Change in Literacy and Literature in Highland Guatemala, Precontact to Present

The Maya people have long traditions of literacy, but the evidence of this literacy varies within regions. In the highlands, literacy switched to alphabetic representations shortly after contact, and as the indigenous nobility was extinguished, writing shifted more and more toward Spanish. Indigenous literacies retreated to the domains of weaving and spirituality. Symbols from both the glyphic writing system and the iconography of precontact textiles gained new interpretations in these media.