generation. This ceremony was clearing the way for the arrival of Maria's "little blood," removing the blockage caused by the Winds. Don Miguel filled the dishpan half full of sak-ha', and then the luch was also filled halfway. He placed the luch inside the dishpan, handed me some candles to carry, picked up the dishpan and directed JosC to bring a table. "Square?" asked JosC. "Yes, square," replied Don Miguel, "like the corn field, like the earth." Teresa was sent to the first altar for the copal

incense (a tree resin, similar to that which the owls substituted for Little Blood's heart). Arriving at the center of the solar, Don Miguel handed me the dishpan to hold, while he carefully positioned the square table, lining it up so that each side faced a cardinal direction. Once he had arranged the dishpan in the center of the table, with candles and incense under the table, Don Miguel began to explain that, "The table is the earth with its four directions, its four candles." When I asked about the fifth candle, he simply motioned upwards, another quincunx, I thought. He continued, "The dishpan stands for the solar, and the sak-ha' within it is for the family which lives inside the solar, while the sak-ha' in the luch is for Maria." Don Miguel began to pray in Mayan asking God, the Virgin Mary, the saints, the spirits of Maya archeological sites, and the Lords of the Winds to cure Maria. When he finished we all backed away from the table, showing respect. We returned to the kitchen where Don Miguel began to cut up the previously sacrificed chicken. He asked the family to notice carefully which was the left and right foot, because these would later have to be properly placed in relation to the rest of the chicken's parts when they were buried in the pit. Then he paused, and smiling asked them, "What is the other most important part of a chicken? We have the feet and the head." He prompted further, "What is the most important part of a person after the feet and head?" "Hands?" someone offered. He shook his head and said, "They are important too, but not most important. What else is vely important?" No one answered, everyone seemed as puzzled as I was. Don Miguel smiled triumphantly at us and announced, "The tail." "The tail is as important as the head; just as the left foot, though different, is as important as the right." This brought forth gales of laughter from everyone, except his patient, who shifted her weight from one foot to the other, held her hands behind her back, and twisted her body as she looked hard at the floor. He watched her carefully during the laughter, with a tender, caring expression on his face. In Maya symbolism, left and right represent female and male respectively, the head represents thought and the tail sexuality. The family had previously discussed a female cousin of Maria's who had suddenly become interested in a young man, commenting, "Her tail heated up on her." After cutting off the rooster's tail, he proceeded to cut the wing tips off at the second joint, telling us again to note carefully that the left is not the same as the right, and they each need to be kept in their proper place. He continued, "They are different, but equally important, equally necessary." This symbolic message is isomorphic with the equal value given women and men in daily life (Elmendorf, 1986; Faust, 1998; Kintz, 1990).


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Don Miguel then put the remaining body of the chicken in a pot of water to cook on the three stones of the hearth. These stones are associated with the founding of the Maya cosmos in Maya iconography, glyphic texts, and early colonial accounts, "As the three hearthstones surround the cooking fire and establish the center of the home, so the three stone thrones of Creation centered the cosmos and allowed the sky to be lifted from the Primordial Sea (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 67)." The number three also relates to the three layers of the cosmos: the Celestial World, this earth, and the Underworld. Maria and the other children went out to play, while male and female adult relatives together began earnestly discussing the problem of Maria's blood not coming down. No one appeared to be embarrassed. This surprised me, as I had previously noted that any reference to sexual intercourse, genitals, menstruation, etc., is usually reserved for all-male or all-female groups. Certainly, women do not usually tell sexual jokes in front of men, nor will they stay around men who are telling such jokes. The grandmother had even once insisted that her son (Maria's father) leave the room so that she could tell me about traditional childbirth practices. Apparently the medical emergency overrode such reticence, conforming to the general practice of women and men together discussing problems and making important decisions (Elmendorf, 1986; Kintz, 1990; Faust, 1998). The charter myth for this equality is that in which the original Creator Couple, Xpiyacoc (the first matchmaker, prior to all marriage) and Xmucane (the first midwife, prior to all childbirth), consulted together, discussing how they would create humans (D. Tedlock, 1985, pp. 33-35). We were still waiting for the chicken, cooking in the pot, when Don Miguel began instructing the mother and the aunt to make small tortillas by hand. He told them to make thirteen and nine, or twenty-two. When these were ready, the women were told to prepare empanadas, by filling these small tortillas with the ground squash seeds (which had been formerly presented on the floor altar) and folding them in half for cooking. Giggles soon erupted as the women noticed the red-brown substance, the ground squash seed mixture, leaking out of the crack between the rounded edges of the doubled tortillas, which puffed up as they cooked. I remembered an earlier occasion when a great explosion of giggles had accompanied my commenting that I liked quesadillas (tortillas doubled over and stuffed with cheese) and the final embarrassed whisper of the grandmother telling me why this was so funny. The round edges of the folded over tortilla, puffed from cooking, resemble female external genitalia and queso, cheese, is the local euphemism for vaginal discharge. Here was the same shape, but now with a brownish-red substance seeping

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out- menstrual blood! Don Miguel smiled at the women, acknowledging the humor; the other men studiously ignored the whole incident.

Transition, Part II: Ritual Actions Representing the Patient and the Family to the Wind Lords Don Miguel then led everyone back to the ritual table outdoors and began to examine the sak-ha' in the dishpan by the light of a candle, assuring the family that it indicated that Maria would get well. He then began to pray in Maya, and used the luch to toss some sak-ha' to each of the four cardinal directions, and also some directly overhead, ducking so that it would not come down on him. He explained to me later that this was for the five Lords of the Winds, one in each direction with a "boss" overhead. H e then ladled out the remaining sak-ha' into cups and other lucho'ob for everyone present. A small portion was reserved in the original luch "representing Maria" and placed alone on the altar, supported this time by three small stones-resembling a miniature hearth, symbolizing her future role. The cooks then brought the chicken, empanadas and k'ol (a thick chicken gravy), placing them next to the table altar in the solar, where Don Miguel arranged them, along with other ritual items. Then he directed Maria to stand facing east (associated with the birth of the sun each morning), about six feet west of the table altar. He gently stroked her head, arms, and lower legs with the sprig of rue. Her parents and grandparents were asked to bless her, one by one: mother and grandmother, father and grandfather, in that order. After this, while standing about four feet away from her, Don Miguel dipped the sprig of rue in alcohol and told Maria to close her eyes. H e sprinkled her with the alcohol nine times, after which he moved closer to her and made the sign of the cross over her head with the rue, while saying her name nine times, a reference to the underworld, to death and the tomb (from which he was protecting Maria), as well as the source of fertility, associated with her future motherhood. Next he asked Maria about the "stone," and she showed him that she still had it clutched in her left hand. He nodded, pleased. Then he asked her parents and grandparents to stand beside her, placing her father to the north (associated with male essence), with her grandfather immediately behind (west of) her father, her mother to the south (associated with female essence), with her grandmother immediately behind (west of) her mother. The direction west is associated with aging and approaching death. Don Miguel asked me to stand directly behind (west of) Maria and hold one corner of a white cloth on her head, while he arranged the rest


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of it behind her, like a veil. Her mother told me later that Don Miguel had instructed her to have this cloth ready for the ceremony; it had to be brand new, spotless, and must never have been washed. It had to be "pure," like the chicken, he had said. Maria was also "pure"; she had "not been with a man yet," like the young rooster on her head that had died without ever having been with a hen. Landa's (156611978, pp. 44-45) description of the sixteenth-century ritual done for preadolescent youth included the use of a white cloth, brought by their mothers. An elderly woman and an elderly man were in charge of the girls and boys, respectively. Cacao beans were used symbolically, attached to the children's clothing (chili peppers are not mentioned). The priest was assisted by four "Chaks," persons representing the Rain Lords (associated with the Wind Lords), whereas in Maria's ceremony the healer's ax maintained associations both with k'awil and with the ancient rain god Chak, through its origin from lightning. Maria's two parents and two grandparents together totaled four assistants, a variation on the four Chaks. There was only one female child in this ritual and I, as an older female, was given the task of attending her with the cloth. It is typical of coming of age ceremonies that they be conducted at least in part by elders who are not relatives, but who are of the same sex as the initiate. After positioning me, Don Miguel instructed the parents, grandparents, and Maria to each stretch out their left arms and hands to the east, toward the altar, while he prayed in Maya. During the prayer, he used his right hand to make signs of the cross and counterclockwise circles over the food. Finally we all left, so that the Lords of the Winds could enjoy their meal in peace. The number of visiting relatives had grown from the eleven present in the afternoon to twenty-two for this evening ritual, in addition to the healer, the immediate family (six), and me. Don Miguel commented on the number of visitors, another combination of thirteen and nine; this was a good sign. Transition, Part III: Final Teachings Concerning Future Generations and the Cycle of Life and Death.

After the Lords of the Winds had enjoyed the "essence" (spirit) of the foods, we returned to the table altar for the items that would be taken to the next altar, the pit. By moonlight (only a quarter moon), we carried nine ernpanadas, the chicken remains, cacao beans, chili peppers, sak-ha', k'ol, and the white cloth to the altar for the Lord of the Underworld. Don Miguel held up the chicken's head and asked everyone where the sun is born each morning from the earth. The chicken's head was placed on that side of the pit and pointed in that direction. Don Miguel then asked which

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was the left foot and which the right foot of the chicken, putting them in their places. Now, he asked about "the other important part." They knew the answer this time, and in went the tail-pointing west, but no one was laughing now, this was serious. Next the wings, first left, then right, were deposited in their respective places, "Are they different? Are they both important? And the head and the tail? Both important, like your left hand and your right." Another repetition of the importance of female and male, of thought and sexuality-with female references first and the head before the tail. The viscera went in the center, covered by feathers and peelings, so that the assemblage appeared to be a whole dead chicken. Don Miguel then placed the cacao beans in the pit, two pairs for each of the four cardinal directions and two pairs for the center, hence a total of twenty, the number of a whole person. This was followed by an identical number of red, dried chilis, similarly distributed. As he distributed the cacao beans and chili peppers, Maria once noticed that he had picked up three beans, by mistake, and she told him. He called everyone's attention to this. "She sees things, she remembers," he said, praising her with obvious pleasure. "Two pairs, that is four," Don Miguel said to me, by way of emphasizing what should be done. "Two pairs of cacao, two pairs of chilis, for each candle," he repeated with insistence, looking at me to make sure I had understood. Now there were no candles, but the directions were those that had earlier been marked by the candles. Don Miguel seemed to be drawing my attention to the parallels in the rituals. I also noticed that there were, in this distribution, twenty cacaos and twenty chili peppers, or two persons, one female, one male, where earlier there had been only one set of twenty which included ten cacaos and ten chilis, one "complete person." Both children and old people are considered more balanced, androgynous, than persons in their reproductive years, who need a partner to balance a more strongly one-sided sexual essence. Maria was leaving the androgynous childhood state of one complete person, to eventually become part of a pair of opposite genders. After the pairs were distributed to the five principle directions (including the "vertical" one in the center), the bowls with the remaining cacao beans and chili peppers were emptied into the center of the pit, and over them was poured the remaining sak-ha' from the luch on the table altar-the sak-ha' that represented Maria. Next Don Miguel picked up the small empanadas, five in one hand and four in the other. Nobody laughed about them now, just as no one had laughed about the chicken's tail a few minutes earlier. Here in the dark, in front of the pit, these were serious matters. Don Miguel broke each empanada precisely in half, "making a pair," he informed us. Each "pair" was placed inside the pit, in the four directions. The last empanada,

Cacao Beans and Chili Peppers EAST

WEST

chile peppers

0

cacao beans

cacao pod

e

Fig. 2. Ritual burial of sacrificed chicken.

also brok.en in half to form a pair, was placed in the center, over the feathers. Don Miguel gave aria-the othe; four to eat, emphasizing that she had "two pairs, two whole pairs." Behind her earlier had stood two complete pairs of progenitors: her parents and grandparents. In the future she would hope to have a daughter to teach and give her husband a son to teach, and then she and her husband would also become two pairs of the

same gender: mother and daughter, father and son, generated by the sexual intercourse of one pair of opposites: mother and father. She could eat these empanadas tomorrow, if she was not hungry enough now, he counseled. It only mattered that she ate them herself. (Apparently, she was to physically internalize these teachings, so that they became part of her body.) Her four whole empanadas together with the other five that had been tom in half and placed in the pit came to a total of nine. There were thirteen remaining, and they were to be distributed with the other food among all of us. Nine for the Underworld, thirteen for the Celestial World, four directions on this earth, five in the three-dimensional reference of the quincunx, I recalled. Clearly the chicken (representing the patient), the empanadas (symbolizing the vulva with menstrual blood), and the pairs of chili peppers and cacao beans (referring to the pairing of male and female) were all being used in symbolic actions that referred to social and biological reproduction in a culturally ordered universe. (See Fig. 2 for a diagram of the pit.) Once he had carefully offered all these symbolic foods to the Lord of the Underworld, Don Miguel asked Maria to stand on the west side, with her back to the pit, her mother on her left (south) and her father on her right (north). He asked her mother for the white cloth and handed it to me, indicating I should again support it on her head. Don Miguel then prayed over her and gradually pulled the white cloth down her back. He deposited the white cloth in the pit, perhaps as a symbolic reference to her future sacrifice of purity and innocence to fertility. Under the grandfather's supervision, Maria's father and uncles energetically shoveled earth into the pit and stomped it down, protecting Maria from the Lord of the Underworld. This symbolic action parallels their culturally assigned responsibility of protecting her virginity until she forms a new "pair" that will produce another generation. We returned to the kitchen where Don Miguel supervised the serving of food: first the major portion of chicken went to Maria (as had the majority of the empanadas), the rest of the food was then distributed to the other participants, along with plenty of tortillas, beer, and rum cokes. Reincoporation: Final Blessing for a Woman-to-Be After eating, Don Miguel led us into the front room, this time to the permanent family altar, where he had me replace the crucifix that had been taken to the table altar in the solar. We were returning to the room where the ceremony had begun, but now to its everyday altar and not to the temporary floor altar where the young rooster had been sacrificed on Maria's


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head. We were returning to the everyday world, but Maria was re-entering that world in a new role. We had returned from a time and place that was alien and frightening-night in the solar. Normally no one goes into the solar at night, after the hearth is extinguished. Doors are normally bolted by eight or nine in the evening, and in case of "necessity" a chamber pot can be used until morning. But this night, under the black sky and close to midnight, Don Miguel had called the Winds into our presence and we had given a gift of food to the Lord of the Underworld. Now we were returning from that liminal place where opposites are paired, transformations occur, and death meets fertility, to an area where daily social roles are enacted, protected from the raw forces of nature-and-spirit by everyday norms. (For a discussion of liminality in rituals see Turner, 1967, 1974.) With Maria facing west, Don Miguel placed her mother and father on her left (south) and right (north), respectively. Her parents were both instructed to bless her by making the sign of the cross over her with a sprig of rue, first her mother, then her father. This was followed by Don Miguel instructing her younger female cousin to put this sprig and a red rose upside down in a glass of Holy Water, that had been blessed by the Catholic priest on Easter and kept in a closed bottle for emergency use. The cousin was to leave this glass on the family altar, where it was to remain during the night. Maria was to drink the water the morning after the ceremony and then use that same sprig of rue to make her reliquia. A new rose and a new sprig of rue were to be put in a glass of Holy Water every night for nine nights. If in the morning the rue and the rose looked fresh, it was to be interpreted as a sign that Maria was going to be fine. Each morning she should drink the water, each evening her mother was to prepare for her a nice-smelling herb bath that included rue. Turning to Maria, Don Miguel asked for the "stone" (the ax), and she proudly gave it back; she had not lost it in the ten hours she had been responsible for holding it in her left hand. This responsibility had not prevented her playing with her cousins while the adults cooked and arranged altars, but it had been a constant reminder that she was in a special condition. This is a minor form of separation compared to that in some rites of passage, but it still marked her as the person experiencing transition from the status of child to that of a person preparing for adult responsibilities. Don Miguel felt the ax and said it was warm, which was good. Then Don Miguel held the "stone" on her head and prayed in Mayan, after which he passed it down her sides: left then right; then down the left and right arms and legs, explaining that this was the final limpieza (cleansing). H e told her parents that she might have one more attack when the bad Wind finally left her, but it would be the last one and would be a light

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one. H e gave Maria three red beans with black spots on them and told her that later she would make a reliquia with them; he would explain how. The day after the ceremony, I went to see Don Miguel to ask him some questions. When I was leaving, he asked me to take Maria some things she needed for her reliquia and the instructions for making it. When I returned to the house, I was told that Maria had indeed had another attack, while she was at school. It was a light one, as Don Miguel had said it would be. I gave her and her mother the things for the reliquia and relayed the instructions. When I asked the grandmother what these things meant she just laughed and asked if I were going to take the healer's job away from him! My fieldnotes read, (previously to the ceremony) . . . she (Maria) seemed confused, self-conscious and awkward, now she seems self-conscious but quietly pleased and secretly rather proud of herself. This seems to be very much a disguised initiation rite. (Faust, 1986, p. 11)

The Patient's Response: Now I Am a Woman! After the ceremony, Maria and her mother were told by Don Miguel to come back for visits every Friday for several weeks to be blessed (ensalmado). I accompanied them for two of these sessions, which involved his blessing Maria with rue and praying over her in Mayan. During these sessions, he would watch Maria carefully, approvingly, with evident pleasure in her progress, and in her. I noticed the very special smile she repeatedly gave him. She seemed at ease with him, trusted him. She took an interest in everything he did and asked him questions. Don Miguel was very pleased with these questions and praised her for remembering parts of the ceremony. In turn, he asked if she remembered the number of cacao beans, the number of chilis, and the direction for the chicken's head. She appeared very comfortable with him and with his questions; she knew the answers. During those Friday visits, Teresa would describe Maria's behavior during the preceding week, reporting to Don Miguel any nervousness, displays of temper, stubbornness, or unhelpfulness. The total context of the behavior would then be discussed. At times Don Miguel gently admonished Maria or asked her sympathetically about why she had done something. H e frequently reminded her that she was becoming a woman now and should begin to behave like one. Her mother was also reminded that this was a delicate age, and that it was important that the entire family should remain calm. Family problems were discussed with the goal of finding ways


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to keep things calm. Maria was told not to concern herself with her parents' problems. Weeks later, Doiia Mari and Teresa, both smiling broadly, informed me with great pride that, "Le baj6 la regla a Ma&" (Maria had gotten her period.). Both recounted the story, chuckling over the girl's reaction. "Mommy, I have blood in my panties, and I don't even have a sore down there." She had obviously not been prepared for this physiological event. Her mother told her it was all right. It meant she was a woman now. She would have this every month from now on. "But what if I don't want to?" she asked. This occasioned great laughter in the re-telling. Teresa and Doiia Mari went on to inform me that they had told Maria she would have this anyway. "It just happens, if you like it or not. This is just what women have. It's preparing you to have a baby someday." They told me that now Maria should be fine; sometimes girls have problems when their blood is trying to come down the first time. For most, there is no problem; but for some, it causes problems. A few days later I was walking down the street, alone with Maria, on the way to see her aunt. "Now I am like you, Doiia Betty," she said. Guessing what this was about, I simply said encouragingly, "You are?" "Yes, I got my period." "Ahh," I said using the Maya inflection for agreement and encouragement to continue. She looked to me for additional comment. I responded, "So, now you are a woman, too?" "Yes, now I am a woman," she beamed at me, before she went skipping on ahead to lift in her arms her one-year-old cousin, toddling in her aunt's doorway. In later years during return visits, I was told that Maria had had no more ataques until a few weeks before her marriage, when she began having nightmares about a previous fianck, who had died in an accident the year before and was "trying to pull her into his grave." When the ataques began this time, Maria was several months pregnant with her first child. (Pregnancy is commonly the prelude to marriage in Taj). Don Miguel repeated the curing ceremony for her, the ataques ceased, and she eventually gave birth to a full-term, healthy son. Since then, she has not suffered from ataques. The last time I saw Maria was in March of 1995, in her grandparents' home. She had returned for a visit, bringing her husband and baby from their home in Campeche City. Again Don Miguel asked her about the ceremony: the numbers of cacao beans, the number of chili peppers, where the rooster's head goes, etc. She recited the answers, beaming at him over her infant son, whom she held proudly in her arms. I asked her privately if her husband had a drinking problem like her father, "No," she said, adding happily, "and he does not beat me either!"

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CONCLUSION: RITUALS AND THE REPRODUCTION OF GENDER The ceremony gradually unfolded traditional Maya symbolism concerning gender reproduction, placing it within a cosmic context. Maria was oriented to her role as a future wife and mother by references to her parents and grandparents and to the Maya cosmos, with its female and male aspects, sacred center, four-fold sacred beings, and k'awil (blood as a sacred life essence), represented by a ceremonial ax. The h-men himself was a conduit of supernatural power. After the ceremony, continuing "protection" of the patient was offered by a sacred pouch containing Maya symbolic objects to be worn next to her developing breasts. The rituals followed the sequence described for coming of age rituals by Van Gennep (190911960). The first ritual separated the initiate from her previous role and from the other members of the family. She alone was given the responsibility for holding the ceremonial ax for the rest of the ceremony. Only she was placed in front of a strange altar on the floor, facing east. Only on her head did a chicken dramatically die from the mysterious prayers of the healer. The second ritual moved outdoors, to an area considered open to Maya spirit beings, where the sak-ha' beverage in the dishpan represented the family to the Wind Lords and that in the luch represented Maria. Then the Wind Lords were called for their ritual foods and Maria, her parents, and grandparents were presented directly to them. Finally the Lord of the Underworld had to be confronted and given a substitute for the patient, whom he had anticipated as a meal. Inside the "pure" young rooster's tomb, the cacao beans and chili peppers were doubly paired: grandmother and mother, daughter (as a future mother) and the future granddaughter; grandfather and father, future son-in-law and future grandson. Maria's white veil joined the cacao beans and chili peppers, symbolizing past and future generations. Then she ate the four empanadas with their ground squash seeds symbolizing fertile blood. The first three rituals integrated the past and the present, the girl in relation to her parents and grandparents; but the burial ritual looked forward to the new generation, to this girl's future husband and children. From a Western perspective the occurrence of a reference to the future in a burial ritual seems odd, but it is entirely appropriate in a symbolic system that interprets processes of death and decay as essential parts of a cycle needed for fertility, necessary precursors to germination and conception (Faust, 1998, pp. 166-169; D. Tedlock, 1985, pp. 112-119). In Taj children are often identified with grandparents and deceased relatives; in some sense the essence of persons who are aging or deceased is reborn with new vitality in the next generation, as dead plants are born


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again when their seeds sprout, as Hunahpu was reborn in Little Blood's sons, the Hero Twins. From a Maya perspective, it is in the darkness of the womb that the next generation will be formed of menstrual blood and semen, by a spiritual connection between the Celestial World and the Underworld that involves the souls of the dead (see Faust, 1988, pp. 385-397). Another aspect of the burial ritual which contradicts Western expectations is the offering of only the inedible remains of a sacrificed chicken to the Lord of the Underworld. Should not an offering to a Spiritual Being be something valuable? Head, feet, tail, and wing tips protruded from a pile of feathers which hid from view the intestines and internal organs; the chicken appeared complete, but nearly all the edible meat was missing. On top of the deceptive feathers were placed some empanadas, cacao beans, chili peppers, sak-ha' and k'ol, but the chicken meat was consumed by the human participants. This apparent deception is reminiscent of many episodes in the Popol Vuh in which the Hero Twins tricked the Lords of the Underworld in order to defeat death. For example, when the Hero Twins were told by the Lords that they must keep a torch and their cigars burning all night, they used red macaw feathers to simulate the torch fire and asked their firefly friends to come and sit on the end of the cigars, giving the appearance that the cigars were burning (D. Tedlock, 1985, p. 137). Bargaining with and tricking spirit beings is one aspect of the reciprocal nature of Maya religious thought, one which places human beings in an interactive relation to the spiritual world, a quite different role than that of the human supplicant in the Judeo-Christian tradition (see D. Tedlock, 1985, p. 63). In Maria's ceremony the sequential unfolding of Maya symbolism from the first to the fourth ritual reached a finale in the fifth ritual in front of the family altar, with its focus on the ax (associated through lightning with both flowing blood and the male Rain Lord, Chak) and the green crosses of rue. The latter functionally represent the axis mundi, as it is used to make the ritual crosses and circles that refer to the structure of the cosmos while blessing the patient and the offerings to the Lords of the Winds. In Classic times, the ceiba tree represented the axis mundi in the iconography of ceremonial centers with monumental architecture. Both rue and ceiba tree refer to the connections between the celestial world, the underworld and this world's work of reproducing future generations (Faust, 1988, p. 391). The structure and orientation of altars also refers to the three components of the Maya cosmos: this world (the first altar on the floor of the house), the Celestial World (the elevated outdoor altar on the square table for offerings to the Winds), and the Underworld (the burial pit altar). This association was further strengthened by repeated references to the numbers associated with each of these cosmic layers throughout the ceremony.

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The emphasis on pairing of cacao beans and chili peppers is associated with more than the onset of menarche, as this procedure is found in all healing ceremonies done by Don Miguel. This repeated pairing seems to refer to a strong Maya belief that proper orientation to one's own gender, to the opposite gender, and to past and future generations is necessary for any individual's healthy orientation to life. Those who have not had their own biological children are expected to participate in the cycle of generations by assisting with the care and instruction of the children of others. This is often institutionalized in the formal roles of godfather and g~dmother.~ The symbolism of Maria's ceremony provided orientation to her adult role, the individual life cycle, and the cycle of generations. However, these human identities and cycles were also firmly placed in a larger context. They were explicitly connected through symbolism to universal forces of life and cycles of regeneration. The symbolic sexual pairs of cacao beans and chili peppers, were always presented at the critical points of the quincunx, a structure uniting the three levels of the universe, which are connected through their center. All these references clearly present culturally specific gender roles as though they were natural entities, based on biological differences that are part of the natural order of the universe. They also provide a cognitive structure, a model of that universe (see Geertz, 1973) in which the patient can "place" the specific tasks she must master to be a successful wife and mother on this earth, using the resources provided by humans working with nature, with local resources. This is conveyed in part by the ritual importance given to corn, squash seeds, copal incense, lucho'ob, domestic fowl, cacao beans, and chili peppers: metonyms for the dependency of human beings on the earth. The symbolic representation of the cosmos in healing ceremonies is replicated in various agricultural rituals and a rain-calling ceremony (Faust, 1998, pp. 83-120). The symbolism in all these ceremonies functions as a heuristic device, delineating the natural world that provides resources used by the Maya to produce food, medicine, houses, furniture, and many useful tools. Ceremonial representation of the environment incorporates and interprets the human life cycle, including the processes of both biological and social reproduction. The ceremony highlights both sexual pairing and the pairing of parent and child of the same sex, through which traditional gender roles are taught by example and daily participation. These roles include specialized expertise in the use and management of natural resources and therefore are logically tied to representations of the natural environment. Hanks (1990) has found that, "a person's wiinklil 5 ~ h discrete e homosexual behavior of some unmarried persons is quietly accepted.


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'body' is his or her lu'um 'earth.' One's breath and animacy are one's iik' 'wind"' (p. 86). The healing ceremony's symbolic representation of gender roles-as integral parts of a natural universe ordered by the principal directions, the suns path, and cycles of life and death-is consonant with the reality of traditional gender roles, embedded in and dependent upon the local environment. The ceremony symbolically represents the connections between gender, sexual pairing, parenting, the natural order, and the life force. These connect with meanings implicit in everyday life and hence carry a positive emotional charge, perhaps affecting endocrine levels sufficiently to strengthen the immune system or regulate the autonomic nervous system (e.g., Cannon, 1942; Dow, 1986; Lex, 1977), thus contributing to the healing of Maria. Through all its cultural variations, ancient ceremonial symbolism speaks to enduring truths concerning human life and our dependency on the natural world, including our own bodies and their role in the survival of our species.

APPENDIX OF SYMBOLS

Categories Cardinal directions Handsisides Other worlds Locations of work Structure Celestial bodies Cycle of sun Water Colors

Male Northlup, east Right-handlside Celestial world Forestlfields Order Sun Day Rains Whitelgreen

Female Southldown, west Left-handlside Underworld Houselyard Creative chaos Moon, earth Night Groundwater Redblack

Black (Box in Maya.): west, night, creationlfertility, chaos, dark, moon, female.

'%ource: Gossen (197411984, pp. 29-45) with minor modifications for Taj by Faust, 1988, pp.160-178). 7 ~ oan r exanded discussion of color symbolism in contemporary Maya populations see Gossen (197411984, pp. 29-45) and Faust (1988, pp. 160-178). Yellow was not used in this ceremony; however, it forms part of the context of symbolism in Taj; see Faust (1988, pp. 213-222, 386-97.)

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Green (Yak in Maya.): connection between celestial world and underworld, associated with trees and plants in general, particularly the ya'arche', or ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), which also translates as "green cross." The green crosses found in churches throughout the Yucatan Peninsula are also called ya'arche'. (See rue, below). This color is generally associated with growth and vitality. Red (Chak in Maya.): east, birth of sun each morning (a re-birth from death at sunset), childbirth, menstruation, fertility. Also, in more general terms, red is a reference to blood as life force and sacrifice, as well as to the heart. Classic and Postclassic offerings to the gods included red hematite as well as blood sacrifices by kings, queens, and priests-in addition to the human sacrifice that involved the removal of the heart (Freidel et al., 1993). White (Sak in Maya.): north, day, structurelstasis, order, light, sun, male. Numbers Three: the number of layers of the universe, with the Celestial World as one layer (internally composed of seven layers with thirteen steps, see "thirteen"), the Underworld being another (internally composed of five layers with nine steps, see "nine") and this flat Earth upon which humans live being a third. All three layers share four sides and a central point through which an animating spirit flows, in a connecting channel, the u hol gloriyah (glory hole) (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 51; Sosa, 1985). Fourl've: refers to the quincunx, a design consisting of four points which form a square, plus a central point. This is the basic plan of the world upon which we walk with the central point indicating vertical direction, and thus, pointing to both the Celestial World above and the Underworld below. The quincunx with four external points and a central fifth is a flat representation of a three-dimensional universe. This is a common figure in ancient Maya iconography associated with the earth and more generally with the universe including the three basic layers. Ninelfive: there are nine "steps" in the Underworld. The sun, moon and other celestial beings travel down an inverted pyramid, under the ground, during their daily cycle; leaving the Celestial World and returning back up the pyramid through the water which surrounds the square earth. There are five different layers to the Underworld, or four steps down, a fifth bottom platform and four steps up, totaling nine steps. This is an inverse image of the Celestial World but with fewer steps (see below). Thirteenlseven: there are thirteen "steps" in the Celestial World. The sun, moon and other celestial beings travel up and down a pyramid in the


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sky during their daily cycle, leaving the Underworld through the water which surrounds the square earth. There are seven different layers to the Celestial World, or six steps up, a seventh top platform, and six steps down, an inverse image of the Underworld, but with thirteen steps instead of nine. The Celestial World's thirteen steps have to do with events that can be read in the stars, according to Don Miguel of contemporary Taj. Thirteen Maya constellations formed the basis of Classic and Postclassic Maya cosmology (Freidel et al., 1993, pp. 59-122). Twenty: Don Miguel makes reference to twenty as being the number of a complete human being, which is related to ancient Maya associations. According to Landa (156611978, p. 38), in the sixteenth century the normal swidden plot which would feed a Maya man, his wife and children was called a hun vinik, which he translates as "one man"; it was measured using a staff of 20 "feet" twenty times on each side of a square. The Diccionano Maya (Barrera, 1991, p. 923) gives winik (often written vinik in colonial texts) for both man and a unit of measuring land. The related term "winal" is the name of the twenty-day, pre-Columbian month, thirteen of which made the ritual calendar cycle and eighteen of which made the solar year when combined with the uayeb, a dangerous five-day period of transition. Thus there is a complex association of the number twenty with a man, cycles of time, and agriculture. Twenty was also significant as the basis for the mathematical system of Classic Maya culture, a vigesimal one (compared with the decimal system of modern societies). Cosmology

Rr: According to Don Miguel of Taj, the small stone axes that are sometimes found in the forest or swidden fields are thrown down by lighting, from the Winds. Classic Maya references: axes were "wielded by the god Chak (Rain) when he danced as axwielding executioner . . . (to release) the ch'ulel, the 'soul stuff of the universe that sacrifice brought forth (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 217)." Classic iconography has an ax in the middle of the forehead of the god K'awil who is associated with lightning as communication from the divine (Figure 4.15 in Freidel et al., 1993, p. 198). K'awil in Yucatec Maya refers to a "precious substance . . . given as thanks for the sustenance provided by the divine . . . . (It) represents the contractual obligation bonding people and gods, for the gods receive from people that which they provided in the first place-maize and water transformed into flesh and blood (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 194).

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Contempora~K'iche' Maya references: priest-shamans are given their divining powers when K'oxol strikes them all over with a red ax. K'oxol is himself a "K'awil-born Person" (Freidel et al., 1993, p. 201). After being thus initiated with the ax, the K'iche' priest-shamans are able to read the "lightning" in their own blood, through which the intentions of the ancestors are revealed concerning their patients conditions (B. Tedlock as quoted in Freidel et al., 1993, p. 200.) 7

Axis mundi: originally the ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra, or Ya'axche' in Maya), as the center of the world, holding up the sky. It has a straight trunk with horizontal branches at the top and is referred to in Maya as "the green tree." See "green" and "rue." Also associated with the center of the quincunx. Ritual actions suggest rue as a substitute in this ceremony. Quincunx: see "four/five" above. Ritual movement: include counter-clockwise circles, reflecting the path of the sun, from East to North (also up) to West to South (also down) and crosses which go from east to west and north to south, creating a central point. Foods Cacao bean (kakaw in Maya): vulva? (Suggestion based on a longitudinal crease found within the oval surface of the bean. Other indications: Cacao pod: similarities to ears of corn and to papaya fruits, both of which are commonly associated with the vulva (see section, "Interpretation of Symbols"). Also, Hot chocolate as beverage: 1. preparation involves agitation of chocolate by special stick (penis) in wooden container, which action is said to resemble sexual activity (common jokes). 2. given to women after birth (in Taj). 3. drunk in association with the Day(s) of the Dead and anniversaries of death, as well as arrangements between parents and godparents for baptism and those between parents of bride and groom before ma age. (in Taj, also Sosa, 1985, pp. 269-80; Redfield & Villa Rojas 193411962, pp. 40, 152, 185-88, 193-94). Souls are said to be "reborn" after death and marriage arrangements refer to fertility and the birth of children. Baptism arranges for godparents to help socialize and care for children.


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Other ethnographic contexts: 1. Used by the Lacandon Maya (formerly Yucatec Maya) in ritual offerings along with "sak ha'," a ritual corn beverage (McGee, 1990, pp. 47-48). 2. Landa refers to its use in a "baptism" which appears to be a 16th century rite of passage. The beans are used to adorn the clothing of the children participating and also used to prepare a beverage (156611978, pp. 44-45). Cacao in Classic Period associations: 1. Cacao pod on the sarcophagus in the crypt of the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque is depicted below the surface of the earth, a position associated with sprouting and regeneration (Barthel, 1978, pp. 81-90). 2. In the same sarcophagus, images of cacao trees are associated only with images of women and shown with fifteen fruits, whose number Barthel (1978, p. 85) identified as the "full moon number." In contrast fruit trees with images of men have twenty fruits (none of which is cacao), whose number is associated with the laying out of agricultural fields by men. (Ibid, footnote 4). 3. Cacao beans were used as a medium of exchange, a form of money (Schele & Freidel, 1990, pp. 92-94). Chicken: (rooster) half-grown, pure, innocent, has not yet crowed, not been with a hen. It is seen as therefore appropriate for sacrifice. It is used in ceremonies for curing others, including sexually experienced women. Therefore, it cannot be understood as functioning as a specific representative of the innocent, pure girl in this particular ceremony. However, roosters are used exclusively with female patients and hens with male patients. Both must be "pure," the hen should not have yet laid an egg (Redfield & Villa Rojas, 1962, p. 174). Feet and wings: left and right referred to as equally important, but different. It is important that they be kept in their appropriate places. This in context appears to be a reference to female (left) and male (right) and their equal importance in interdependent roles within the family. See also section on gender in this appendix. Head and tail: contrasted but both said to be important in the ceremonial placement. Tail is clearly associated with human genitals in general joking. It is said of a girl who has fallen in love, "Her tail heated up on her."

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Chili pepper: a common euphemism for the penis in riddles and jokes. (See section, "Interpretation of Symbols.") Empanada: a folded-over tortilla stuffed with pepita menuda molida and cooked. The shape when viewed from the side resembles the vulva, the crack frequently opens a little in cooking, allowing the stuffing to ooze out. Reported by Redfield & Villa Rojas (193411962) as used for both curing (p. 174) and fixing a place for the hives (p. 146). K'ol: A white gravy made from chicken broth thickened with ground corn. Luch: A gourd which grows on a tree to approximately the size of the back of a human skull. In the Maya creation myth this gourd is the skull of the ancestor One Hunahpu, the father of all subsequent human beings. He spits into the hand of Little Blood, a daughter of Blood Gatherer, one of the Lords of Death in the ancient Maya Underworld. H e tells her, It is just a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle . . . when he (a man) dies, people get frightened by his bones . . . the father does not disappear, but goes on being fulfilled . . . . Rather, he will leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you. Now go up there on the face of the earth; you will not die. Keep the word. So be it. (D. Tedlock, 1985, p. 114-115)

Pepita menuda molida: small squash seeds, toasted and ground, which have a reddish-brown color, similar to menstrual blood (jokes specific to ceremony). Rue (Ruta graveolens, L., in Roys, 1976, p. 9): a European import, used in this ceremony for blessing ritual beverage, foods, and the patient. The ceiba is referred to as ya'axche' the green tree or cross and the same word is used for the three green crosses found in churches throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. Leaves sprout from the branches of the herb rue in groups of three, resembling crosses, green crosses. This is the reason given in Taj for why it is a "sacred herb," of use for blessing. This association with crosses is similar to that of the ceiba, which represented the axis mundi in the Classic Period (see axis mundi, above). In addition, the water in which rue has been soaked can be used as a medicine; it can be used for drinking or bathing. It is a common household remedy in the Peninsula, with most households maintaining a plant or two in pots. Sak-ha': a white beverage made of corn kernels cooked with the epicarp, then ground and sweetened with honey to make a thick gruel.

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