Under the direction of Dr. Payson Sheets, MS Linda Brown will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct ethnographic research among Mayan speaking peoples in the highland Guatemalan village of Santiago Atitlan and record information on local level, rural religious practices as well as the material byproducts of these. She will then use this information to interpret archaeological materials and gain insight into prehistoric Mayan ritual. Ethnographers who work in Middle American has distinguished between "Great" and "Little" religious traditions. The "Great Tradition" refers to large scale state sponsored religion which after Spanish settlement became Catholicism. The "Little Tradition" consists of deeply rooted locally based traditional practices which involve, among other things, feasting, ritual intoxication, shrines and burial practices. These serve to forge community unity and provide a set of principles which help to order local life. Because these practices were recorded by early Spanish observers and were widespread in the Mayan region, they likely are of considerable antiquity and most probably played an important role in prehistoric social organization. While archaeologists have directed great attention to the excavation of monumental temples and gained considerable insight into the prehistoric Great Tradition, its smaller counterpart is poorly understood. The goal of MS Brown's research is to remedy this situation. Because it is unclear what the archaeological signatures of a Little Tradition might be, MS Brown will begin in the ethnographic present and study such practices in a traditional Mayan village. She will interview practitioners and observe the potential material signatures which rituals produce. She will map their spatial placement on the landscape and conduct controlled excavations at recent sites to determine how they are incorporated into the archaeological record. With this information she will then analyze materials from two structures at the prehistoric Mayan site of Ceren. Buried in a catastrophic volcanic eruption, Ceren provides unparalleled insight into prehistoric Mayan life. Researchers believe that several areas within the site were foci of Small Tradition ritual but it has been difficult to determine how such an hypothesis might be tested.
This research is important for several reasons. Archaeologists wish to understand the bases of prehistoric Mayan social organization which allowed the development of this civilization and MS Brown's work is directly relevant to this goal. The ethnographic data she collects will be potentially valuable in the interpretation of many Mayan sites. This award will also assist in training a promising young scientist.
