Janferie Stoneterms and to use theoretical tools forged in Western understandings
of individual development, feminism. and functionalism. While I in-
tended to keep a proper academic distance from both the tales and
the culture, I grew increasingly uncertain of how truly my theoretical
approaches mapped the worldview of the people who told the tales.
Methodologically, I experienced constraints to engaging in a compre-
hensive field research project. Unable to schedule extended fieldwork
(because of family obligations), I had only short sessions in the field in
Guatemala; my ability to immerse myself in the language(s) and cul-
ture was limited. Over two summer visits, I spent time conversing with
women from Santiago Atitlan and San Pedro la Laguna (towns on the
shores of Lake Atitlun), thereby gaining an understanding of the lake
as a region where community is constituted through languages and
tales, and learning that symbols woven or embroidered on cloth rep-
resent condensed ritual and secular practices. In each tongue, there are
specific terms to describe people of force, both good and evil. There
are also terms to denote saints, ancestors, and the native deities that
hold otherworldly power at specific named sites.^2
More importantly, I gained a sense of the vital relationship between
the appearance, dignity, and traditional dress of Maya women, and
the way they tell the world to themselves and others, even if conjunc-
tions of tellers and audiences are rare. The time that can be spent in
idle conversation is all too short in lives bent upon modernization and
development after many years of civil conflict. As the years passed,
Vera had commitments to another marriage, three more children, and
her matrilineal family to honor; she was too busy as a householder
to pause for long. Short bursts of gossip and asides of information
interspersed her daily round when I was there. But a major factor in
her ability to sell her weaving was the circuit she had established with
weavers in North America. Visitors to Guatemala came to her house
to buy textiles. Feeling it necessary to maintain and develop these con-
tacts, she made journeys northward, but now brought one or two of
the children with her as necessary. I came to appreciate a field of en-
gagement that was formed bilaterally, for with each of us traveling
long distances, we established a trade in cloth, representations of other