Tz'utujil

ETHNONYMS: Maya, Vinuk

Orientation

Identification. The Tz'utujil are a Mayan population inhabiting Guatemala's central highland region. The various Tz'utujil communities tend to be separated by high volcanoes, precipitous cliffs, and expansive lake surfaces. In part reflecting geographical obstacles to easy interaction, the primary linkage between the communities is linguistic rather than social. Tz'utujil refer to themselves as "Vinuk" (lit., twenty; named being), which can be glossed to mean "the people."

Location. The Tz'utujil communities are clustered along the south and west shores of Lake Atitlán, as well as just to the south of the Lake Atitlán basin in the town of Chicacao. In addition, Tz'utujil speakers constitute minority populations in several nearby non-Mayan coastal communities. Certainly the defining feature of the Tz'utujil territory is Lake Atitlán, which lies at an average elevation of 1,545 meters above sea level. The communities along the shore of the lake occupy a border zone between tropical and mesothermal environments. Rains are monsoonal, with the wet season running from May to November. In its natural state, the vegetation is primarily chaparral and oak-pine forest, although much of the arable land has been diverted to the cultivation of maize and coffee.

Demography. In 1994, following nearly a century of explosive population growth, there were approximately 70,000 Tz'utujil. In contrast, a post-Conquest demographic collapse triggered by the introduction of Old World diseases brought about a decline in population that did not bottom out until around 1780, when the number of Tz'utujil was about 10 percent of its pre-Conquest number. Although the Tz'utujil population would not regain its pre-Conquest level until the mid-1960s, since that time it has more than doubled.

Linguistic Affiliation. The name "Tz'utujil" means "flower of the maize plant." Tz'utujil is a language of the Greater Quichean Branch of the Eastern Division of Mayan languages and is most closely related to Kaqchikel, K'iche', Sakapulteko, and Sipakapense. Even among the various Tz'utujil communities, there is lexical, phonological, morphological, and syntactic variation in the use of the language. Exemplifying that variation, the people of Santiago Atitlán claim that only they speak the true form of the language, what they invariably refer to as "Ktz'oj'bal," the language. In contrast, they claim that the people of San Pedro la Laguna speak Pedrano, those of San Juan speak Juanero, and so on. In addition to the indigenous language, more than half of the Tz'utujil are at least conversant in Spanish.

History and Cultural Relations

Although the Lake Atitlán region has been inhabited for at least several thousand years, the Tz'utujil did not enter the area until the Late Postclassic period (a.d. 1200-1524). According the ancient K'iche' book Popol Vuh, the Tz'utujil were the first of a wave of conquering groups to arrive in the area during that period. The point of origin of those migrants remains conjectural, but it was probably the Campeche/Tabasco region of Mexico. Until the subsequent arrival of the Kaqchikel, the entire Lake Atitlán region was under Tz'utujil control. In addition, the Tz'utujil had extensive landholdings in the agriculturally rich coastal and piedmont zones. At the time of the Spanish arrival in 1524, much of the former Tz'utujil territory had been seized by the more numerous Kaqchikel. Led by Pedro de Alvarado, the Spanish force exploited preexisting regional hostility, enlisting the Kaqchikel as allies in his conquest of the Tz'utujil.

In 1547 the Spanish began to congregate formerly autonomous and dispersed Tz'utujil communities into the municipality configuration that continues to characterize local social organization. That process, called congregación, was designed to aid in the political administration and religious instruction of the indigenous population. Importantly, the initial disruption of Tz'utujil social existence did not entail the significant loss of land. Rather, exploitation was first in the form of encomiendas and later repartimientos. Those extractive mechanisms entitled the Spaniards to tribute and/or to force the Tz'utujil to purchase overpriced goods. Two other factors were particularly important in defining the Tz'utujil colonial experience. The first was the catastrophic population decline noted above (see "Demography"). Hardest hit was the coastal zone, where disease contributed to the virtual abandonment of the region by the Tz'utujil. The second factor was Guatemala's chronic economic stagnation and its anemic capacity to engage in the global economy. As a result, the colonizers tended to remain in a few Spanish centers, lessening acculturation pressure in peripheral areas such as that of the Tz'utujil. In the late nineteenth century, however, a whole new dynamic was to be unleashed when Guatemala began the large-scale production of coffee. To meet the requirements of that crop, extensive Tz'utujil lands were expropriated. That loss, combined with a rebounding population, led to the landlessness that characterizes contemporary Tz'utujil existence. This shortage of land has not only undermined agriculture as the primary means of subsistence but has contributed to decades of Guatemalan civil war.

Settlements

The great majority of Tz'utujil live either in one of seven municipalidades or in one of the satellite hamlets (aldeas and caseríos ) surrounding those larger centers. Listed in clockwise order, the Tz'utujil municipalidades lining the shore of Lake Atitlán are San Lucas Tolimán, Santiago Atitlán, San Pedro la Laguna, San Juan la Laguna, and San Pablo la Laguna. In addition Santa María Visitación is situated in the mountains to the west of the lake and Chicacao in the piedmont region to the south. Differing from Guatemala's common "vacant center" towns, in which residents tend to return from more permanent habitations in the surrounding mountains and valleys only on market days and fiestas, Tz'utujil towns are of the "town nucleus" configuration, in which residency is characterized by permanent inhabitation. Until the mid-twentieth century dwellings in most Tz'utujil towns were comprised of a rectangular stone wall of about a meter in height upon which rested a secondary lashed-cane wall extending to ceiling height. The roof of this earthquake-resistant structure was constructed of wooden beams and grass thatch. Although these structures are still to be seen, population pressure and the resulting necessity to construct multistoried dwellings, combined with the new earthquake-resistant materials (particularly cement block and reinforcing steel rods) has led to a revolution in construction techniques.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Highland Mayan economics has long been based on the swidden cultivation of maize. In the Tz'utujil area, other traditional crops include avocados, beans, chickpeas, citrus fruits, tomatoes, and chilies. Except in certain small garden plots (tablones ) situated along the immediate lakeshore, the Tz'utujil utilize little irrigation. Depending on the community, garden-plot irrigation ranges from a primitive process in which hand-carried containers of water are dumped directly on the crops (Santiago) to the use of giant hoses and pumps submerged in the lake (San Pedro). Reflective of underlying social changes, these garden plots are increasingly being used to grow nontraditional cash crops. Similarly, many Tz'utujil have converted their maize fields (milpas) to the production of coffee destined for distant markets. Moreover, whereas until the mid-twentieth century maize fields were planted for three to ten years, depending on the elevation, and then left fallow for four to twenty years, population pressure has increasingly made fallow time an unaffordable luxury. Instead, local farmers have become dependent on costly chemical fertilization. Although that fertilization raises crop yields threefold (albeit at a cost to soil quality), because of population growth and loss of land to other crops, the Tz'utujil are now net importers of maize. Even more significant is that increasing landlessness has fueled the move away from farming altogether, fewer than half of the Tz'utujil still engage in agriculture as their primary occupation, many having turned to other traditional activities such as fishing or mercantilism. Others, however, have made the transition to nontraditional occupations such as teaching (particularly in San Pedro) or to tourism-related jobs (San Pedro and Santiago).

Industrial Arts. Concerning their textile-producing capacity, Aldous Huxley once referred to Santiago and San Pedro as being the "Manchester and Bradford" of the highlands. Although the Tz'utujil have traditionally woven fabrics for domestic use, increasingly their skills are being tapped for international fashion markets. Similarly, many Tz'utujil supplement their income by braiding "friendship bracelets" destined for boutiques in Europe and the United States. Other significant industrial arts include canoe making, rope making, and mat making.

Trade. The Tz'utujil, particularly those from Santiago, have long been renowned as traders. Older men from that town still recall the days when they would haul wares on their backs to distant markets in Antigua and Mazatenango. Increasingly, the economies of virtually all Tz'utujil communities are reliant on trade. Although no doubt reflecting the loss of agricultural viability, the Tz'utujil evolution toward mercantilism stems as well from infrastructural advances, including improved roads, regularly scheduled boat and bus transportation, and improved electronic communication. Most contemporary Tz'utujil merchants conduct virtually all of their trade outside of their respective communities. In other words, such comerciantes de fuera buy and sell commodities in distant communities. Importantly, despite the increasing reliance on such mercantilism, the available data on its economic viability are mixed.

Division of Labor. Many daily tasks in Tz'utujil life reveal a sexual division of labor. Typical female tasks include weaving on a backstrap loom, cooking, going to market, and caring for children. In contrast, male tasks include weaving on a treadle loom, farming, fishing, and cutting firewood. Whereas mercantilism outside of the community used to be an exclusively male occupation, some leading Tz'utujil merchants (particularly those dealing in textiles) are now female. There is also a division of labor based on community, with certain towns specializing in specific trades (e.g., rope making in San Juan).

Land Tenure. Since 1877, when it became legal in Guatemala to assign title to and sell communal land, most Tz'utujil land has been privatized. Since that time, huge amounts of land have been transferred to non-Tz'utujil owners, primarily in the form of coffee plantations (fincas ) and increasingly as sites for the luxury weekend homes that line the shore between Santiago and San Lucas. While the sale of shoreline property has enriched those Tz'utujil fortunate enough to own such land, many more residents have been negatively impacted by the resulting explosive escalation of land prices.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Tz'utujil kinship is bilateral and lacks clans or any other such affiliation. Although at one time the fictive-kinship pattern known as compadrazgo was important, it now exists primarily in vestigial forms.

Kinship Terminology. The Tz'utujil have adopted Spanish naming patterns, according to which children receive the last names of both the mother and the father. Many of those names, however, are those of the lineage-based units of indigenous social organization (calpul, chinamit ) that at one time dominated Tz'utujil society (e.g., Chavajay). First names tend to conform to the traditional Mayan k'exel naming pattern, according to which the firstborn son and daughter take the name of the father's parents, and the secondborn are named after the mother's parents. Depending on the community and the individual, the k'exel pattern may carry ancient religious significance.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Individual Tz'utujil communities tend to be endogamous. In most cases, women who marry into a community continue to wear the style of costume of their natal community. Marriage is by the partners' choice. Although most Tz'utujil marriages were formerly conducted according to so-called Christo-pagan rituals, the great majority of Tz'utujil marriages today include either a Catholic or a Protestant wedding ceremony. This transition began in the 1930s and accelerated after 1950. Further reflecting outside influences, most young Tz'utujil brides now insist on wearing white wedding gowns and veils for their marriage ceremonies. With regard to Tz'utujil marriage, monogamy is the norm and polygyny the exception.

Domestic Unit. The nuclear-family household, or sitio, is the basic unit of Tz'utujil social organization. In many cases, there exists an extended family grouping of sitios known as a vivienda. Economic and domestic interaction between the component households in the vivienda is limited, but children typically contribute economic assistance to their parents. In most cases, postmarital residence is patrilocal, although for economic or interpersonal reasons, matrilocal residence is common.

Inheritance. Tz'utujil inheritance is bilateral—but not necessarily equally distributed.

Socialization. The socialization of Tz'utujil children takes place primarily in the home, where they are raised by their parents and older siblings alike. In addition, national law mandates that children attend six years of school. Primarily because of economic and domestic demands, however, fewer than half of Tz'utujil children are able to satisfy that mandate.

Sociopolitical Organization

Political Organization. As has been the case in virtually all the region's Mayan communities, until recently political organization in Tz'utujil towns revolved around the civil-religious hierarchy known as the cofradía system. Participants in that system ascended a hierarchical ladder of alternating political and religious offices, eventually attaining the status of principal (elder). Males and females participated in the system. To weaken the autonomy of rural communities, in 1945 the Guatemalan government declared it illegal for cofradías to have a civil component. That action, combined with religious competition from Protestants and orthodox Catholics alike has gradually eroded the cofradía system. In all Tz'utujil towns, the primary locus of community political organization is now democratic politics, with the office of mayor (alcalde) being the highest elected office in a given municipalidade.

Social Control. Social control in Tz'utujil towns is exercised through formal and informal means. On the one hand, gossip, envy, and ridicule exert considerable potency in routinizing Tz'utujil behavior. On the other hand, all of the towns are subject to the laws and authority of the Guatemalan state. That reality is underscored by the country's militarization owing to its civil war.

Conflict. Certainly the most grievous modern conflict in the Tz'utujil area stems from the civil war and has pitted the forces of the state against guerrillas of the Organization of People in Arms (ORPA), with most of the population caught in the middle. In addition, resentment over earlier land conflicts between San Juan and San Pedro continues to fester. Several Tz'utujil towns are rent by bitter internal religious divisions, particularly between Catholics and Protestants, but also between cofradía members and Catholics who do not belong to cofradías and between members of different Protestant sects.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Until about 1960, Tz'utujil beliefs were closely associated with the cofradía systems in the various towns and revolved around a blending of pre-Conquest elements with the Catholic cult of the saints. Since then, cofradía hegemony has given way to both orthodox Catholicism and Protestantism. The rate of that disappearance has varied: San Pedro, which entirely abandoned the system between about 1955 and 1970, contrasts with Santiago, where it remains vital. Of continuing importance in several Tz'utujil towns is Maximón, a cofradía deity who combines Mayan calendrical and fertility attributes with a persona loosely linked to Judas of the New Testament.

Religious Practitioners. Practitioners of traditional religion in the Tz'utujil area fall into two basic categories: shamans and rank-and-file cofradía members. In contrast to cofradía rituals, which entail highly routinized procedures linked to the individual positions, Tz'utujil shamanism tends to be idiosyncratic. Increasingly, the most important religious practitioners in Tz'utujil life are the Catholic priests or the Protestant pastors.

Ceremonies. Most religious ceremonies in Tz'utujil towns are tied to the saints' calendar of Catholicism, with the fiesta of a given town's patron saint being particularly important. To the participating community, however, the relationship to a Catholic saint may be only nominal. For instance, in Santiago the fiesta of San Martín pays homage to an ancient sacred bundle associated with agricultural fertility.

Arts. The religious arts of the Tz'utujil range from exquisite textiles woven for cofradía use to the ritual dances that are occasionally performed. In some towns, those dances are informed by local variants of the rich corpus of myths and legends for which the Tz'utujil area is noted.

Medicine. There are several types of traditional medical specialists found in the Tz'utujil area, most of which could be classified under the generic category of "shaman." Among the most important are the iyoma (midwives), many of whom have a shamanic relationship with the moon, and the aj'kuna ("hunters"), who typically have relationships with the deities of certain medicinal plants. Other types of shamans found in the Tz'utujil area include the lsay ruki kumats (snakebite specialists), the ruki kik 'om (spider-bite specialists), and the aj'mes (mediums). In addition, the aj'q'umanel (herbalists) may be shamans, as may by the rukoy bak (bonesetters), those of San Pedro being particularly renowned.

Death and Afterlife. Many Tz'utujil have traditionally believed that after death one's life essence (k'aslimal ) is regenerated in one's descendants. Depending on a person's station in life, another part of the soul (q'aqal ) may go to the sky and assist the movement of the sun. The people of Santiago believe that those who have drowned inhabit the bottom of Lake Atitlán, and they are particularly feared. Increasingly, the Tz'utujil embrace either Catholic or Protestant views of the afterlife.

Bibliography

Dayley, Jon P. (1985). Tzutujil Grammar. University of California Publications in Linguistics, vol. 107. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

McBryde, Felix W. (1947). Cultural and Historical Geography of Southwest Guatemala. Smithsonian Institute, Institute of Social Anthropology Publication no. 4. Washington, D.C.

Madigan, D. (1976). "Santiago Atitlán: A Socioeconomic and Demographic History." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Orellana, Sandra L. (1984). The Tzutujil Mayas: Continuity and Change, 1250-1630. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Paul, Benajmin, and Lois Paul (1962). Ethnographic Materials on San Pedro Laguna, Solola, Guatemala. Chicago: University of Chicago Microfilm Collection of Manuscripts on Cultural Anthropology.

ROBERT S. CARLSEN