prev - home - next We want to document the rituals and how they function as the traditional pulse of the town now, as this theater of ceremony is continually under threat. These ancient customs have continued since the conquest beneath the thinnest of veneers of Catholicism within a cofradía or confraternity system introduced by the Spanish conquerors but which proved well-suited to prehispanic Maya tradition. Sometimes tolerated, sometimes repressed by the authorities, this uneasy balance continues today with the church being a sacred space for all, an echo of the old Maya temple whose foundations most likely underpin it, and a place where ceremonies are more likely to be conducted by ajkuns - local shamans - than the American priest tolerated by this very independent community. |
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