San Antonio College Library

The author tells the story of his life in the Mayan community of Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala, discussing how he came to be accepted by the villagers even though he was an outsider, and sharing details of the spiritual and philosophical traditions of the Mayan people.

"Marshaling a wealth of evidence from Pre-Columbian texts, early colonial Spanish writings, and decades of fieldwork with present-day Maya, The Burden of the Ancients presents a masterfully detailed account of world-renewing ceremonies that spans the Pre-Columbian era through the crisis of the Conquest period and the subsequent colonial occupation all the way to the present. Allen J. Christenson focuses on Santiago Atitlán, a Tz'utujil Maya community...