Abstract

ESTRADA OCHOA, Adriana C.. Li Tzuultaq'a ut li ch'och'. Una visión de la tierra, el mundo y la identidad a través de la tradición oral q'eqchi' de Guatemala. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2006, vol.27, pp.149-163. ISSN 0185-2574.

Just as it happens with other Mesoamerican peoples, for the Q'eqchi' the earth is full of several and complex meanings, involving material, historical, social and cultural dimensions. The earth is closely associated with Q'eqchi' identity, at both personal and communitarian level. According to Q'eqchi' oral tradition, the earth is a sacred being, an alterity who has an everyday participation on the definition of ethnic identity. Earth is also an important character of cosmogónical narrative, one who, in primordial times, provided manhood of food as well as material and technological tools for cultural existence. Earth is also a link with the ancestors who, along with other alterities, still live in contemporary Q'eqchi' universe. This article discusses Q'eqchi' worldvision in relation to the sacred aspect of nature, as a way to show the persistence of it for their contemporary ethnic identity discourse.