“This is the true history of the people of Chajul”: Selected Aspects of the Narratives and Music of the Tz’unun Dance

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Baile del Tz’unun is one of the dance-plays performed in the western highlands of Guatemala. In the past it was an annual celebration in Chajul. It is also present in Aguacatan, and there is a documented history of musical exchange between these two regions. Oral tradition associated to the Baile del Tz’unun as well as in the same time to petitioning ceremonies is based on narratives that are some of the vital elements of the Ixil cosmovision and ritual life. In this paper we discuss the history and cultural meaning of the mythos and examine some of the baile’s (dance-play’s) musical components. Apart from selected narratives of oral tradition and history, as well as music collected during recent ethnographic fieldwork, we also refer to some earlier ethnographic and ethnoarcheomusicological material. Moreover, the Ixil textile art is also one of the important texts and sources that records this narrative. It is also possible that the dance-play could be one of the motifs depicted on the colonial mural art located in some of the houses in Chajul so we base our analysis in this context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36488.0