Maya Spiritualität und Globalisierung - Lateinamerika-Studien Online

„Nawal it’s not a very common use, it is for anthropologist. That can
mean any different thing, if you mean the animals, say animals
protectors for instance. It’s not very common here, there are some
it’s the direct translation dog, other are symbolic like the rabbit for
Q´anil. But most of the people will certainly not give you a list of an
animal that goes with each one. There are other parts of the Mayan
world in which the specific animal is assigned to the days. Most of
the people I know takes it from the Chilam Balam from Mexico, but
it’s not part of their tradition as well. It can exist but I wouldn’t give
it too much prominence. The people here use it usually as a symbol,
for instance someone is born at the day T´zi and the dog is the
symbol, they warn the person not to fight with the companeros, like
dogs fight with each other. They will tell them to emphasis their
qualities of loyalty as a dog can be loyal. So there are some elements
of people think at the animal that is assigned to the day as I say as
a symbolic nature of the day for the person who is born on this day
or doing a ceremony on that day or thinking at one’s activities at
that day. A symbol more than an alter-ego. People having a personal
protector-animal and whose destiny sharps the destiny, when some
animal is killed some harm will the person as well. That’s nothing
that comes across here. It’s not a very strong thing here at all. Most
there is a common dread according the interpretation of the Mayan
calendar. It’s been served in an oral culture. They kept it within in
the community, each community will develop it’s own
interpretations through the traditions of isolation. I think there was
never a time where the whole Mayan world had the same
interpretation of the days. There are always local variations.
Diversity exists, diversity is the richness of the whole tradition.
There are no economical possibilities to travel, and they have quite
distinct traditions, like Quiche, Mam,... Sometimes written
documents overcame local traditions. I’ve seen communities where
groups of Mayan priests read from documents in Spanish written by
Mayan priests from the Quiche-speaking area and it’s not part of
their own tradition, it’s foreign. Because it’s printed, because it’s
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