La Ceremonia del Pascual Abaj

sova.nmai.ac.071_ref88

See more items in: Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala; Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala / Series 3: K'iche' / 3.1: K'iche' photographic prints

Collection Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala, image #, NMAI.AC.071; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Scope and Contents: Photograph of the Ceremony at Pascual Abaj. Photographed by Michael Plyler in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Same image as Roll 19 in Subseries 3.2. Description from Plyler: "Pascual Abaj is a small hill on the outskirts of Chichi where the local maya go to perform ceremonial rituals. There are different rituals performed depending on the desires of the person performing the ritual. You could be asking for a good crop that year, or safe passage on a journey, or that your child will be born whole and healthy. All kinds of stuff. One ritual involves the decapitation of a chicken. So one morning I hiked up there and found this gentleman about to perform his ceremony. I asked if I could photograph him. He said I could if I paid him. We agreed on a price and I set up the Mamiya on a tripod. He began and started his incantations in his Mayan dialect, K'iche'. I kept firing away and went through about one and one half rolls when he stopped mid-sentence and said, 'You're taking a lot of photos." I agreed. He wanted more money. I said, 'Ok, but once we agree on this price I want to take as many photos as I like and don't want to pay any more after that.' He agreed. When he was all finished I asked about the chicken decapitation ceremony. With a big grin on his face he said, 'If you want to photograph that, it will cost you a lot of money.'"

Collection Restrictions: Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).

NMAI.AC.071_ref88

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4243c00e8-c639-4d1a-a6b1-e0a1e92584b9

NMAI.AC.071

NMAIA

Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala

Creator

Plyler, Michael, 1955-

Summary

This collection consists of photographic prints, negatives, and transparencies taken by Michael Plyler between 1982 and 2018 that depict the everyday lives of five Highland Maya community groups from Guatemala. Also included are images of churches, buildings, and historic structures from Guatemala.