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alcheringa:1-2:rabinal_achi_part_iv [2021/10/17 14:55] – [Characters] laura_lopezalcheringa:1-2:rabinal_achi_part_iv [2022/02/17 02:07] (current) – admin
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 ====== Rabinal Achi Part IV ====== ====== Rabinal Achi Part IV ======
 +
 +{{ :alcheringa:1-2:rabinal_achi_part_iv-from-alcheringa_1-2_summer-1971-2.pdf |}}
  
 ====== Overview ====== ====== Overview ======
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-====== Characters ======+====== Context ====== 
 +Before the invasion of Mesoamerican civilizations, kingdoms would sponsor public dramas that portrayed major historical events. Typically, the dialogue was either sung back and forth by two choruses or while actors danced, a single chorus sang everything.
  
-**Man of Rabinal=** A warrior in the service of Lord Five Thunder (rules the Rabinal nation from a fortress on a mountaintop)+According to Dennis Tedlock in his book //Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice,// "The early missionaries intervened in Mayan theater on a massive scale, substituting Christian hymns for Mayan songs or suppressing traditional productions altogether." (2) When Europeans introduced their plays, they also introduced writing down a script. The first scripts of the //Rabinal Achi//, which have since been discarded or lost, go as far back as the 16th century.
  
-**Eagle and Jaguar=** These two characters, who are named for the sources of their spiritual powers, guard the boundaries of Lord Five Thunder's court and kingdom+However, //Rabinal Achi// is a descendent of one of the most popular plays to be produced in the early colonial period, possibly because it was contrary to the purpose of their colonizers. 
  
-**The Mother of Quetzal Feathers=** The unmarried daughter of Lord Five Thunder+//Rabinal Achi// is a dramatization of the capture and sacrifice of prisoners of war. The current script in use dates back to 1913.
  
-**Lady=** The wife of Lord Five Thunder 
  
-**A slave, Ixok Mun** 
  
-**Cawek of the Forest People=** A rebel warrior from the neighboring Quiché nation captured by the Man of Rabinal and brought before the court of Lord Five Thunder who consequently loses his head after being given recognition of his status of nobility 
  
-====== Translations of Terms in Alcheringa Reading in Order of Appearance====== 
  
-**Quiché-Achí= ** Quiché Man 
  
-**Hobtoh Rabinal-Rahaual=** Great Chief Five Rains +====== Commentary ======
- +
-**Salutation repeated several times when the Quiché man speaks=** Cala-Achí! (Hail- Man!) Ha! Aha! Yeha! (Hail!) Ahau! (Chief) Wow! Achí! (Man) I: Quiché-Achí (Quiché-Man) Balam-Achí (Sorcerer-Man) Balam-Quiché (Sorcerer-Quiché) Rahaual-Quiché-Vinak Quiché-Vinak (High chief-Quiché-(Human) Being Quiché-(Human) Being)+
    
-**Oyeu Achí!=** Brave man!+"The play portrays Lord Five Thunder and Man of Rabinal as loyal supporters of an old order that has been disrupted by the unauthorized actions of Cawek." (Tedlock 3)
  
-**Galel Achí!** Eminent man!+Quiché-Achí threatens Chief Five Rains, but Chief Five Rains responds that he will now pay saying, “you’re going to die in this place, to disappear in this place.” 
  
-**Vinak=** (Human) being+Quiché-Achí admits that he’s done wrong and asks for food and drink from Chief Five Rains before he dies. He is provided food and drink which he consumes and then insults Chief Five Rain stating that the food and drink in his lands is better.
  
-**Rahaual Cavek Quiché Vinak=** High Chief Cavek Quiché (Cavek-Quiché is one of the tribes of the Quiché people) (Human) Being+He continues to make requests by asking for a piece of cloth which he is provided as “a supreme signal of his dying and of his disappearance” and then asks for music from the flute and drums. Quiché-Achí then dances around in the middle of the Court.
  
-**Cavek Quiché Vinak!=** Cavek-Quiché (one of the tribes of the Quiché) (Human) Being!+Next, he asks to dance with Chief Five Rain’s daughter and they dance together before the court. He then asks to parade with Chief Five Rain’s 12 golden eagles and 12 golden jaguars. After which he insults them for not having any teeth or talons. He then asks for 260 days to salute his mountains’ and valleys’ faces. In the performance he then approaches the eagles and jaguars at the altar and questions whether he really has to die, has to disappear and then concludes, “Come on then! Let’s get your work done! Let’s get your duty over with. They then surround him, place him on the altar and execute him. 
  
-**Quiché Vinak!=** Quiché (human) being! 
- 
- 
-====== Commentary ====== 
-  
-"The play portrays Lord Five Thunder and Man of Rabinal as loyal supporters of an old order that has been disrupted by the unauthorized actions of Cawek." (Tedlock 3) 
  
 In the end, Cawek accepts defeat, confesses to multiple offenses, and accepts his death. "This is an important point, because one of the recurrent themes running through the literature on the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica is that their attitude toward life was and still is fatalistic." (Tedlock 4) In the end, Cawek accepts defeat, confesses to multiple offenses, and accepts his death. "This is an important point, because one of the recurrent themes running through the literature on the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica is that their attitude toward life was and still is fatalistic." (Tedlock 4)
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-====== Context ====== 
- 
-According to Dennis Tedlock in his book //Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice,// "The early missionaries intervened in Mayan theater on a massive scale, substituting Christian hymns for Mayan songs or suppressing traditional productions altogether." However, //Rabinal Achi// is a descendent of one of the most popular plays to be produced in the early colonial period. (2) 
  
-When Europeans introduced their plays, they also introduced writing down a script. The first scripts of the Rabinal Achi, which have since been discarded or lost, go as far back as the 16th century. 
    
 ====== Bibliography ====== ====== Bibliography ======

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