Reading and Blogging : Flowering of the Dead

Reading and Blogging: Flowering of the Dead
March 12, 2019
The Flowering of the Dead: An Interpretation of Highland Maya Culture
by Robert S. Carlsen & Martin Pretchel

In the Flowering of the Dead, the article centralizes around the idea that Mayans continued to prolong their culture and adapted the external realities around them. It also talks about how even after the Spanish took over the Mayans land, they were still able to hold their ground and keep fighting for what they believed in. The Maya were also able to adopt a fake front of Spanish influence external but at the same time keeping their Maya culture internal. The Mayans also created a term known as Jaloj-K'exoj which was used to guide the transformations of the local Maya culture configuration. Jaloj-K'exoj was also a helping tool for explaining the cultural patterns which emerged from the Conquest period. The article also explores the idea of Flowering Mountain Earth which I believe to be is about how Atitecos, or people of Santiago Atitalan, still embrace the "old religion" but not all Atitecos share the same religious knowledge. It explores how the old religion is being forgotten but then the concept of being Atiteco or a Costumbrista starts to make a come-back. It was also difficult to grasp on to the old religion too because of the many other religions that were being adopted like Catholicism. Jal is also mentioned to be "the change manifested in the transition to life through birth, through youth and old age, and finally back into death."

El Día De Los Muertos In Guatemala And Mexico 

With K'ex, the article explains that it's the change in generation continuing in life together forming with Jal to form a "concentric system of change within change, a single system of transformation and renewal." The article also talks about how Atitecos were able to portray their understanding of the world through myths, rituals, and beliefs. I believe that the Flowering Mountain Earth represented a sort of plant that represents the different seasons a human life cycle goes through. Atitecos were also able to perceive a likeness between the life cycles of plants and humans which is why the Flowering Mountain is mentioned. It is also mentioned in the article that a grandparent's namesake is referred to as k'exel which means 'my replacement' that becomes the symbolic parent of the biological parent. The different concepts appear in the Popul Vuh for example with the Quiche word for 'spittle', k'axaj which is derived from the same root as K'exoj. Another example is that the "Popul Vuh's excursion into explicit philosophy' attests to the importance of what Atitecos call Jaloj-K'exoj to the ancient Quiche Maya" and that is also clear the "Popul Vuh is clear that the process guides the transformation and renewal of more than just anthropomorphize deities and humans."

Another image of Día de los muertos. Guatemala.