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

Offering-focussed Behavior

A principal religious activity is the giving of offerings, which may be in the form of flowers, candles, and copal incense (nich, nichim, and pom), or in the form of a gift (majtan) or service (pät). The phrase ’to give an offering’, majtan ’ak’ (literally, ’gift-give’), is an archaic form of verb phrase with an incorporated object, rarely used in modern Chol but whose antiquity is well attested by the occurrence of similar constructions in related languages. The element of exchange is implied by the derivation of this verb stem from maj ’loaned/borrowed’ (as in maj-an ’loaned’). A ’gift’ is something ’made loaned or borrowed’.  The sense of this phrase in the context is that something is expected back for the offering made, and this is a basic principle of Chol religious behavior.

The great majority of pilgrims come to Tila to make a promesa, Spanish for ’vow, promise, pledge’.  In effect they enter into a contract or compact with the Señor de Tila, promising to give goods or services in return for health, wealth, or some other benefit. To show good faith, they make their petitions with gifts, while pledging other future gifts. The pledge is not without its risks if the petitioner fails to hold up his or her end of the bargain. The Chol term for ’to make a pledge (promesa)’ is i-wa’-täl i-kux-täl ’his life stands (in the balance)’, that is, ’he pledges his life’.  The theme of repayment is common in Chol folktales, where one who takes without paying before will end up paying more later.

Because of what is at stake, petitions to supernaturals commonly take place through intermediaries, persons who are skilled in the necessary sort of delicate approach. The aj k’atiyaj ’those who ask’ or the xpejkanyosob (also i-pejkan-ob i-bä yik’ot yos) ’those who speak with God’, and the xsub-nichimob ’those who offer the candles’, mediate between the petitioner and the deity addressed. These are often old men who have passed through the cargo system and who are now part of the group of trensipalojob or tatuches, the elders of the community.

The cargoholders, x-ch’uj-wanaj, also serve as mediators, and cargo work is ch’ujulbä e’tel, ’holy work’.  Various terms express aspects of the responsibility of public office in the cargo system. A previously unreported term is xik’ol ’mandato; mandate’, attested in the phrase ch’ujbin i-xik’ol ’to accept one’s mandate, to carry out one’s functions’.  Another term is pät ’to do [activities]’, which carries the sense of bringing the activities to a satisfactory end: pät ch’ujel ’to celebrate mass’; pät wa’täl kuxtäl ’to carry out pledges’; pät-ben k’in (i-tojlel) ’to perform festivals (in his honor)’. Pät-äl-el is ’force’, and the construction of a house is päjt-el ’(its) doing’.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page