Survey of Talking Cross Shrines in Yucatán and Quintana Roo

Project Design and Methods

My research utilizes several methodological approaches: I employ a historical-archaeological foundation and focus on iconographic representations of Maya "crosses"; upon this I add ethnographic research, my own and by other scholars, conducted in Maya villages. Through this interdisciplinary methodology, which I term "Icono-Symbolic Reconstruction," I propose to demonstrate, in my dissertation, that the communicating cross was in fact not a "new" phenomenon, not an "invention," created during the Caste War, but was most probably already present in "traditional" Maya cosmology in vestigial form from pre-Columbian times.

In order to gather data pertinent to my analysis, my survey documented cross use, distribution, function, and meaning through a program of ethnographic data collection analyzing the historical process of reproduction and transformation of socio-religious institutions. Focus was placed on how these processes affirm links to the past and how reconstruction of the past is utilized to sanction contemporary ritual practice, and maintain community and regional integration. Variation in cross shrine attributes were documented at each household and community shrine and focused on four kinds of data: shrine attributes, types of crosses, cross attributes, and the socio-economic status of the households and villages (on a regional scale) which maintain these facilities.

Variables in cross and shrine attributes included: cross form, cross accoutrements/iconography, cross offerings, cross placement, cross use, cross meaning, cross context (house, oratorio, community shrine), spatial position (yard or plaza), type and size of cross shrine space, and ownership (individual or community). I recorded cross attributes (facility, decoration, context) through photographs (if allowed), and drawings, in order to analyze Maya "oracular" ritual throughout the continuum of household and community religious practice. The relationship between cross ideology and village organization was assessed through open ended conversations with shamans and shrine keepers, and also by observant participation in rituals.

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