Preserve the Maya language!

Talking with Jose Canché was a bit surreal and very interesting. He is a member from one of the wards I served in on my mission in Los Angeles. I met him because he approached us asking us if we knew of a way he could get a Book of Mormon in Maya (officially classified by linguists as Maya- Yucatán). Yes, the same language passed down from the mysterious Ancient Mayan people. Jose is from Guatemala near the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. He grew up speaking the language Maya. It isn't one of the 22 or so dialects found in Guatemala, rather it is simply Maya. 

map of the Ancient Mayan empire (green)

As we talked, we went on many interesting tangents. One interesting and very reassuring tangent was the hot debate of when the world is going to end. He stated the world cannot end in the year 2012 like many people believe based on the Mayan calendar. He said the Mayan calendar only predicts a large event that will change the world. He went on to say: "how can the world possibly end in 2012 when the mayan calendar predicts a massive meteor will hit the Long Beach/Los Angeles area in around 2030? Very comforting, I know...

temple at Chichen Itza (see map, upper Yucatán Peninsula)

We talked more about how advanced the Mayan civilization was with their famous precise calendar, majestic temples and architecture, astronomy and elaborate underground reservoirs to store rainwater.

Mayan calendar

The focus of the interview however was the Mayan language and learning methods. He confirmed what we discussed in my last post and its comments, that the Ancient learning system was fairly narrow. Literacy was vastly more common among the rulers and the priests, both of which were the established leadership. Like many civilizations, this created a divergence in the education levels of the different classes of people. Again in my last post, I stated that many people ancient and modern, like the man interviewed by the translator Allen J. Christenson, did not know of any Mayan literature. This obviously creates some problems in preserving the culture, history and language of the Mayans.

He continued saying that the Mayan language is very old and has been passed down through the "average citizens" if you will, or the people who do not have much reading and writing learning. He told me it has been so difficult to preserve this rich culture that many laws as well as private and government programs alike have been started. Some additional information on this topic can be found here and here. This creates problems in today's society because most of our knowledge on the culture and language comes orally from people still alive with direct Mayan ancestry rather than written historical sources . He spoke of his grandmother being a prime example of these kinds of people. She cannot speak any Spanish or any language/dialect other than Maya (whereas he learned how to speak Spanish since living in Los Angeles for the past three years). She still follows the older Mayan styles of dress, food and culture.

traditional Mayan dress

We have talked a lot in class and on our group blog about how, given our culture and present time, we have been trained to only observe and learn about ancient cultures through written historical accounts. We often discredit oral histories without realizing there value and place among learning. It is engaging, interesting and informative to hear from a first hand source. I believe our discussion on experience from Alicia's most recent post is very relevant to this topic of how receive our information. Most of us are experts in our cultures or other areas of learning, not because we studied them extensively in an institutionalized setting but rather we gain this expertise from living in the given culture on a day to day basis. This makes me really think about all the different ways I obtain knowledge and I have rethought what I value. I consider things like having a cultural identity and awareness or small things like not touching a light stove burner to be often times more useful and important than scientific equations. Again, as I look at a given day more of my learning comes with interacting with the world through oral language than other means. I guess it just depends in the area of learning as to which is better written, oral or others. In the end our learning is all about sharing experiences to others through the means of language, oral or otherwise.