504 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
assertion that coessences are important, but she takes it a step further, suggesting
that Indian “souls” provide an esoteric language of self-definition that helps Indian
communities to affirm their identity, even in circumstances of oppression and dis-
crimination:Every child is born with a nahual.The nahualis like a shadow, his protective spirit who will
go through life with him. The nahualis the representative of the earth, the animal world,
the sun and water, and in this way the child communicates with nature. The nahualis our
double, something very important to us. We conjure up an image of what our nahualis
like. It is usually an animal. The child is taught that if he kills an animal, that animal’s
human double will be very angry with him because he is killing his nahual.Every animal
has its human counterpart and if you hurt him, you hurt the animal too....
We Indians have always hidden our identity and kept our secrets to ourselves. This
is why we are discriminated against. We often find it hard to talk about ourselves because
we know we must hide so much in order to preserve our Indian culture and prevent it
being taken away from us. So I can only tell you very general things about the nahual.I
can’t tell you what my nahualis because that is one of our secrets. (Menchú 1984:18–20)With Rigoberta Menchú’s commentary we come, in a sense, full circle. Native
Mesoamericans, once a literate people before contact with Europe, are regaining
this form of independent empowerment through literacy and through artistic and
scholarly activity in both Native American and Western languages.SUGGESTED READINGS
BIERHORST, JOHN 1990 The Mythology of Mexico and Central
America.New York: William Morrow.
BURNS, ALLANF. 1983 An Epoch of Miracles: Oral Literature
of the Yucatec Maya.Austin: University of Texas Press.
EDMONSON, MUNROS. (ed.) 1985 Literatures.Supplement
to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol.
5, Victoria R. Bricker, general editor. Austin: Uni-
versity of Texas Press.
GOSSEN, GARYH. 1974 Chamulas in the World of the Sun:
Time and Space in a Maya Oral Tradition.Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
GOSSEN,GARYH. 1993 On the Human Condition and
the Moral Order: A Testimony from the Chamula
Tzotzil of Chiapas, Mexico. In South and Meso-Amer-
ican Native Spirituality: From the Cult of the Feathered Ser-
pent to the Theology of Liberation,edited by Gary H.
Gossen and Miguel León-Portilla, pp. 414–435. New
York: Crossroad.
GOSSEN, GARYH. 2002 Four Creations: An Epic Story of the
Chiapas Mayas.Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press.
KARASIK, CAROL(ed.), and ROBERTM. LAUGHLIN(trans.)
1988 The People of the Bat: Mayan Tales and Dreams from
Zinacantán.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institu-
tion Press.
LAUGHLIN, ROBERTM. 1977 Of Cabbages and Kings: Tales
from Zinacantán.Smithsonian Contributions to An-
thropology, No. 23. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
MONTEJO, VICTOR 2005 Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Iden-
tity, Representation, and Leadership.Austin: University
of Texas Press.
PAZ, OCTAVIO 1961 The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and
Thought in Mexico.New York: Grove Press. (English
translation of the revised Spanish edition, 1959) El
laberinto de la soledad.Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura
Económica.
TAGGART, JAMESM. 1983 Nahuat Myth and Social Structure.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
TEDLOCK, DENNIS 1993 Breath on the Mirror: Mythic Voices
and Visions of the Living Maya.San Francisco: Harper.