Chol Ritual Language
with Terrence Lee Folmar, Heidi Altman, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, and Bernardo Pérez Martínez
©1996 J. Kathryn Josserand and Nicholas A. Hopkins

Terms for Ceremonial Office

The Tila dialect of Chol reflects Tila’s importance as a center of ceremonial activity. Tila Chol’s ritual vocabulary includes a large number of terms related to ceremonial statuses and roles, especially the offices associated with the cargo system. These offices are hierarchically organized, and there are specific terms for the individual offices, different ranks of offices, and the duties, activities, and paraphernalia associated with the exercise of holding office. Many of these terms are, or include parts which are, borrowed from Spanish. These terms are usually derived from a provincial variety of Colonial Spanish, and they have often undergone phonological changes as they have assimilated to other, native, Chol vocabulary patterns. Other terms for ritual offices are native Chol terms; some of these exemplify lexicon or constructions which have not been previously reported, and which shed light on earlier Classic Chol culture.

According to Pérez Chacón (1988), three large groups yield effective political power in Tila: the municipal government, the official church hierarchy, and the traditional religious hierarchy associated with the cargo system, a sodality of year-long religious service to the community. The religious hierarchy includes not only the current cargoholders at any given time, but all the past office holders–the respected elders (Spanish principales)–as well as shamanic curers and other practitioners of traditional medicine.

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