PROVO, Utah (March 27, 2014)—Many people think that the Maya was an ancient culture that doesn’t exist anymore, but in reality, “there are millions of them out there,” Dr. Allen Christenson said at an American Studies lecture at Brigham Young University. Christenson, a professor of Humanities at BYU, shared his experiences as a missionary and an anthropologist working among the Maya.
Christenson’s love of the Maya began as a missionary. He was called to serve in Guatemala, arrived right after a large earthquake, and spent the first part of his mission in the earthquake relocation camp.
But, Christenson said, “I always thought that I would much rather be in the mountains. I was fascinated with the Maya.” However, there were no Maya missionaries. There were rumors that the Maya were cannibals.”
Christenson said that his mission president selected six missionaries to work among the Maya. The selected missionaries had to build their own house and live without electricity or running water. Also, there were no books to learn the language and there were no members.
As he began working among the Maya, Christenson found out they weren’t cannibals. “They had a sense of humor; they were fun guys,” he said.
After his mission, Christenson worked as translator; he was an anthropologist and a linguist.
Most anthropologists found it difficult to work and study among the Maya because the Maya believed that the work was designated only to priests. But when Christenson went, the priest he worked with was excited because Christenson wanted to preserve the religion and culture.
The priest wanted to take Christenson on as an understudy, but unless the ancestors call you to do it, you can’t do it. “You’re called by dreams,” Christenson said. But unfortunately, Christenson said that he could never remember his dreams. “But one time, I did,” and the priest decided he had been called by the ancestors and continue working with him.
The Maya believe that everything is carried in the blood, including memories. Christenson said, “Ceremonies and prayers aren’t learned. To them, it’s learning how to remember it through your blood.”
“We would walk along trails,” Christenson said. “They don’t explain; they do and you watch, because you have to learn to bring it forth from the blood.”
In one particular area where he was doing translation work, looking at the Maya creation story and translating the Popol Vuh, he was walking back to his house and came across a village he had never been before. The people asked him what he was doing, and Christenson replied that he was “gathering the words of the fathers.” Christenson explained that the people didn’t know that the ancestors knew how to read and write.
Christenson read a passage relating the creation story to the people in the village. He said, “As I read, the people looked up at the stars because they believed the ancestors are the stars. The villagers said, ‘Great are our ancient mothers and fathers here tonight. You have resurrected them. If you read their words, you resurrect them.’
“The Maya believe the gods were artists and painters, that they paint things into existence,” Christenson said, “the creator gods say this: ‘May we be called upon, and may we remember. For it is with words that we are sustained, thus may it be spoken. May it be sown.”
Christenson continued, “The word ‘remember’ is important. When Maya do ceremonies, they are remembering the gods and bringing them forth. The purpose of the ceremonies is to rebirth the world.”
Christenson had the opportunity to go back to Guatemala and visit the man who trained his as a priest. When he went, he took a photo of the community from years before. “The man was overjoyed. He recognized all of the people in the picture. I asked, ‘How do you know them?’ He said, ‘We all know them. They still visit us in dreams and in person. We know their faces. This is our heritage. These people are alive because I carry them, I remember them.’”
The Maya believe that listening to stories or hearing music changes you. When you read literature or see art, you resurrect it.
“That’s why I do humanities, linguistics and anthropology,” Christenson said, “Because it resurrects.
In these fields, “you get to resurrect Bach, Melville, Hemingway. You resurrect. You are vessels for them. If you don’t share it, you let it die,” Christenson said. “But I’m resurrecting. That’s what makes life worth living.”
For more information about Dr. Christenson and his studies on the Maya, visit his BYU page.
—By Stephanie Bahr Bentley BA English ‘14