Research Catalog

Title

Converting words : Maya in the age of the cross / William F. Hanks.

Author

Hanks, William F.

Publication

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxiii, 439 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"This synthesis of history, anthropology, and linguistics gives a view of the first two hundred years of the Spanish colonization of the Yucatec Maya. Drawing on a range of sources, it documents the crucial role played by language in cultural conquest: how colonial Mayan emerged in the age of the cross, how it was taken up by native writers to become the language of indigenous literature, and how it ultimately became the language of rebellion against the system that produced it. The book includes analyses of the linguistic practices of both missionaries and Mayas—as found in bilingual dictionaries, grammars, catechisms, land documents, native chronicles, petitions, and the forbidden Maya Books of Chilam Balam. It presents an approach to the study of religious and cultural conversion that aims to illuminate the history of Latin America and beyond."--

Series Statement

Anthropology of Christianity ; 6

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Anthropology of Christianity ; 6.

Subject

• Catholic Church > Missions > Yucatán (State)
• 1540-1810
• Mayas > Religion
• Mayas > Colonization
• Christianity and other religions > Yucatán (State)
• Christianity and culture > Yucatán (State)
• Maya language > Yucatán (State) > Influence on Spanish
• Spanish language > Yucatán (State) > Influence on Maya
• Catechisms, Spanish
• Maya language > Influence on Spanish > Yucatán (State)
• Spanish language > Influence on Maya > Yucatán (State)
• Mexico > History > Spanish colony, 1540-1810
• Spain > Administration. > America

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction : The field of discourse production -- Part I: The scope of Reducción. Perpetual Reducción in a land of frontiers ; To make themselves new men -- Part II: Converting words. From field to genre and habitus ; First words : from Spanish into Maya ; Commensuration : Maya as a matrix language ; The grammar of Reducción and the art of speaking ; The canonical word -- Part III: Into the breach : the dispersion of Maya Reducido. The scripted landscape ; Petitions as prayers in the field of Reducción ; Cross talk in the books of Chilam Balam -- Epilogue : Full circle.

ISBN

• 9780520257702 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0520257707 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 9780520257719 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0520257715 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009030688

OCLC

• 317461919
• SCSB-10451996

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library