CHAPTER 13 THE INDIAN VOICE IN RECENT MESOAMERICAN LITERATURE 493glossed as k’op,which refers to nearly all forms of verbal behavior, including oral tra-
dition. The term k’opcan mean word, language, argument, war, subject, topic, prob-
lem, dispute, court case, or any number of forms of verbal lore.
Chamulas recognize that correct use of language (that is, their own dialect of
Tzotzil) distinguishes them not only from nonhumans but also from their distant
ancestors, and from other contemporary Indian- and Spanish-speaking groups. Ac-
cording to Chamula narrative accounts, no one could speak, sing, or dance in the dis-
tant past. These were among the reasons why the sun creator destroyed the
experimental people of the First and Second creations. The more recent people
learned to speak Spanish, and then everyone understood one another. Later, the na-
tions and municipioswere divided because they began quarrelling. The sun deity
changed languages so that people would learn to live together peacefully in small
groups. Chamulas came out well in the long run, for their language, batz’i k’op(“the
true language”), was the best of them all.
The taxonomy of k’op,which appears as Box 13.3 and in Figure 13.5, was elicited
several separate times from six male assistants ranging in age from eighteen to sixty-
five over the period of one year. The information contained therein should be more
or less self-explanatory.
Box 13.2 Formal Speech Between Compadres of ZinacantánMaryan:(He offers a bottle of rum to Romin.) I am paying you a visit here. Grant a little par-
don for our tiny bit of cold water [ritual deprecation of the gift of rum], since you suffered the pain
and the hardship. You sustained the lowly soul, the lowly spirit of God’s humble angel.
Romin:God, are your lordly heads still anxious, your lordly hearts, My Father, My Lord?
That should have been all, I wish nothing. My Father, I wish nothing. My Lord, I wish nothing, my
holy companion, my holy compadre. Thank you so much. May God repay you a little. It isn’t that
I have said a thing, it seems.
Maryan:This way it has always been from the beginning, from the start, grant a very little par-
don. God, compadre, grant the holy pardon, a little, a bit. I have come holding in my possession,
the sunbeams, the shade of Our Lord [another ritual reference to rum]. Thanks for suffering the
lordly pains, enduring the lordly hardship, you sustained the lowly soul, the lowly spirit of God’s
humble angel [speaker reference to himself in the mode of self-deprecation], the way you, too, are
measured as a lordly man, as a lordly person.
Romin:God, thanks, then, thanks. They say there is still a little, a bit. Well, see here, com-
padre, it seems that now you offered me the little, the bit, it seems. I partook of the lordly liquor
at your table. Let’s share the little, the bit, it seems of what you offered me, too. It’s not as if I am
fine, by myself, proper by myself. It won’t happen that I will go by myself to drink next to the
house, of course [meaning that he does not regard this merely as an opportunity to have a ca-
sual drink of rum]. (Laughlin 1975:17)The reader can easily infer that the formal use of language matters a great deal in Tzotzil
everyday life. To gain some understanding of the complexity of this sphere of human affairs is in-
dispensable for an appreciation of the vitality of this community.