The Poetics of the Ancestor Songs of the Tz’utujil Maya of Guatemala

Authors

Linda O’Brien-Rothe Ph.D., The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala: Centro de Estudios FolklóricosFollow

Abstract

This essay attempts to define the relationship between a song tradition that survives in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala, and 16th century poetic Mayan literature. This song tradition of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala is slowly disappearing as the socio-cultural context in which it flourished changes. By comparing the poetics of the song texts (including their rhythmic structure, versification, and use of poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia) to the poetics of the Popol Vuh, a K’iché Maya text probably copied from a manuscript that predates the Spanish invasion, a continuity is discovered that places the song texts squarely within the tradition of Mayan literature and suggests common origins.

Recommended Citation

O’Brien-Rothe, Linda Ph.D. (2010) "The Poetics of the Ancestor Songs of the Tz’utujil Maya of Guatemala," Journal of International and Global Studies: Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62608/2158-0669.1019
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/jigs/vol1/iss2/4

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