Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2019, Spanish

This thesis explains how three forms of contemporary Mayan art--music, weavings and murals--form part of the larger effort in Guatemala to revitalize Mayan languages and culture, known as the Mayan Movement. This movement began in the 1990's after the end of Guatemala's 36-year long genocidal and ethnocidal civil war. The research focuses on three case studies: 1) a Mayan hip hop group that retells ancient myths through Spanish and Mayan-language lyrics, 2) a Mayan weaving cooperative that has taken advantage of the often culturally damaging tourism industry to raise awareness about the lasting effects of the civil war, and 3) a mural painted by a Mayan art collective depicting the people's history of Mayans in Guatemala from the genesis of the first human beings to present day. Each chapter analyzes the symbolism and cultural knowledge communicated by a different form of artwork, often relating them back to ancient Mayan myths, and concludes that each form of art constitutes a form of survivance, a combination of “survival” and “endurance” that refers to the active presence of indigenous peoples, worldviews, and ways of life in the world today, that inherently defies the historical and contemporary attempts to erase them.

Committee: Betsy Partyka Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Fine Arts; History; Language; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Modern History; Native American Studies; Native Studies; Political Science