Join M.A.R.I. for Ajq'ija' Highland Maya spiritual guides: Time, space and the modern celebrations as Dr. Judith Maxwell explores the rich ceremonial world of Highland Maya spiritual guides and their profound connection to cycles of time - from ancient calendrical systems to contemporary celebrations that bridge past and present. Ajq’ija’ serve their communities as diviners, teachers, physicians, counselors, psychologists and conduits for communicating with ancestral spirits, as well as with immanent energies of the landscape, of dwellings, and regalia. To do so they use a variety of tools, chief among them are calendars, particularly the ab’ ‘solar calendar’, the cholq’ij ‘260-day divinatory calendar’ and the Gregorian calendar. In this brief presentation, Dr. Maxwell will look at three ceremonies associated to the these counts of time in modern Highland Mayan communities of Guatemala: 1. Kiq’ij Anima’i’ Day of the Dead (Nov.1-2), 2. End of the b’aqtun/pih (Dec. 21, 2012), 3. Waqxaqi’ B’atz’ ‘Eight Howler Monkey’ -the day that new ajq’ija’ are ordained and practicing ajq’ija’ reaffirm their commitment to their communities. These celebrations, like most Mayan ceremonies, unite Mayan peoples across time and space.
Dr. Judith M. Maxwell received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1982. Her work with Mayan languages of Guatemala began in 1973. In collaboration with the Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín, the Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala, the Ministry of Education and the Judicial Branch of the Secretariat for Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala, she has since researched, taught, and produced educational materials, workshops and seminars for the 22 Mayan languages of Guatemala. Dr. Maxwell also works with contemporary language issues: the processes of standardization, language maintenance and shift, bilingual/multicultural education, and issues of language, identity, and authenticity.
Dr. Maxwell directs the Native American & Indigenous Studies program at Tulane. Since 2010, she has been heading a collaborative team of Tulane students and Tunica-Biloxi Language and Culture Revitalization Program (LCRP) personnel, working to revitalize the Tunica language, which has been "sleeping" since the last native speaker, Sesotrie Youchigant, died in the 1948. The group has produced an online interactive dictionary and a beginning language textbook, as well as several children’s books and educational resources. She, her students and the LCRP provide tribal adults and children with two immersive language and culture experiences a year, one linked to a summer Service Learning Course- Tunica: Louisiana’s Sleeping Language and one short winter session.
