species that have fascinated the human being for their extraordinary dexterities or creations in merging them into fantastic creatures, such as the snake, the jaguar, and crocodile dragging its prey to the water’s depth of the underworld and returning as the “incarnation of the volcanic sierra,” carrying the sunrise on its back. There is a fantastic range of these illustrative examples referring to the human being’s intense perception and interpretation of the surroundings, which explains the respect professed toward nature’s sacredness. This is evidenced by all artistic media preserved to our days, such as ceramics, jadeite, and stone, leaving to our imagination the possibilities of expressions in perishable materials which did not make it to our days. In the equally fascinating plant world, the marks or remains recovered in archaeological excavations tell us about great plant diversity; additionally about foodstuffs of basic consumption, such as maize, amaranth, ixcanal or cacho de toro and the jaboncillo tree, as well as plants considered export specialties of the region, such as cacao, cotton, amate, rubber, the vulcanizer flor de la luna and the adhesive palo jiote, all these essential to the vast economic production chain of the market of rituality; all crops and distribution suggest having been controlled by their leaders. In order to present all these plants, verified by the archaeological registry, to the guests, currently efforts are already underway in an archae-botanic garden, also with the objective to avoid that some plants become extinct in the region. The Park´s pedagogic labor is to present the special and characteristic archaeological world of the bocacosta belt along the Pacific, inseparably framed by its natural surroundings, in order to forge the concept that current societies will not have the opportunity to survive, develop, and achieve greatness if they do not take care of their surroundings by nourishing and sheltering them. After all, this is our mother earth just as it was to our ancestors.
ANCESTRAL SPIRITUALITY
Christa Schieber de Lavarreda and Heber Delfino Torres / From page 93 Each one of the offerings and objects used during a ceremony or ritual has special meaning. Usually, although it may be in elementary and simple fashion, a type of protocol or set of rules exist on how to carry out its different moments. All these details are ciphered codes; their significance can be interpreted by those forming the cultural group participating in these rituals. Archaeological research during these years at Tak’alik Ab’aj has shed light on an enormous amount of material remains left in the place where ceremonies were practiced. What is usually known as offering is really the group of non-perishable things and vestiges of burned material or material still adhered to vessels, left in the place where events occurred. Discovery and study of each offering is an experience and the sum of these began revealing the fact that the offerings, aside from an entire process established through the elements that compose them, represent a feast of life, immensely appealing to all the senses. Rituals related to death are also a feast of life, as is more than evident on the 1st and 2nd of November, All Saints and All Souls Day. Added to this, rituals are usually practiced in groups that share this intense life experience, creating a synergy, which translates into an excellent means of cohesion, of strengthening the social bond among members. This social cohesion is the foundation for proper articulation and functioning of the group, a condition that allows cooperation, productivity, as well as greater strength and skill to face adversity. Thus,
the practice of ritual, aside from being a vigorous stimulant to ritual market economy for production and consumption of such a variety of objects and materials, is also an instrument to repeat codes and meanings of cultural and spiritual content, to carry out the exercise of collective memory, to remember the ancestors in order to create history, the foundation of the group’s sense of belonging. In 1987, when work began toward development of Tak’alik Ab’aj National Archaeological Park, remains were found of recent rituals practiced surreptitiously on the farmlands sheltering the ruins of the ancient city. From that moment on, different ethnic groups were invited to continue with their ancestral tradition in the park, and alternative altars were created for them. This also provided the opportunity to document the ritual practices, dates, motives, materials, and meanings, with results as surprising as the documentation of the archaeological rituals. Ritual practice, in essence, had not changed; neither had the richness and diversity of the materials used. Nevertheless, new elements are now used as part of a modern phase, appealing equally to the senses, celebrating life. Each thing has its meaning, there is an order of procedure or protocol in the development of a ceremony and, most importantly, it continues to be an instrument of group cohesion and exaltation of ethical and philosophical values, of understanding, explaining, and behaving in the world. This means that the ancestral ritual tradition found at the Tak’alik Ab’aj archaeological excavations, going back to historical foundations of Mesoamerica at least 2,700 years ago, remains palpable in current ritual practices. A simple but marvelous example illustrating this phenomenon is the method of ordering and conceiving the world with its four cardinal points and central axis or axis mundi, which represents something analogous to an ideogram in the first five small vessels placed during the ritual protocol of the Offering of La Niña, “The Girl” of Tak’alik Ab’aj within a large plate. Four of these miniature vessels mark the four cardinal points and the fifth, marks the axis mundi. There follows a succession of diverse artifacts deposited during the ritual, up to the culminating moment when the censer of La Niña is placed in the central location, indicated at the beginning, by the fifth receptacle. However, the Niña censer, situated in a position lying down, with the head toward the east and feet toward the west, also simulates the importance of the east-west axis, representing the sun’s daily trajectory, expressing the cycle of night and day, life and death, the cycle of fertility. The present-day ritual recreates the same ideogram with diverse materials, particularly different-colored candles representing each one of the four cardinal points. White stands for the north; black is west; yellow marks the south; red represents the east; and blue-green is the axis mundi. The survival of cultural traditions implies conservation of fundamental concepts of the philosophy bearing the ideas that give it life. Nevertheless, the continuity of this philosophy needs to integrate new contemporary elements that allow this ancestral philosophy to adapt and persevere in community life. This drive persists in each moment of history, just as important and significant universal concepts were reinvented, taking on new cultural appearances, imposingly expressed through a change in aesthetic canons according to the new order. The philosophical concept of envisioning the world remains immutable and, around it, the history of a people spins and evolves. Societies and people are a product of their past, a story of constant changes and adaptations to new situations. The capacity for reinvention without losing the essence of being, without forgetting history, is the formula for success at Tak’alik Ab’aj.
REFERENCES From page / 95
The number corresponds to the article number. 1. 100 years from the discovery of Tak’alik Ab’aj. Graham, John A., Robert F. Heizer, and Edwin M. Shook 1978 Abaj Takalik 1976: Exploratory Investigations. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility Number 36. Reprinted from Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica, III, John A. Graham, editor, pp. 85-109. University of California, Department of Anthropology, Berkeley, Ca., USA. 2. 2700 years of history in Tak’alik Ab’aj Shook, E.M. and Marion Popenoe de Hatch. 1999 The Southern Coastline Archaeology. In Historia General de Guatemala Época Precolombina [General History of Guatemala pre-Columbian Period], M. Popenoe de Hatch, editor, pp. 171-190. Volume I, J. Luján Muñóz, general editor. Asociación de Amigos del País, Fundación para la Cultura y el Desarrollo, Guatemala. 4. Everyday life Popenoe de Hatch, Marion and Barbara Leyden. 2004 The ancient environment of Tak´alik Ab´aj in accordance with pollen analysis. Revista Universidad del Valle de Guatemala [University del Valle journal], may, 2004, N° 13, pp. 2-6. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. 7. Obsidian in the everyday and ceremonial life of Tak´alik Ab´aj. Crasborn Echeverría, José 2014 The history of Tak´alik Ab´aj through obsidian studies. Tak´alik Ab´aj National project, Ministry of Culture and Sports, General Directory of Cultural and Natural Heritage-IDAEH Yearbook of the General Management of Cultural and Natural Heritage, III epoch N°13, year 2014. Patricia del Águila, editor, pp. 77-98, Ministry of Culture and Sports, Institute of Anthropology and History, Guatemala. 8. Sacred vessels Schieber de Lavarreda, Christa y Miguel Orrego Corzo 2013 Celebrations of the Winter Solstice in Tak’alik Ab’aj: The ritual in Altar 46 “Piecitos”. In XXVI Archaeological Investigations symposium in Guatemala, 2012 (B. Arroyo and L. Méndez, editors), pp. 919-930. National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Guatemala. 9. Ceramics, commerce and astronomy Hirth, Kenneth G. 1978 Interregional trade and the formation of prehistoric gateway cities. American Antiquity 43:35-45. Hirth, Kenneth 1978 Gateway Cities. American Antiquity 43:35. Popenoe de Hatch, Marion 2002 Evidence of an astronomical observatory in Abaj Takalik. XV Symposium of archaeology in Guatemala: pp 437-458. National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. 2003 Ceramics of the Northwest coastline of Guatemala, Lagunita and the Solano Ceramic Tradition: Some comparisons. Miscellany… in honor of Alain Ichon. French Center of Mexican and Central American Studies; Tikal Association. M. Charlotte Arnauld, Alain Breton, MarieFrance Fauvet-Berthelot, and Juan Antonio Valdés, editors. 2005 Conquista de Tak´alik Ab´aj [Conquest of Tak´alik Ab´aj]. XV Symposium of archaeology 2004. National Museum of Archaeology and Etnology, pp. 1037-1043. 2009 The sunrise replaces the stars. XXII Symposium of Archaeology in Guatemala, 2008, pp.425-438. National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Popenoe de Hatch, Marion and Edwin M. Shook 1999 The archaeology of the south coastline. In General History of Guatemala, Vol. 1, M. Popenoe de Hatch and J. Luján, editors, pp. 171-190. Fund for Culture and Development, Guatemala.
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