This is a well crafted, engaging, and illuminating reconstruction of Tzutujil Maya society in highland Guatemala, from Post-Classic times through the first one hundred years of conquest and Spanish contact. It is an in-depth study of a peripheral Indian society, and the specific changes that occurred because of contact. The work throws light on the process of adaptation by which Indian societies in general responded to the onslaught of Spanish institutions and policies. The book is also intended to “bridge the gap” that exists between the accounts of pre-Hispanic society and accounts of the colonial period.
Sandra Orellana is at ease in her handling of both the pre-Hispanic and colonial Tzutujils, and through solid grounding in interdisciplinary methods, she succeeds in establishing the boundaries of aboriginal society. She then proceeds to compare and analyze the consequences of contact and resulting acculturation among the Tzutujils. What she reveals are gradual, grudgingly given increments that may be divided into three fairly well defined ministages of acculturation from circa 1524 to 1630. The conclusion is that the conquest was disruptive, in some ways chaotic, but that Spanish culture and institutions—social, political, economic, and religious—were predicated upon institutions and cultural patterns that had been entrenched for centuries in highland Guatemala.
The Tzutujil Mayas is a fine example of the new ethnohistory in which reliance is placed increasingly upon native documentation and upon Spanish sources having to do with local native matters. Because of the nature of the material, the work has a sense of immediacy. It is not loaded down with the pessimism that invariably besets research done from a total dependence upon Spanish institutional documentation, or a timespan that encompasses the entire colonial period. Change takes place selectively, slowly; native customs give way begrudgingly. Orellana’s sources reveal that in spite of the tremendous pressures brought on by the Spanish presence, Tzutujil society prevailed and determined the rate, form, and degree of penetration of Spanish institutions.
Yet the book may still be considered institutional history. Orellana’s advances are making comparisons, linking, and giving continuity to aboriginal and colonial Tzutujil categories and institutions. Because her colonial sources are in great part local, Orellana does give a glimpse of individuals in action. Aboriginal society, however, needs “fleshing out.” Also, there is no escaping the fact that the emphasis in this work is on the residual elements of aboriginal society as the colonial period advances. There is a need to go deeper into the sources, perhaps through the native language, the ultimate step in immersion into Indian society. There is some evidence that Orellana has begun the process, but it is not far enough along in this book.
