Story Cycles in Chol (Mayan) Mythology: Contextualizing Classic Iconography
with Nicholas A. Hopkins, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, Ashley Kistler, and Kayla Price

Suggestions for Future Research

There is a steadily increasing corpus of materials available in Chol, much of which includes folktales of the sort we have sought to collect. Government-sponsored educational projects and publication series continuously produce new literature. Although much of this literature is ephemeral, produced on a small scale and available only locally, this corpus should continue to be reported and analyzed by scholars interested in Mayan folklore. We include some of these new sources in the Bibliography below; these sources include versions of stories we have already collected as well as a few tales new to the corpus. This literature should continue to be monitored for traditional stories as well as for new trends, since we have noted many new stories that do not follow traditional patterns of text structure and do not treat traditional themes.

Chol is not the only Mayan language related to the language of Classic Maya culture. Two other modern languages, Chontal and Chortí, spoken in Tabasco, México, and western Honduras, respectively, are also descended from the Classic language, and a number of other Mayan languages are descended from Classic Period languages spoken in the greater sphere of Classic Mayan culture, if not in the Classic homeland itself. Tzeltal and Tzotzil, currently spoken in the Chiapas Highlands to the south of the Chol region of Chiapas, are the premier members of the latter set of languages. Yucatecan Maya oral literature has similar literary structures, but its content is distinct and it features a distinct set of protagonists (for example, see Hofling 1991 for Itzaj Maya texts).

Our understanding of Classic Maya mythology would be enhanced if the literatures of Chontal, Chortí, Tzeltal, and Tzotzil were to be examined and extended as we have attempted to do for Chol oral literature. Research on Chol has been particularly critical, since there is no known Colonial material from Chol, and there are at least scattered reports on the other relevant languages. Modern material on Tzeltal and Tzotzil is much more extensive than that which exists on Chol. We have noted, however, that the folktales of the Tzeltal are similar in style and content to the Chol tales we have recorded, and one scholar (Stross 1977, 1978, and elsewhere) has pointed out parallels between the Tzeltal tradition and that of the Tzotzil, which is particularly well reported (Gossen 1974, 1977; Laughlin 1977, 1996).

The comparability of folktales across the Chiapas Mayan languages is readily apparent. Stross, for instance, reports a Tzeltal version of the Dog Informer in which the dog informs on his mistress and the lover’s penis is cut off and fed to the wife (Hunting Dog; Stross 1977). His inventory of "demons and monsters" includes Black Demon (Tzeltal h’ihk’al or kichan), Backwards Foot (hwalak’ ’ok), Rabid Demon, Tree Moss, and Longhair, more or less corresponding to the Chol Black Man (and the Kichañob), Feet on Backwards, and various Savages. His tales include stories of Transformers like Flesh Dropper.

Recently published Tzotzil stories include The Wild Black Man (Gómez 2000) and Big Hat (López Calixto Méndez 2000). Further afield, but still within the area of Lowland Classic Maya civilization, the character Sisimite, prominent in the folktales of the Belize Maya and Mopan as well as the Chorti and Kekchi (Ventur 1986:xxv-xxvi), has the features of Feet on Backwards, and other characters recall the Chol figures Sombrerón and Salvaje.

In some Mayan languages, the repertory of tales is similar, but there are notable differences. In Hofling’s (1991) collection of Itza stories, for instance, a man tricks and captures a jaguar much like Chols deal with the Savage (Man and Jaguar). In another tale, one of two brothers transforms into a jaguar after putting on its fresh skin; he then pursues his human brother like the Chol jaguars that have taken human form (Two Brothers and a Beast). In yet another tale, there is competition, but not a race, between the Rabbit and the Fox. Such Trickster stories are common in some Mayan languages (e.g., Chuj), but do not have a prominent place in Chol folklore.

Even a cursory examination of the corpus of Mayan folklore, much of which is only now becoming available for scholarly attention, is enough to suggest this is a very rich vein to be mined for cultural insights and intergroup relationships. A thorough scholarly examination of the rich folklore of Mayan language speakers in terms of the inventory of characters and the motifs and morals presented, as well as the distribution of variants, could ultimately make key contributions to the understanding of Classic Maya art and iconography.

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