text:
Author: Cocom, Juan Castillo
Date published: January 1, 2012
Language: English
Journal code: GAQT
Indios lacks political power in Mexico. cliché!
Indios lacks political power in Mexico. touché!
Everybody knows that. It has been said before.
What a hoodwink paper! ¡Más de lo mismo!
A mishmash of tired clichés.
(A popular proverb among students at the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana roo)
In the 1930s, russian film director sergei Eisenstein began to shoot a film on Mexico, but did not finish it. After Eisenstein's death, Grigory Aleksandrov, one of the film technicians, assembled a new version of the film from sketches and notes of the late director (castañeda 2000). the following text written by Eisenstein is from the original production notes that explained the concept of the prologue:
Time in the prologue is eternity. It might be today. It might as well be twenty years ago. Might be a thousand. For the dwellers of Yucatan, land of ruins and huge pyramids, have still conserved, in feature and forms, the character of their ancestors, the great race of the ancient Mayas. stone-Gods-Men-Act in the prologue. In time remote...In the land of Yucatan, among heathen temples, holy cities and majestic pyramids. In the realms of death, where the past still prevails over the present, there the starting point of our film is laid. As a symbol of recalling the past, as a farewell rite to the ancient Maya civilization, a weird funeral ceremony is held. In this ceremony, idols of the heathen temples, masks of the gods, phantoms of the past, take part... the people bear resemblance to the stone images, for those images represent the faces of their ancestors..." (Prologue, from Que Viva Mexico! as cited in castañeda 2000:60)
In the Occident, notions of time and space are often arbitrarily segmented into the before, the during, and the after. I don't know why.1 Perhaps, it is an attempt to think about concepts of being or decode the temporalities of being human; or possibly to respond to questions of who am I/who are we. Deleuze (1991:x) would say that I am/we are habits. In my opinion, this is a partial and incomplete answer: it is detached from its spatial and temporal context or it is tied too closely to such contexts. Whichever.
"Understanding" how indígenas latinoamericanos conceptualize time/ space is a habit among anthropologists, archeologists, linguists, sociologists, ethnologists, historians, historical archaeologists, and ethnographers (la lista es extensa). It is a fixation. It has been written, for example, that the Maya imagined time as a permanent and repetitive calendar of cycles (león-Portilla 1994, tedlock 1992). Inspired by levi-strauss (and before sahlins' swam to his Island of history), they proposed Maya time as cyclically repeating historical prophecies and returning prophetic histories (bricker 1973, 1981; hunt 1977). reconciling prophecies and cycles, they interpreted Maya time as a spiral and debated whether it was a helix or conic spiral, with neither a beginning nor an end. When the Mayanists realized that what they thought was the Mayan calendar actually had many diverse cycles-including cycles that correlated cycles of cycles associated with cycles that were metaphors of other cycles-the idea was revised to be cycles of cycles of calendars with cycles that remain inscrutable, such as the 819 day cycle. then they discovered it was "also but not quite" linear. the Mayanists described Maya time as discrete layers of sedimented temporalities that originated in cosmogenesis and were separated by catastrophic destructions...that repeat! Debating whether there were three or four creations, archaeological Mayanists proposed their own three-era cosmologies and grand epic narratives of civilizational-genesis and Armageddon: Pre-classic, classic, and Post classic Maya; ancient, traditional folk, and postmodern traditional (almost but not quite modern [Wilk 2005]). According to Mayanist thought, time was not quite line-like accumulations of stones, reeds, rattles, or other symbol-things (even gods themselves are said to be!) that are piled up, bundled, counted, carried, or sat on by gods, kings, and priests. While these Mayanists continued to debate their metaphors, they nonetheless all agreed that the Maya are obsessed with worshipping time.
Wait, who is? "the many faces of time, a primordial reality and obsession for the Maya, was an object of veneration for them...the Maya man sees his existence marked by time. time is the presence and cyclical action of all the faces of divinity" (león-Portilla 1994:51). It has been said that los indios are obsessed with time/space: colors, corners, calendars. We are? the only cycle we recognize is the everlasting imposition of Western notions on us. It is an epistemological act of violence.
The idea of time as an epitome of before, during, and after does not exist in the thought of the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula, nor in their language. Maybe this is also the case with other people and languages that anthropologists have named Maya and Mayans (see castañeda 2004, restall 2004, castillo cocom 2004 for the meaning of these terms).2 I don't know. Yet, I do know that bricker is correct when she explained: "Maya does not have tense as such. Instead, it has a system of aspectual inflection which indicates whether an action has been completed or not, whether it is just beginning or ending or has been in progress for a while" (as cited in Po'ot Yah 1981:4). castañeda tells me3 that he often reads linguistic explanations in grammar books which describe Maya as without tense. Despite all of this, such books use "tenses" to describe and analyze the Maya conjugation of verbs according to "tenses." castañeda calls these linguistic constructions of Maya grammar "nontense tenses." It seems that explaining Maya language or understanding "the Maya" and "Maya time" is much like watching reality tV or a hollywood film: it requires a suspension of disbelief, not of the fiction as fiction, rather a permanent suspension of belief in the real. In other words, an active disbelief in what is the real, reality, or actual, in order to construct "the really real" in a way that is more really real. It is an acceptance of the fiction as real, as if it were real: "the fiction as experience" (castillo cocom and castañeda 2002). realism is substituted for real actualities, leaving you with Mayanist realism. the real is erased, elided for the science fictions of anthropology and linguistics: no future, no present, no past tenses, yet the Maya have nontenses of Future, Present, Past. Maya time is neither cyclical, spiral, Epic, Narrative, nor the Eternal time imagined and worshipped by Mayanists.
Hence, departing from a non-laicized belief, time/space is not conceived by the Maya people as epic narratives; at least not in any of the Western metaphors of an epic of time-things or sets of events that initiate, finalize, accumulate, repeat ad infinitum. It is not conceived as "something" that turns over and over as it moves away from a set point, rolling farther and farther away from a center or "zero date" with each turn. It is neither a cycle, nor a flat line extending forward endlessly, deep into the intergalactic space of Mayanist fascination.
Time. It's neither a cycle, nor a spiral. Neither a line with no end, nor a line with an endpoint. Maya time is neither eternity nor an eschatology, christian or other. Maya time is both "almost but not quite" time and "Neither/Nor"-neither the geometric space of timelessness, nor the imagined prophecies of christian futurologies.
The Pyramids of Time Stand Still: Ruins of Modernity
Anthropologists have also long fetishized identity and, along with it, space. the Ancient Anthropologists from the classic Period, which in the native language is called Modernist Anthropology, worshipped identity. they culturally constructed identity as spatial, as the proper space in which a being existed and gained its essence. they used an Ethnomethodology called "Ethnography" that was only learned in secret sodalities of initiation. because these practices were so esoteric, they allowed the uninitiated to confuse their ritual practices with other lay activities, such as entomology, sociology, or the study of ancient rocks. to worship Identity, they created majestic theoretical pyramids all across the world based on an advanced system of architectural rhetoric and mathematics (see Figure 1)-it was so advanced, many thought that it came from the gods, perhaps the Pleiades, or a bottle dropped from the sky!
These majestic pyramids, called "Ethnographies," were constructed through their religiously ritual practice of Allochronism (Fabian 1983). At the end of the classic Period, a series of prophets emerged-renegades and cannibals-who proselytized a new religion with a new belief that showed how the pyramids were actually like "jails" or internment camps. the prophets showed how Identity had been kept locked up and contained in an exceptional state not of incarceration (Kearney 1996). After the long culture Wars, which included feverish wars with culture studies and a scientific crusade against the axis of evil theory (Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism), they tore down the pyramids, burned the books, and let culture and Identity roam free. Everybody had culture and so they lost their monopoly. so, then came the new Gods of Flows, scapes, Fluidity, and Flexibility who all danced to the song of the Global- Glocal and a new era of cultural decadence, the Post-Post Period, began. still, even tens of decades later, there are some traditional Anthropologists who hold on to their Ancient ways and continue to practice their ethnomethodologies (clifford and Marcus 1986, tedlock 1983, Mangnaro 1990). Even more fanatically, they still believe in and practice their customs of Modernist Allochronism. but, now they engage their other, actively as activists, and use the remnants of their arcane mathematics, the sacrosanct "Identity = culture = Place = time" calculus in their divinatory advocacy and ethical commitment to Indianness and Indigeneity. still, they believe in Indians. their discovery of Indigeneity, Inc. within the ruins of their once majestic pyramids causes widespread joy in their ancient calculations.
In his studies of deixis or spatial referencing, hanks (1990) indicates that Maya people of Yucatán have a common sense understanding of corporal space. this is known as their iknal (place). this concept is a philosophical principle regarding the constant presence of absence. Iknal has been defined as: "in front of, with, before, presence" (bricker et al. 1998, emphasis added). the Diccionario Maya Cordemex defines iknal as: "con, en compañía, en poder, en casa, o donde alguno está [with, in the company of, in control of, in house, or where someone is]" (barrera Vásquez 1980:265, emphasis added). this presence/absence is atemporal (no hace referencia al tiempo; does not refer to time) and a-spatial (no hace referencia al espacio; does not refer to space). It also connotes locality such as the habitual place for social agency (i.e., nah -house, or kòol -corn field). As rodríguez (2007:7) notes, "Iknal has another meaning that is not necessarily that of a fixed localization." It is both a shared and an individuated mobile field of sensory awareness and action (hanks 2000). hence the concept of iknal is an understanding of one's bodily space and one's perception, opinion, and attitude.
Iknal seems to share many characteristics of bourdieu's (1990) habitus, yet it conceptualizes other frames of reference or, at the least, is indicative of fields that are not possible in the concept of habitus. timoteo rodríguez tells me that4 if iknal is the social agent of perspective, presence, and action, this then should allow us to understand and situate the idea of habitus in a geopolitical context as a "place" for identity formation. Iknal and habitus require habituated-presence-positioning, location, installation, situation, look, posture; in other words, where a person "habitually" is. but iknal also means where a person can "physically" be. however, it is not an either-or. Iknal has a quality that habitus does not. It is a spatial marker that is separated from the individual and it indexes the presence of a specific person. therefore, iknal doesn't require physical or habitual presence for a person to be "there" even if they are not there (castillo cocom n.d.). this may sound like something mystical, but it is just iknal. It is not a ghost, geist, spirit, or mystical animism. It is not an anthropological pyramid. Iknal is not identity. rather it is the presence of being and the absence of being, both at the same time. Not neither/nor, but "both and its opposite."
For example, there is an English song "Wish You Were here." sometimes I wish that I was here, but other times I wish the opposite-that I wasn't here or that I was there. sometimes I wish that you were here, but you are not here simply because I wish it to be. And yet you are here by my wishing you here in this absence, the place of your presence. but whatever I wish, against my will I am sometimes both "not here" and "over there." And this is iknal. have you listened to any Pink Floyd recently?
Guardians of Time
"It might be today," in José María Morelos, Quintana roo, on August 9, 2007, that "a weird funeral ceremony is held. In this ceremony, idols of the heathen temples, masks of the gods, phantoms of the past, take part." It is a solemn occasion being held in the theater of the city of José María Morelos to inaugurate the first semester of classes at the recently created Mayan Intercultural University of Quintana roo (UIMQroo). "It might as well be 20 years ago." the auditorium is full. "It might be a thousand" years ago.
In the back rows are the students. In front of them with blank looks are the professors. On stage looking down, sit the civil and university authorities. At the front of the stage sit a row of well-dressed people in white cotton, sharply pressed trousers and long-sleeved camisoles with closed necks buttoned to the top. these are clothes made with real care, clothes remembered in the photographs of the rebellious Indian of the caste War (1847 to 1901 or 1915-no one is sure when it ended; ask any historian and you will see). they evoke an image of respect and admiration, of impact. sometimes the governor of Quintana roo, Felix Arturo González canto,5 refers to them as "his Maya escort." they are "los Dignatarios Mayas," the Maya Dignitaries. "stone-Gods-Men."
As a Maya colleague and expert in his own culture described them, these people are "the spine of the Maya culture," "the guards of Mayan cultural patrimony," "the bastions of the land of Quintana roo," and "the true guardians of the history of the state." In addition he said, "I am going to introduce them to you, but greet them with respect and reverence. Do not look them directly in the eye. lower your view; and, be sincere because they have the power to look inside you and know your feelings."
We followed his instructions. We did not look them in the eye.
National Geographic Law: Magic Cycles, Pony Tricks, Smoking Mirrors
How the Mexican state uses concepts of before, during, and after in respect to the Maya is brilliant. the traditional Judges were created in 1997 (Domingo barbará 2008:51-52) when the congress of the state of Quintana roo created the Ley de Justicia Indígena del Estado de Quintana Roo,6 and in 1998 Ley de Derechos, Cultura y Organización Indígena del Estado de Quintana Roo.7 the latter referred to the need to recreate the millenarian Maya in a contemporary Maya culture. this was seen as a necessary step in constructing and designing an authentic Mayan culture for the future. I don't know the purpose of this law, but it sells well with the tourist and 2012 is getting ever closer. the former law seems to be aimed at recreating ancient laws of the Maya in the hopes of resurrecting past legal structures to deal with contemporary Maya "situations."
How exactly would the Quintana roo congress know what these legal structures of the Maya past were? how do you think the Ancient Maya dealt with their "problems"? Who would know? Maybe they read National Geographic Magazine or one of those airline magazines while flying to cancun. A Google search on Maya law resulted in only one website, a canadian educational site, that unlike the Quintana roo congress, provided references for their knowledge of Maya law. this is what we found:
In the Mayan culture the Mayan city-states had strict legal codes to deal with criminals. the Mayans believed that criminals did not act on their own but were being controlled by evil spirits. Although they believed this, criminals were still being punished. criminals were given visible slashes to be seen as a sign of disgrace. the most serious offense was murder and the punishment was death. there were councils of judges in the city-states to deal with criminal cases. From time to time they would send runners to obtain sacred decisions from local Gods at local temples. this came in the form of an oracle written on an obsidian block. sentences were carried out immediately. Guilty verdicts meant torture or death on the central podium of the court. (Angelfire n.d.)
Mayan law. Mayan law was very, very strict. It did not matter who you were but if you committed a crime you would be punished. this was enforced rigidly. some of the punishments were things like a hefty fine, or having all of your possessions sold on auction, or being sold into slavery or possibly getting thrown into a jail for varying lengths of time. Mayan law was pretty fair. the Mayan's held good lawful trials. they collected evidence and presented it before a Judge. (thinkquest n.d.)
Maya law was very strict. Punishments varied, but the laws were pretty fair. If you stole something and you were caught, you became the captive of your victim. If you committed a lesser crime, your hair would be cut short. short hair was a sign of disgrace. It was possible that, as a punishment, all your possessions might be sold at auction. the Mayas held trials. Evidence was presented against you or for you. this evidence was presented before a judge. It did not matter who you were. If you committed a crime, and you were found guilty after a judge had heard your case, you would be punished. this was rigidly enforced. (MrDonn n.d.)
In the beginning, Mayan government was ruled by religion, like most civilizations of the past. the leaders of the government were priests. Around 300 bc the Mayans adopted a hierarchical absolute monarchy system of government...With close relations with religion, the king consulted the monarch on all important matters [sic] ...crimes were punished by death. the most common way was to be thrown off a cliff. (Perkins n.d.)
Cycles, endlessly repeating cycles of cycles. Only one of the above online sources had references. It cited the other websites and an article by the National Geographic society, featuring cartoon depictions of Maya cities in an "as if we were there/then" style reconstruction: "this is what Mirador really looked like when it was a thriving metropolis!"8 (National Geographic News 2010). We wonder if the Quintana roo congress did get their ideas from National Geographic Magazine after all?
If not, maybe they got their information from an archaeological educational film produced by Princeton, Pbs, or the history channel. Although it could have come from an academic archaeological publication, such as Michael coe's The Maya (1993) (now thankfully in its Eighth Edition) or The Ancient Maya by Morley, sharer, and brainerd (1983). but, even these sources don't discuss Maya law. Maybe the congressmen used a book about the Aztecs and toltecs instead? since all Indians are the same after all, their cultures are also interchangeable. It's all the same place, you know, México. sahagún's extensive description of Aztec culture in his monumental 16th century Florentine codex has been a great wealth of knowledge about the Maya for many educational filmmakers and writers when there is absolutely no parallel or direct information about pre-columbian Maya societies and culture. 9 It works! smoking Mirror!
Tezcatlipoca, a god of the Mexica-the Indians who the spaniards and we today even in Mexico call Aztecs-was a trickster. tezcatlipoca carried about on his forehead a smoking mirror, which he used for divination and ruses of representation.
The Sistema de Justicia Indígena (system of Indigenous Justice) that the state congress of Quintana roo legally constituted for Maya people consists of the following: Tribunal Unitario de Asuntos Indígenas (Unitary court of Indigenous Issues); the Magistratura de Asuntos Indígenas (Judiciary of Indigenous Issues); and the Consejo de la Judicatura de Justicia Indígena (Judicature of Indigenous Justice). the Consejo de la Judicatura de Justicia Indígena has six members (five advisors and the Magistrate of Indigenous Issues).10 the advisors are: General santiago cruz Peraza (Centro Ceremonial of chancá-Veracruz), sacerdote Maya Julián Ken Dzul (Centro Ceremonial of chumpón), General Maya sixto balam chuc (Centro Ceremonial of cruz Parlante), sacerdote Maya Moisés chi hoil (Centro Ceremonial of tulum), sacerdote Maya Isidro Ek cab (Centro Ceremonial of tixcacal-Guardia), and Magistrate of indigenous Issues, Francisco Javier reyes hernández (buenrostro Alba 2008).
"Stone-Gods-Men... the Dignatarios bear resemblance to the stone images, for those images represent the faces of their ancestors..." It appears the pony can do many magic tricks, but really it is a one-trick pony, trotting out the same trick again and again. It's a magic spiral, a pony trick, a smoking mirror, a line without end unfolding forward, an eternal cycle of cycles. Yet, it is confusing to me why the Dignatarios do not dress like the everyday Maya depicted in the National Geographic Magazine cartoons. Is this not a portrait of the Maya?11
Hands Off that Cake! The Consejo de la Judicatura de Justicia Indígena and the Jueces Tradicionales
The term "Maya Dignitaries" is defined in the law as "the indigenous who must hold public office and public representation in a ceremonial center according to sus usos, costumbres y tradiciones [customs and traditions]" (Domingo barbará 2008:71, Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 1998:2). this includes Generales (Generals), sacerdotes (Priests), comandantes (commanders), capitanes (captains), tenientes (lieutenants), sargentos (sergeants), cabos (corporals), and rezadores (those responsible for prayer in religious ceremonies), their function being to guard and conserve the Maya customs, traditions, languages, and their traditional centers (Domingo barbará 2008:78-81, Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 1998).
This is the law that state congress of Quintana roo created:
Article 9-"the Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Estado...will appoint the traditional Judges..." (Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 2007:2)
Article 6-"the Sistema de Justicia Indígena is an alternative justice to the ordinary jurisdictional route and to the jurisdiction privilege of judges (jueces del orden común). Its jurisdiction will always depend on the terms and conditions established in the Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, and the Constitución Política del Estado..." (Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 2007:2)
Both of these laws illustrate that for the Mexican state the Maya culture is simply a reference or echo whose presence helps legitimize the existence of power for the state. the chart below describes the power and authority of the traditional Maya judges as stipulated by the state of Quintana roo (Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 2007) (see Figure 2).
The state imagines that Maya culture is like a series of dialogues, negotiations, conversations, interactions, and intersections, as "implode-able" as any other culture/s. castañeda (2000:44) writes that it is difficult to imagine Maya culture this way. On the one hand, it is seen as "located" at an intersection horribly tangled in conversations with other cultures; on the other, it is "situated" at the crossroads of many cultural transactions. to imagine Maya culture in this way means that it may implode, but only into thousands of semantic fragments-texts, images, fields, languages, economies, and institutions. In this context, the state's idea of Maya culture becomes "elusive and illusive" (castañeda 2000:44). however, I have to add the quality of AllUsIVE to castañeda's analysis because this essentialization of the Maya is very much a part of the state's agenda. by making this culture "real," it becomes only a point of political reference, something to be alluded to, like a signified to be pointed at-something to be marked, when necessary. like an academic citation of a "source," it is only decoration, a sign of the verisimilitude of knowing and knowledge, a map of political power, networks, gambits for status and cultural capital; but this reference is both academic allusion and political bludgeon.
The implosion of the past in the present-a "past" created in the "present"- demonstrates the state's complicity with the social sciences, mass media, and the tourist industry as exemplified in the institutionalization of Maya Dignitaries as established in ley de Derechos, cultura y Organización Indígena de 1998. Is this not the crime that the Maya Dignitaries should be dealing with? but how can they do so without erasing themselves? Do they know that the state's portraiture of them as Maya, like Warhol's painting of russell Means, "is not an Indian"? can they recognize that their performance of Indian is a colonial simulation?12 stone-Gods-Men: "the people seem turned to stone over the grave of the deceased in the same poses, the same expressions of face, as those portrayed in the ancient stone carvings" (Eisenstein as cited in castañeda 2000:60).
The Mexican state's clever use of time/space lies in the identification of the before, during, and after as simple, superficial, temporary divisions, as relative temporalities. In this way, the state constructs temporal ownership in the present through the citation of another temporality. It did not pretend, does not pretend, nor will it pretend to politically empower the Maya Dignatarios. the intention is only to empower them emblematically for the purpose of using power imposed upon them wherever and whenever they so wish in order to justify and legitimize the power of the state itself.
By inventing the name "Maya Dignitaries," the Mexican state is ratifying the historical ambivalence of the word Indio. As Vizenor wrote, "Indian insinuates the obvious simulation and ruse of colonialism...Indian is an Occidental misnomer, an overseas enactment that has no referent to real native cultures or communities" (1999:i). "Maya Dignitary," like "Indian," is also a decree of a colonial state, one that tries to recreate a structure of being "almost equal, but not absolutely" (bhabha 1994:87). this construct is based on studies of the socio-political organization of the Maya, as well as official and academic stories created by archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, and linguists, all in some way complicit with mass media and the tourist industry whether they like it or not. It is the ambivalent mímica or mimicry of the state, of the before and after, again and again.
How tedious this time/space cycle is. Again, that endless spiral. Is there nothing else? Are there no other geometries, futurologies, or teleologies of time? "In this ceremony, idols of the heathen temples, masks of the gods, phantoms of the past, take part. In the corresponding grouping of the stone images, the masks, the bas-relief, and the living people, the immobile act of the funeral is displayed." "the people bear resemblance to the stone images, for those images represent the faces of their ancestors. the people seem turned to stone over the grave of the deceased in the same poses, the same expressions of face, as those portrayed in the ancient stone carvings."
Iknal. Presencia. Ode to Levi-Strauss: Structures of Hot and Cold (Tacos)
In Quintana roo, it is habitual for Maya Dignitaries to be present at political events of great relevance. thus, one day they may have a meeting with the President of the republic, the next they may attend an annual address held by the Governor or Municipal President. sometimes they attend the inauguration of a school or some other celebration that the authorities organize. At a 2007 christmas event, Felix González canto, governor of the state of Quintana roo, addressed his Maya audience in the following way:
(Felipe carrillo Puerto, Quintana roo, December 21, 2007)
Good morning to you my friends and my dignitary Maya friends. First of all, please eat. I don't want the tacos to get cold. cold co chinita [cochinita pibil or Maya earth-oven pit cooked pork] never tastes as good as when it is hot, so go ahead please and eat. We can talk while we eat. We will eat with you as we are also hungry. We all come from various towns...Greetings to the council members of Felipe carrillo Puerto...especially you my friends, the Dignatarios. today we have with us the distinguished Quintanarroense [or native of Quintana roo] Don carlos constance Madrazo. Welcome to carrillo Puerto [you all] that comes with these Mayan Dignitaries who give meaning to this prodigal land...
Greetings also to cautlán Utzil, Maya priest of Xyatil; santiago de la cruz, Maya General de chancá-Veracruz; to Don santos Natividad can, escribano (chronicler) of the ceremonial centers, to Jacinto Pech, Maya General of tixcacal-Guardia; to José chi, General of cruz Parlante; to Julian cen, Maya priest of chumpón...
Dear dignitaries. bon appetite! Merry christmas and happy 2008. President bahena and myself will be visiting your communities as soon as this vacation is over. but for now you must rest because you are on vacation. We however are not going to rest. We are going to keep working, but you, you can rest. And as soon as you get back from vacation remember that we will be visiting you in your communities... so I ask you that after today you go back to your communities, to your ceremonial centers. (Unidad del Vocero del Gobierno del Estado de Quintana roo 2007)
What are the Maya Dignatarios to think as they sit there trying to eat their hot pibil? should they eat or listen? Are they to stay or were they supposed to go? And when are they meant to leave? I wonder which ceremonial center will be visited first? these are methodological questions that any handbook of ethnography on the Maya would answer with ease. I would suggest it is something more unsettling: the Maya Dignatarios are the essential eating-listening audience legitimizing the state, simultaneously consuming its food and words. Unfortunately, the Maya are not cannibals (only in hollywood end-of-the-world Apocalyptic films do they appear as such). they are not consuming the state to appropriate and transform it; rather they are fed by the state, fattened and raised like cochinita waiting for their pib, waiting to be cooked in the state's earth-oven pit. their contribution is to sit, eat, and listen to the sound of being honored as the honorable, "true guardians of the history of Quintana roo" (Gobierno del Estado de Quintana roo 2005). but everything has a price.
A year passes. More words, more food.
(Felipe carrillo Puerto, Quintana roo, December 17, 2008)
The families of the Dignatarios and Maya generals had breakfast with the municipal and state authorities after a touching ceremony in which the government of the state recognized the cultural and economic contributions of the Maya zone to the development and progress of Quintana roo...
Rosario Ortiz Yeladaqui, secretary of Government and personal representative of governor Félix González canto presented turkeys and christmas baskets (consisting of one kilo of beans, one kilo of flour, one kilo of sugar, a couple of candies and some fruit) to the Maya dignitaries and generals.
"I am bringing with me a message from the Governor of the state who wishes you peace and health in 2009...I bring with me the greetings, recognition and affection of Felix to you. You are the motor that has inspired him to work hard on the development of Quintana roo. since the beginning of his administration you have always given him a warm reception..."
General Jacinto Pech replied, "thank you on behalf of the Maya Dignatarios who along with the principle Maya authorities of Quintana roo. We recognize during this breakfast that the actions of Felix González canto are to the benefit of the Maya zone."
Valfred cetz cen, mayor of Felipe carrillo Puerto, reinforced the sentiment of the bond that exists between indigenous communities and their government. he addressed the Dignatarios, "we feel no fear standing face-to-face with you. there is no fear for us looking you in the eye. We have always respected your rights, your traditions and customs. No single decision has been taken on behalf of your communities or inhabitants without your prior agreement."
"You can always count on us," rosario Ortiz Yeladaqui continued. "We feel very proud to be your partners and friends. We will keep working for you, one and all." (Unidad del Vocero del Gobierno del Estado de Quintana roo 2008)
The power that the state endows the Maya Dignitaries is limited to the role of spokesperson both for and of the state. In short, "for the state" would mean that the Mayas are promoters of the state, while "of the state" means they are already integral to the state. Maybe this is why the Governor-as reported by the media-asked the Dignatarios Mayas to vacation in their own culture. Meanwhile, the Governor's people (aides, journalists, anthropologists, etc.) are hard at work inventing the very same culture that they will go sightsee.13 Why would they do this? It makes no sense. Or does it? What is the logic and structure of the hot and cold cochinita of Maya politics?
In the state of Yucatan, as I have previously argued (castillo cocom 2005, 2007), the state created the fiction of a Maya nobility that it could use to legitimize the rule of the governor.14 this act was documented in 1975 at an event in which the governor of Yucatán told Queen Elizabeth II that she was in the presence of a Maya King. In Quintana roo, which had only been a legal territory of México (i.e., not a state) until 1974, the state did not leave the implementation of this governance strategy to the creative whimsy of an individual governor. Instead, the existence of a Maya nobility was created and is regulated by law. the Maya aristocracy is a legal Indian manufactured by the state to guard and protect the indigenous culture.
In this cyclical process, the power of the "guardians of the Maya culture" is used in return to cede power to the state. It is the simulation and ruse of colonialism: "A symbol of recalling the past, as a farewell rite to the ancient Maya civilization" (Eisenstein as cited in castañeda 2000:60). Yet, the only way that a Maya Dignitary can "bestow" power back to the state is to behave as a "noble savage" (Indian nobleman) and not as a good Indian (otherwise known as "the seditious one"). by noble savage, I mean noble savage; whereas, by good Indian, I mean one who is always inciting insurrection: the cannibal who eats the hearts of colonialists, tourists, and anthropologists. today, that would be...well, no one.
"The Good" Indian: Dead or Delinquent?
The Dignatarios Mayas are not a harmonious, united group. they are divided into many factions, some of which are created and nourished by the Mexican state. there are fights between politicians and political groups as they maneuver to gain or retain control over the "Maya representatives." this "internal" conflict and competition amongst Dignatarios is how the system is justified and legitimized. As a consequence, there are conflicts amid the different Centros Ceremoniales and between the Dignatarios Mayas. For example, some Maya Dignatarios do not recognize certain other Dignatarios, while others are simply not recognized officially by the state; others just bicker and fight. Why? the Maya are mysterious-I don't know why. Maybe they bicker because they are jealous of another Dignatario, maybe one feels less or more important than the other, maybe one is screwing another one's wife, or they just don't like jokes. I don't know why. As I said, the Maya are very mysterious:
(Felipe carrillo Puerto, Quintana roo, september 15, 2009)
"Álvaro Martín Kauil, representative of the Dirección de Atención ciudadana (DAc) dismissed Facundo Puc Méndez, the captain of the sanctuary of la cruz Parlante (the talking cross), simply for being the friend of Artemio caamal hernandez, the president of the indigenous association Cuxa Ano'on [sic].15
[Facundo Puc Méndez] said, "My wife, Gregoria Poot tuz, has been very sad the last few days and could get ill because Álvaro Martín Kauil with a single blow took away from me traditions and customs that I have been caring for many generations."
He continued, "Not only did he demote me as captain of the Group of Guards of la cruz Parlante, but he made me relinquish my responsibilities arguing that I was performing functions that are not under my jurisdiction; in fact this position was granted to me in rituals performed many years ago."
"General Isabel sulub and Álvaro Martín Kauil plotted to dismiss me because of my friendship with Artemio caamal and because I made a comment about a garbage bag that was where the image of la cruz Parlante use to be; it was a joke but maybe they took offense to this."
"Álvaro Martín Kauil said that he represents Felix González canto, governor of the state in the central Maya zone. but it is he who is acting against the 'usos y costumbres' (ways and customs) of the Maya people. Indigenous people have laws and documents in writing where it states that we respect the government. but apparently Álvaro does not know this."
"Álvaro Martín's detestation towards his own Maya race is evident because he managed to poison the mind of the Maya general Isabel sulub of Dzulá who later accused me of appropriating others responsibilities."
He concluded, "having worked for almost 10 years as captain of la cruz Parlante, I really don't know why he created these problems for me. I have done nothing wrong."
"If they say that I made a profit using the name of the Dignitaries then they need to prove it. And if it is true then I will recognize this because I believe that any well-born Maya is incapable of stealing from his own brother."
The humble Maya dignitary Facundo Puc of the community of Uh May lost his rights and was dismissed and listed as one of the indigenous people who would no longer receive his christmas basket of goods. this gift is given to Maya Dignatarios each year to demonstrate state government support for the Mayan ceremonial centers of Quintana roo." (cen 2009)
Noble Savage (Noble Indio): Fish or Mammal?
In 2009, there were supposed to be 325 Dignatarios Mayas in Quintana roo, but only 18 of them were officially recognized by the state. this means that not all Dignatarios get to see the whale sharks.
(Lázaro cárdenas, Quintana roo, July 17, 2009)
The Maya Dignitaries of Kantunilkin will go and see one of the great mammals of the world, the whale shark. thirty Maya Dignatarios have been invited to the coastal town of holbox by its mayor, Javier Martínez correa...they were very, very happy for this opportunity because normally they would be unable to afford such a trip. Only the initiative of the mayor allowed the Dignatarios the chance to see these mammals [sic; I'd like to insert a caveat here: The whale shark is a fish, not a mammal]. the Mayor of holbox recently had a meeting with the Mayan Dignitaries to inform them about this opportunity and to describe the natural beauty of holbox including its whale sharks.
One of the Mayan Dignitaries Pablo Pech mentioned that he was thrilled about this trip. he said "I have only seen them [the whale sharks] in newspapers. I thought that I was going to die before I would ever get to see those huge, huge animals." (Uicab 2009)
We believe that all the Maya Dignatarios should be able to see the whale shark mammals. Yes, let them all see the whale sharks. It is their dignified duty as Noble savages.
"Only the Quaint Rhythm of the Drums of the Yucatan Music, and the High-Pitched Maya Song"
As a discourse of ambiguous insinuation, the state (and for that matter, the press in its misinformation and simplistic tone) use time and space, the before, during, and after, to categorize Maya people as a legitimate AllUsION that helps justify the power of state. Maya culture is, after all, "imploding" with other cultures. the institutionalization of the Maya Dignatarios in 1998-over a decade ago now-was designed "to protect" Maya ways, customs, traditions, languages, and their traditional centers from disaster. this discourse and institution cite temporalities that are "other to" and therefore exclude the iknal, excluding all that is atemporal and aespacial. One might say that what indexes the presence in an absence has now been extended to include limits imposed upon the Maya by the Occidental assumptions of time and space. For some reason, Maya conspicuousness always appears to be "a problem," a problem that a long list of academics and governments for some reason feel responsible for.
Eisenstein wrote, "the people bear resemblance to the stone images, for those images represent the faces of their ancestors" (as cited in castañeda 2000:60). his words only acquire meaning if we were listening to them with some music, especially if it was some opera staged by sarah brightman singing, as she must have during her concert in chichén Itzá on October 31, 2009, performed for the people of the Yucatán (who needed at least $600 UsD for one ticket). If, to quote Eisenstein, "time in the prologue is eternity," brightman singing in chichén should remind us of the Maya-perhaps, more so if she had dressed like the Maya from the National Geographic cartoons. Instead, it only reminds us of the AllUsION, as necessary when useful. this is no doubt why the upper class white women of Yucatán who claim racial descent from spaniards, Gringos, and other Europeans, wear their most expensive and formal outfit based in the richly embroidered traditional Maya dress or huipil and instead of their normal Western attire. (Even the lebanese Yucatecos wear huipiles during Mérida en Domingo.)16 "the grouping of the stone images, the masks, the bas-relief, and the living people, [create] the immobile act of the funeral" (Eisenstein as cited in castañeda 2000:60). I don't know, I am getting old now and my hearing is not as good as it used to be, but when brightman, Pavarotti, and Elton John sing in chichén I don't hear "the quaint rhythm of the drums of the Yucatan music, and the high-pitched Maya song" (Eisenstein as cited in castañeda 2000:60). I'm sorry, I just don't hear it.
The example of the whale shark is also useful, but ironic-the whale shark is, in fact, not a mammal as the newspaper states. this is also an AllUsION, of a fish that is not a whale. this fish is also elusive and illusive. however, this story about the Maya Dignatarios is not a story about a fishing trip, it is a "portrait of an Indian" (to invoke Vizenor's manifest manners).
So, if anyone asks you if you'd like to see something huge that looks like a whale...just say no. say no to the whale shark. And whilst on the subject you might as well say no to Eisenstein, weird funerals, stone processions, sarah brightman, and the christmas turkey. sorry, but no to Elton John as well. the aluxes, or spirit-owners/guardians of pyramids, forests, cenotes, and caves denied Elton John as well-they caused the collapse of the stage the night before his April 2010 performance in chichén Itzá (Gordon 2010).
No more National Geographic cartoons of Maya "as they really were," nor majestic pyramids of ethnography with their hypostatized identity of traditional culture almost, but not quite modern. Another magic mirror of before, during, and after.
I also forgot to mention that in the process of writing this paper I became friends with one of the Maya Dignatarios. Neither he nor I could afford to go to the two concerts so we drank atole de maíz in his house instead, listening to Maya rap music mixed with English and spanish-neither/nor, both at once/or rather, aporias, elsewhere. We just talked, chen k tsíikbal, talked about "touch" cell phones, Facebook, and when to burn milpa. I remember him in his house. somehow I am in his house. It is another, different "Other time" than anthropological allochronism. Physically, he is not here, but still he is "here," helping me with this writing. It is his iknal.
No "More Words." No "more food."
There was nothing else to say and we listened to the song, Tin wiknal (performed by the group Ya'ax kàalo'ob) written by Fredy reynaldo Un Noh and Ernesto Ajk'íin chablé berlin:17
(Neto Cruzo' ob)
¿Yáan a tàal?
¿Wah yáan a bin?
Chen ba' ale tin wiknal
¿Tu' ux yàan le xki' ichpan ch'úupalale' ex?
Taak in wilike' ex
Bix a péeksik a wíinklil a xíimbal, a
che' eje' ex
Bix yàanikech
Chen in wilkech ka màan te' bejo'
Taak in naakanpachkech
Chéen ba' ale' chich a bin, ma' a pá' atken ka
na' ats' ken ta wiknal
Tu' ux sùuk k maano' on yeetel
Neto cruzo' ob
Yeetel k t'íinche' balak' ook,Yeetel u yòok
kisin ki k maanch' aktiko' on le kis
búuts' o' obo' ,
Chen in pool kin be' ebe' echik, tu k'áay le íik'
tin xikino'
Ko' ox, na' aken tin t'íinche' balak' ook'
Tal vez bix ko' on jaaltik, ka wil bix ko' on líik' il
Ko' ox, na' aken tin paach, ka a wil bix in
Tene' susutuk tin che' ej
Je in beetik a che' ej yéetel u ki' imaktal a
Seeb in taal ta wiknal,
¿Ba' ax ka wa' ak?
Tin taanaje' yáan junp' eel k'áay' ,
Páax u ti' al k óok' oto' on
Teech a woojel
Yáan u péek in wook bix u péeks a winkilo'
Bey u péek a wíinklilo'
Yáan in táah ch' a u yóol ' e paaxalch' a' u
yóol le k' aaya'
Cha' a bisa' al, cha' in beetkinba
Tin wiknal yaanech mix ba' al yàan u
yùuchul tech
¡Ya' axkalo' ob!
Yáan a suut?
¿Wa ma' a suut?
¿Tu' ux yáan le xki' ichpan xch'úupalale' ex?
Taak in wilike' ex
Bix a péeksik a wíinklil, a xíimbal a
che' eje' ex
Bix yaanikech
Chen in wilkech ka maan te bejo'
Taak in naakanpachkech
Chéen ba' ale' chich a bin ma' a t pá' atken a
na' atken ka wiknal
Chen taan a wéenel tin tséem
Ka beetik in tuuklik
¿Bix yáan in beetik u ti' al jach ki' imakkunsik
a wóole' ?
Tumen teeche' a woojel tene' seen in
Chen ba'ale tu láakal le kíino' yáan in suut
ta wiknal
Bey tuune' yáan in suut ta nahil,
ta nahil
Yáan in suut
Sáansamal, sáansamal
¿Tu'ux yàan le xki'ichpan xch'úupalale'ex?
Taak in wilike'ex
Bix a péeksik a wíinklil, a xíimbal a
Bix yaanikech
Chen in wilkech ka maan te bejo'
Taak in naakanpachkech
Chéen ba'ale' chich a bin ma' a pá'atken a
naakten ta wiknal
Chen ba'ale'
Ku ts'o'okole yáan a lúubul
Yáan a luubul wa yáan a na'akalChen ba'ale
tin wiknal
Beyo'. Ko'ox
Ma ch'aik saajkil, tene' ta weetele
Ma' u beetal in meetik mix ba'al
Teech ken a waanten yéetel a paktikeno'
Ko'ox ma' t'aan
Ko'ox cha' in k'áay
Ko'ox tin tanaj
¿Ba'ax u láak' ka tuklik?
¿Ba'ax ka wa'ak?
¿Ko'ox tin tanaj?
Yáan in beet a naay
¿Yáan a xíimbatken wa ma'?
¿Yáan a ts'akteni wa ma'?
In wóojel in ti'al
Mix ba'al u láak' ka a'alchajak
¿Tu'ux yàan le xki'ichpan xch'úupalale'ex?
Taak in wilike'ex
Bix a péeksik a wíinklil, a xíimbal a
Bix yaanikech
(Neto Cruzo'ob)
Huuh! (shout)
Will you come?
Or will you go?
But, to my place
Where are all you pretty girls?
I want to see you-all!
How you move your body, how you walk,
you all laughing
How are you?
When I see you pass by on the road
I want to catch up to you
But you walk too fast,
you can't wait for me to get near you
We are used to going everywhere, me and
Neto Cruzo'ob
With our bicycles, with "devil's feet" we
overtake vehicles
Just my head bobs up and down and
around, the wind sings in my ears
Come on, Lets go!
¡Get up on my bicycle!
Then you will see how we go (to the edge),
then you feel how we fly
Come on! Get on my back, then you feel
how I go
I laugh and laugh
I will make you laugh, I will make you happy
I come right away to you, what do you say?
In my house there is a song
Music so that we can dance
You know
My feet will move as you move yours
The way you move your body, take the heart
of the rhythm's music;
Let your let your body go, hold me, I am
You are with me.
Nothing s' gonna happen to you
You will come back?
Or won't you come again?
Where are all you pretty girls?
I want to see you-all!
How you move your body, how you walk,
you all laughing
How are you?
When I see you pass by on the road
I want to catch up to you
But you walk too fast,
you can't wait for me to get near you
With you sleeping on my chest
You make think about
What I must do to make your heart very
Because as for you, you know how I have
been around
But, day after day I will come back to your
As for this way then I return to your house,
your house
I must return
Everyday, everyday
Like this
Like this
Where are all you pretty girls?
I want to see you-all!
How you move your body, how you walk,
you all laughing
How are you?
When I see you pass by on the road
I want to catch up to you
But you walk too fast,
you can't wait for me to get near you
But, in the end
You will fall
Will you fall or will you get on up?
The thing is, with me here my presence
Yea, like this, lets go
Like this,
Don't be afraid. As for me, my body is
with you
I would never do anything to you
You will help me when you look at me
Come on! Don't talk
Come on! Take my song
Lets go to my house
What else do you think about?
What do you say?
Lets go to my house
I will make you dream
Will you visit me or not?
Will you give it to me or not?
I know it's mine
There's nothing else that can be said
Where are all you pretty girls?
I want to see you-all!
How you move your body, how you walk,
you all laughing
How are you?
I am indebted to Quetzil E. castañeda. Without his texts and the dialogues we started 20 years ago, this article would not have been possible. I also would like to thank robert John brocklehurst for his contribution to this paper and his insightful comments. A special thanks to christine Preble for her faith in the text. Finally, I want to recognize selmi salomé and Mark Aleksi for their incalculable contributions to my life and work.
1the first person singular refers to castillo cocom. the first person plural refers to ríos luviano and castillo cocom.
2For other details, see castañeda n.d.
3Personal communication, July 16, 2010.
4Personal communication, May 7, 2009.
6The Ley de Justicia Indigena del Estado de Quintana Roo is composed of the following chapters: I. Disposiciones generales; II. Del sistema de Justicia Indígena; III. De los órganos del sistema de Justicia Indígena; IV. De las competencias; V. Medios de apremio, funciones y medidas de seguridad; VI. De la consignación a los jueces tradicionales; VII. De los procedimientos ante los jueces tradicionales; VII. De las inconformidades (Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado 2007). the ley de Justicia Indígena del Estado de Quintana roo was promulgated on 30 August 1997. Nevertheless, it was reformed on 17 December 2007 under the name of "ley de Justicia Indígena del Estado de Quintana roo: última reforma Publicada en el Periódico Oficial el 17 de Diciembre del 2007."
7A "traditional Judge" has a monthly salary of $350.00 Mexican pesos (approximately $30.1154 UsD, the exchange rate on July 7, 2011 was of $11.622 MXN to $1 UsD). In addition, he gets a "gift" every two weeks of, more or less, the following goods: one kilo of beans, one kilo of rice, one kilo of sugar, one liter of cooking oil, two cans of tuna, one bag of powder milk. this is compared to a conventional judge who receives no gift, but earns $31,961.86 Mexican pesos a month (approximately $2750.1289 UsD) (Poder Judicial Quintana roo 2009).
8See castañeda n.d., for an analysis of these National Geographic cartoon reconstructions of Maya cities and everyday life and how they continue to inform the reconstruction segments of educational-documentary film.
9The major sources would be Fray Diego de landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (circa 1566) and Diego cogolludo's Historia de Yucatán (1688). the extensive bibliography on "Primary sources of Aztec and Maya law and history" of the tarleton law library is essentially all Aztec sources except for the two just mentioned (the University of texas at Austin n.d.). ralph roys only has two pages devoted to legal process in his monumental The Indian Background of Yucatán (1973).
10The Sistema de Justicia Indígena is closely tied to Maya religion. Maya advisors hold religious positions in their communities (buenrostro Alba 2008).
11Ethnography of the Maya cruzob begins with Alfonso Villa rojas (1978) and includes a description of the sociopolitical organization of the cruzob, which may have been some basis in the designation of the specific Dignatarios. he was sent to chan santa cruz by redfield and had to disguise himself as a traveling merchant in order to be accepted into the community (see sullivan 1989). Other significant cruzob ethnographies include sullivan (1984), hostettler (1996a, 1996b, 2004), and bartolomé and barabas (1977).
12Do we need a reference here? A citation? Or, is it you-is it you who needs a reference? Very well, then, but which one should it be? Post-indian Warrior Vizenor or Post-science latour? Which one confirms your belief in our analysis? Which one confirms our status in your imagined circuits of our power/knowledge?
13This analysis may seem harsh and personal. however, in our sincere opinion, the Governor is a good person. rather the trouble is not with the person of the governor but a long standing way in which anthropological and popular understandings of "the Maya" inform and advise the state as an institution, including the office of the governor.
14See castañeda (1996:285-297) for an earlier analysis of how the state of Yucatán decorates itself with "the Maya" through the production of tourism and with Maya "grassroots" movements organized by the PrI. Jan rus (2004) has also convincingly shown how the PrI has been a staunch supporter of the "traditional closed community" organizations that had been idealized as authentic Indian survival cultures resistant to neocolonial state.
15In Maya this means "we are alive." the correct spelling is one word, "kuxa'anoon."
16Mérida en Domingo is the city Government sponsored party that happens religiously every single weekend. It includes staged performance of traditional Maya Jarana dance by trained school children and professional adult troupes.
17Maya spelling and grammar by Quetzil E. castañeda, Flor canché teh, and hilario chi canul. Maya- English translation by Quetzil E. castañeda and Juan A. castillo cocom.
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Morley, sylvanus, George brainerd, and robert sharer. 1983. The Ancient Maya (Fourth ed.) stanford: stanford University Press.
MrDonn. n.d. "Maya Justice: crime, court, Punishment." Accessed from http://mayas.mrdonn.org/justice. htm on June 3, 2011.
National Geographic News. 2010. "Gallery: beyond 'Apocalypto' - What Maya Empire looked like." National Geographic society. Accessed from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/ 061207-apocalypto.html on June 3, 2011.
Periódico Oficial del Gobierno del Estado. 1998. "ley de Derechos, cultura y Organización Indígena del Estado de Quintana roo: Publicada en el Periódico Oficial el 31 de Julio de 1998." Accessed from http://www.congresoqroo.gob.mx/leyes/cultural/ley019/l0819980731.pdf on Oct 14, 2009.
_____. 2007. "ley de Justicia Indígena del Estado de Quintana roo: última reforma Publicada en el Periódico Oficial el 17 de Diciembre del 2007." Accessed from http://www.congresoqroo.gob.mx/ leyes/civil/ley030/l1120071217018.pdf on August 11, 2009.
Perkins, Amanda. n.d. "Mayan Government & laws." Accessed from http://www.markville.ss.yrdsb.edu. on.ca/projects/classof2009/chong/perkins/4/index.htm on June 3, 2011.
Po'ot Yah, Eleuterio. 1981. Los Verbos del Maya Yucateco (Dialecto de Hocabá). New Orleans: center for latin American studies, tulane University.
Poder Judicial del Estado de Quintana roo. 2009. "tabulador de sueldos para el tribunal superior de Justicia Vigente a partir del 01 de Enero de 2009." Accessed from http://www.tsjqroo.gob.mx/index. php?option=com_content&view=article&id=288 on May 27, 2010.
Restall, Mathew. 2004. "Maya Ethnogenesis." The Journal of Latin American Anthropology 9(1):64-89.
Rodríguez, timoteo. 2007. "contextualizing Mayab bejlae: Ethos, transethnos, and Iknal." Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 96:1-12.
Roys, ralph. 1973. The Indian Background of Yucatán. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Rus, Jan. 2004. "rereading tzotzil Ethnography: recent scholarship from chiapas, Mexico." In John Watanabe and Edward Fischer, eds. Pluralizing Ethnography: Comparison and Representation in Maya Cultures, Histories, and Identities, 199-230. santa Fe: school of American research Press.
Sullivan, Paul. 1984. "contemporary Maya Apocalyptic Prophecy: the Ethnographic and historical context." Ph.D. Dissertation, Anthropology Department, Johns hopkins University.
_____. 1989. Unfinished Conversations: Mayas and Foreigners Between Two Wars. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Tedlock, barbara. 1992. Time and the Highland Maya. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Tedlock, Dennis. 1983. The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
The University of texas at Austin. n.d. "Aztec and Maya law." Accessed from http://tarlton.law.utexas. edu/exhibits/aztec/primary_sources.html on June 3, 2011
Thinkquest. n.d. "Mayan law." Accessed from http://library.thinkquest.org/5891/mayanlaw.htm on June 3, 2011.
Uicab, Vicente. 2009. "conocerán Dignatarios Mayas en 'Vivo' al tiburón ballena." Accessed from http://www.diariorespuesta.com.mx/online2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&c atid=89%3Alazaro-cardenas&id=3631%3Aconoceran-dignatarios-mayas-en-qvivoq-al-tiburon- ballena&Itemid=269 on Oct 14, 2009.
Unidad del Vocero del Gobierno del Estado de Quintana roo. 2007. "Mensaje del Gobernador del Estado, lic. Félix A. González canto Durante la reunión con Dignatarios Mayas en el Municipio de Felipe carrillo Puerto." Accessed from http://www.unidaddelvocero.com/2007/diciembre/noticias/noticiasdia/ imprimir/21_07.html on May 12, 2010.
_____. 2008. "celebran Dignatarios Mayas su tradicional Desayuno Decembrino en compañía de Autoridades Estatales." Accessed from http://www.unidaddelvocero.com/2008/diciembre/noticias/ noticiasdia/17_10.html on Oct 13, 2009.
Villa rojas, Alfonso. 1978. Los Elegidos de Dios: Etnografía de los Mayas de Quintana Roo. México: Instituto Nacional Indigenista.
Vizenor, Gerald. 1999. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Post Indian Survivance. london: University of Nebraska Press.
Wilk, richard. 2005. "time and the Making of 'the Maya' as an Archaeological and Ethnographic Object." Presented at the Wenner-Gren symposium "the Public Meanings of the Archaeological Past: sociological Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography," Quetzil E. castañeda and christopher Matthews, organizers. Pisté, Yucatán, México. June 5.
Author affiliation:
Juan Castillo Cocom with Saúl Ríos Luviano
Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo


text:
This view shows enzymes only for those organisms listed below, in the list of taxa known to possess the pathway. If an enzyme name is shown in bold, there is experimental evidence for this enzymatic activity.
|Biosynthesis → Secondary Metabolites Biosynthesis → Phenylpropanoid Derivatives Biosynthesis → Coumarins Biosynthesis
Some taxa known to possess this pathway include : Arabidopsis thaliana col, Ruta graveolens
Expected Taxonomic Range: Viridiplantae
Scopoletin (7-hydroxy-6-methoxy coumarin) is a hydroxycoumarin. It is found in a number of plant species including Arabidopsis, cassava, sweet potato, sunflower, cotton and tobacco [Bayoumi08, Kai08]. Scopoletin is thought to be involved in plant defense responses. In tobacco, accumulation of scopoletin was shown to strongly correlate with tobacco mosaic virus-induced localized acquired resistance [Costet02]. Scopoletin was indicated to have many pharmacological effects as well, such as antidepressant [Capra10], anti-arthritic [Pan], anti-gastro-esophageal inflammatory [Mahattanadul11], potential in ameliorate insulin resistance [Zhang10c], and potential in treatment of hypertriglyceridemia [Yang07e]. In addition, it was also shown to have antitermite activity [Adfa10].
The biosynthesis pathway leading to scopoletin in plants is still largely unclear. Genetic and biochemical evidence in Arabidopsis supports that, in this plant, scopoletin is derived from feruloyl-CoA, not ferulate [Kai08] as previously thought. A 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase is responsible for the ortho-hydroxylation of feruloyl-CoA, an important branch point from lignin biosynthesis. Ortho-hydroxylation of the feruloyl-CoA aromatic ring is followed by trans-cis isomerization of the side chain, and subsequent lactonization to close the ring and yield scopoletin. The mechanism of the E-Z isomerization step in the biosynthesis of coumarins varies between genera or even species, for being either light-dependent photoisomerization or light-independent enzyme catalyzed isomerization [Bayoumi08]. It is not clear what mechanism is involved in the above depicted scopoletin biosynthesis pathway in Arabidopsis.
In cassava, where scopoletin and its glycoside derivative appear to be involved in significant crop losses due to Post-harvest Physiological Deterioration (PPD), some detailed experiments performed with isotopic intermediates have shed light on the reactions comprising this biosynthetic pathway in Manihot esculenta [Bayoumi08].
Created 19-Apr-2011 by Zhang P, TAIR
Adfa10: Adfa M, Yoshimura T, Komura K, Koketsu M (2010). "Antitermite activities of coumarin derivatives and scopoletin from Protium javanicum Burm. f." J Chem Ecol 36(7);720-6. PMID: 20563628
Bayoumi08: Bayoumi SA, Rowan MG, Blagbrough IS, Beeching JR (2008). "Biosynthesis of scopoletin and scopolin in cassava roots during post-harvest physiological deterioration: the E-Z-isomerisation stage." Phytochemistry 69(17);2928-36. PMID: 19004461
Capra10: Capra JC, Cunha MP, Machado DG, Zomkowski AD, Mendes BG, Santos AR, Pizzolatti MG, Rodrigues AL (2010). "Antidepressant-like effect of scopoletin, a coumarin isolated from Polygala sabulosa (Polygalaceae) in mice: evidence for the involvement of monoaminergic systems." Eur J Pharmacol 643(2-3);232-8. PMID: 20599906
Costet02: Costet L, Fritig B, Kauffmann S (2002). "Scopoletin expression in elicitor-treated and tobacco mosaic virus-infected tobacco plants." Physiol Plant 115(2);228-235. PMID: 12060240
Kai08: Kai K, Mizutani M, Kawamura N, Yamamoto R, Tamai M, Yamaguchi H, Sakata K, Shimizu B (2008). "Scopoletin is biosynthesized via ortho-hydroxylation of feruloyl CoA by a 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase in Arabidopsis thaliana." Plant J 55(6);989-99. PMID: 18547395
Mahattanadul11: Mahattanadul S, Ridtitid W, Nima S, Phdoongsombut N, Ratanasuwon P, Kasiwong S (2011). "Effects of Morinda citrifolia aqueous fruit extract and its biomarker scopoletin on reflux esophagitis and gastric ulcer in rats." J Ethnopharmacol 134(2);243-50. PMID: 21163341
Pan: Pan R, Dai Y, Gao XH, Lu D, Xia YF "Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor-induced angiogenesis by scopoletin through interrupting the autophosphorylation of VEGF receptor 2 and its downstream signaling pathways." Vascul Pharmacol 54(1-2);18-28. PMID: 21078410
Yang07e: Yang JY, Koo JH, Yoon HY, Lee JH, Park BH, Kim JS, Chi MS, Park JW (2007). "Effect of scopoletin on lipoprotein lipase activity in 3T3-L1 adipocytes." Int J Mol Med 20(4);527-31. PMID: 17786283
Zhang10c: Zhang WY, Lee JJ, Kim Y, Kim IS, Park JS, Myung CS (2010). "Amelioration of insulin resistance by scopoletin in high-glucose-induced, insulin-resistant HepG2 cells." Horm Metab Res 42(13);930-5. PMID: 20886413
Bayoumi08a: Bayoumi SA, Rowan MG, Beeching JR, Blagbrough IS (2008). "Investigation of biosynthetic pathways to hydroxycoumarins during post-harvest physiological deterioration in Cassava roots by using stable isotope labelling." Chembiochem 9(18);3013-22. PMID: 19035613
Curry99: Curry, J, Aluru, M, Mendoza, M, Nevarez, J, Melendrez, M, O' Connell, M. A (1999). "Transcripts for posssible capsaicinoid biosynthetic genes are differentially accumulated in pungent and non-pungent Capsicum." Plant Science, 148, 47-57.
Grienenberger09: Grienenberger E, Besseau S, Geoffroy P, Debayle D, Heintz D, Lapierre C, Pollet B, Heitz T, Legrand M (2009). "A BAHD acyltransferase is expressed in the tapetum of Arabidopsis anthers and is involved in the synthesis of hydroxycinnamoyl spermidines." Plant J 58(2);246-59. PMID: 19077165
Ibdah03: Ibdah M, Zhang XH, Schmidt J, Vogt T (2003). "A novel Mg(2+)-dependent O-methyltransferase in the phenylpropanoid metabolism of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum." J Biol Chem 278(45);43961-72. PMID: 12941960
Kopycki08: Kopycki JG, Rauh D, Chumanevich AA, Neumann P, Vogt T, Stubbs MT (2008). "Biochemical and structural analysis of substrate promiscuity in plant Mg2+-dependent O-methyltransferases." J Mol Biol 378(1);154-64. PMID: 18342334
Latendresse13: Latendresse M. (2013). "Computing Gibbs Free Energy of Compounds and Reactions in MetaCyc."
Lepelley07: Lepelley, M, Simkina, A, Cheminadea, G, Cailleta, V, Tremillon, N, McCarthy, J (2007). "Chlorogenic acid synthesis in coffee: An analysis of CGA content and real-time RT-PCR expression of HCT, HQT, C3H1, and CCoAOMT1 genes during grain development in C. canephora." Plant Science, 172, 978-996.
Lin13a: Lin Y, Sun X, Yuan Q, Yan Y (2013). "Combinatorial biosynthesis of plant-specific coumarins in bacteria." Metab Eng 18;69-77. PMID: 23644174
Matsumoto12: Matsumoto S, Mizutani M, Sakata K, Shimizu B (2012). "Molecular cloning and functional analysis of the ortho-hydroxylases of p-coumaroyl coenzyme A/feruloyl coenzyme A involved in formation of umbelliferone and scopoletin in sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam." Phytochemistry 74;49-57. PMID: 22169019
Rubio06: Rubio S, Larson TR, Gonzalez-Guzman M, Alejandro S, Graham IA, Serrano R, Rodriguez PL (2006). "An Arabidopsis mutant impaired in coenzyme A biosynthesis is sugar dependent for seedling establishment." Plant Physiol 140(3);830-43. PMID: 16415216
Vialart11: Vialart G, Hehn A, Olry A, Ito K, Krieger C, Larbat R, Paris C, Shimizu BI, Sugimoto Y, Mizutani M, Bourgaud F (2011). "A 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase from Ruta graveolens L. exhibits p-coumaroyl CoA 2'-hydroxylase activity (C2'H): a missing step in the synthesis of umbelliferone in plants." Plant J. PMID: 22168819
Wils13: Wils CR, Brandt W, Manke K, Vogt T (2013). "A single amino acid determines position specificity of an Arabidopsis thaliana CCoAOMT-like O-methyltransferase." FEBS Lett 587(6);683-9. PMID: 23416302
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
This news release contains certain disclosures that may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "continue," "efforts," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "strategy," "will," "goal," "target," "prospects," "potential," "optimistic," "confident," "likely," "probable" or similar expressions or the negative thereof. Statements of historical fact also may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. We caution that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others: the Company's ability to launch beta and full product releases, the Company's ability to obtain FDA concurrence use for anti-microbial coatings in a timely manner; the Company's ability to meet its obligations under existing and anticipated contractual obligations; the Company's ability to develop, market, sell and distribute desirable applications, products and services and to protect its intellectual property; the ability of the Company's sales force to achieve expected results; the ability of the Company's customers to pay and the timeliness of such payments, particularly during recessionary periods; the Company's ability to obtain financing as and when needed; changes in consumer demands and preferences; the Company's ability to attract and retain management and employees with appropriate skills and expertise; the impact of changes in market, legal and regulatory conditions and in the applicable business environment, including actions of competitors; and other factors. Additional risk factors are listed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading "Risk Factors." The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.
Bacterin International Signs Its Fourth National GPO Contract With The Premier Healthcare Alliance
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|Market Research A to Z | Company Profiles A to Z | Register | Contact Us | Shopping Basket
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24 May 2011
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Femtocells have entered into the growth stage of their lifecycle in 2011. With a range of benefits for enterprise and residential subscribers, Femtocells technology is poised to increase data ARPU for operators across the globe. Using Femtocells, operators can also embark on the value discipline of customer intimacy thereby reducing the churn rates.
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text:
Model Sponge
on ESB
|Episode Information
|Season №:
|Episode №:
|November 27, 2009
|Sister episode(s):
|"Greasy Buffoons"
|Casey Alexander
Zeus Cervas
Doug Lawrence
|Supervising Producer:
|Paul Tibbitt
|Casey Alexander
Zeus Cervas
|Tom Yasumi
|Vincent Waller
|See all credits for this episode.
|"Greasy Buffoons"
|"Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful"
|List of episodes
Simplified list of episodes
"Model Sponge" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season seven. In this episode, SpongeBob believes he is banished from the Krusty Krab, so he finds a new job as a commercial actor.
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Patrick Star
- Squidward Tentacles
- Eugene H. Krabs
- Carpenter
- BBTV Lady
- Mr. Krab's Pet Clam
- Perca Perkins
- Hans
- Director
- Photographer
- Gary the Snail
Listening in on a conversation Mr. Krabs was having on the phone, SpongeBob thinks he's going to get fired because he heard Mr. Krabs was going to "let the little guy go" today. He tries to be taller than Squidward, seeing who was the "little guy," eventually realizing that he is indeed smaller. Distraught, he leaves for home. Back in Mr. Krabs' office, we see him letting the "little guy", a pet scallop in a cage, go and it flies out of the window.
SpongeBob sits at home depressed when Patrick arrived to borrow the refrigerator because his was empty. When he learns of SpongeBob's predicament, he tells him he should find a new job. SpongeBob tries out banking and architecture, but finds that fry cooking is the only thing he knows how to do.With some encouragement from Patrick, he tries out for a sponge role at a TV station and, despite a complete lack of talent, gets it. When SpongeBob arrives at work the next day, he thinks he's going to be a big actor, but it turns out the "acting" he'll be doing is the role of a sponge in a bathroom cleaning commercial. So he gets naked in order to be the New Sponge. Before they get to cleaning the toilet, he quits and returns to the Krusty Krab, begging Mr. Krabs for his old job back. He's lucky enough to get it, under the condition that he also cleans the restaurant's toilets, which he does happily, while a talking hand is reading a newspaper,sitting on one of the toilets.
|( ‣ ) Associated production music
|( • ) Original music
|( ◦ ) SpongeBob music
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [title card]
‣ ? [mirror covered with grime]
‣ ? [SpongeBob cleans it]
• Vibe Sting - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob overhears Krabs on the phone]
• ? - Michael Bolger, Nicolas Carr [Krabs says he'll have to let the little guy go]
‣ Drama Link (d) - Hubert Clifford ["WHAT?!"]
‣ From the Dead - Ronald Hanmer ["Who's the little guy?"]
‣ Goofy Conversation A - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony ["Whew! I am taller!"]
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield ["Oh, who am I kidding?"]
• Botany Bay - Michael Bolger, Nicolas Carr [Krabs was talking about his pet scallop]
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob floats home]
• Seaweed - Steve Belfer [Patrick borrowing SpongeBob's refrigerator]
‣ Wailing Strings - Gerhard Trede ["Oh, get it out of my sight."]
‣ Epilog - Gerhard Trede ["Oh, no! What are you gonna do?!"]
‣ ? [Patrick gets an idea]
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield ["Just do what I do when I'm looking for a job."]
• ? - Nicolas Carr ["I better get some fresh ones."]
‣ ? [SpongeBob reading the want ads]
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob as a bank teller]
• Steel Sting - Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob fired]
• ? - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob as a construction worker]
• ? - Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob fired]
‣ Cocksure Capers - Phillip Green ["I need to start fresh... with a job that feels natural."]
• ? - Nicolas Carr ["Fine, do it your way."]
‣ Box Office - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [TV studio]
• Steel Sting - Jeremy Wakefield ["I've seen clams with more talent than you."]
‣ Curtain-Raiser - Alan Braden [SpongeBob hired]
‣ Broadway Flyer - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin ["Yes, I did, Patrick."]
• ? - Nicolas Carr ["What was that about?"]
‣ Bobbins and Spindles - Ronald Hanmer ["Patrick, when next you see me, it shall be on the television."]
‣ Box Office - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [the next day at the studio]
‣ Befuddled Gent - Phillip Green [SpongeBob's pants removed]
‣ Workaday World - Jack Beaver [New Sponge commercial]
• ? - Jeremy Wakefield ["I don't think I'm cut out for acting."]
‣ Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob begs Krabs to take him back]
• ? - Michael Bolger, Nicolas Carr [ending]
- Mr. Krabs is seen in golf clothes. In Selling Out, he claims that he hates golf.
- This is the fourth appearance of Hans. The first Suds, the second The Smoking Peanut, the third was Imitation Krabs.
- SpongeBob sings badly in this episode and Sleepy Time, but in others, he sings very well.
- It was unknown why they used SpongeBob instead of the product they were advertising. Maybe they didn't have any or the money to buy it. They probably thought it was cheaper to hire a commercial actor for free and not pay them. On the other hand, if they did use the product they were advertising, the commercial would have been better.
- The name for the advertised product is New Sponge. This is not a very good name, because even when it's old, it'll still say 'New'.
- Even with SpongeBob's job, he could still have financial problems because of his low salary, but in many other episodes, he could be seen with a lot of money.
- This episode reveals that Mr. Krabs had a pet scallop.
- This is the last episode of the series to air in 2009.
- The music heard at BBTV is the same as The Sims: Superstar.
- One kitchen sponge could not possibly pick up that much dirt. In addition, Spongebob is a kitchen sponge, so cleaning the toilet was totally unnecessary.
- In Suds, SpongeBob was happy when he was used to clean things. This time, he gets upset about it, drawing the line at cleaning the toilet. He was never used to clean a toilet; that was Patrick.
- SpongeBob didn't know what the job was although the BBTV Lady gave him a script.
- The bathroom shown look's like the one shown in Sandy's Treedome in the episode Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy.
- In this episode, SpongeBob is almost used to clean a toilet. He is actually used to clean a toilet in "Home Sweet Rubble."
- When Spongebob is kicked off the House building job, when he gets thrown into the sand the krabby patty house he designs is no where In sight and the tower is not there when spongebob shows the worker the house.
Cultural References
- The scene where SpongeBob was thinking of a suitable job while standing in front of a billboard is reminiscent of the series Dora the Explorer.
- When the hook takes off SpongeBob's clothes, SpongeBob's sleeves are still on, but in the next scene, they're gone.
- While SpongeBob still has his clothes on, the bathroom background seems to be clean.
- When SpongeBob first enters the set of the commercial, everything is normal sized, but after the filming starts, the set is so big that SpongeBob seems to be the size of a normal kitchen sponge, and to add to that, once the filming stops, the set is normal sized again.
- When spongebob leaves the Krusty Krab He shows up at numerous jobs and when he applies to the New Sponge commercial he is told by the desk clerk to come back tomorrow at 10 am. It is unknown why this whole time Mr.Krabs does not try to find Spongebob as there would be no fry cook and no business spongebob would've most likely been out of the job for days at new jobs, so it is unknown why Mr.Krabs did nothing.


text:
אנחנו בפייסבוק
Rocket fired from Gaza falls in open spaces in Shaar HaNegev Regional Council, causing no damage
Tova Dadon
Published: 04.04.10, 23:23 / Israel News
Tova Dadon
A Qassam rocket fired from Gaza late Sunday evening hit open spaces in Shaar HaNegev Regional Council. No injuries or damage have been reported.
Hamas' security forces have been hunting down Salafi cells operating in Gaza.


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text:
May 5, 2016
The three models I primarily use (The GFS, ECMWF, and FNMOC), all show two fronts coming through next week. It will probably be cold and windy with both frontal passages, but the coldness of the air mass is trending less intense than this week's big chill.
However, we'll be right on the edge of the jet stream flow, with a deep upper low to the east and a ridge to the west. A westward jog in the low's position would shift the deeper cold our way (more below map).
For now I'm forecasting lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s for next week behind these two fronts. As for snow, the models are all over the road, but in general a fairly dry atmosphere suggests any precipitation would be light.
Take Care,
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