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Maya Conquistador Matthew Restall

Article in Journal of Anthropological Research · July 2000

DOI: 10.1086/jar.56.2.3631366

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Review
Reviewed Work(s): Maya Conquistador by Matthew Restall
Review by: Susan Kepecs
Source: Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 245-246
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3631366
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 BOOK REVIEWS 245

archaeology and ethnohistory, sit

absence of historical account
characteristics of Maya sites in th
evidence to corroborate or questi
This study is a remarkable a
ethnohistorical research among
subsequent inquiry among histor
many years to come.

Rani T. Alexander
New Mexico State University

Maya Conquistador. Matthew Restall. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998, 254 pp.
$18.00, paper.

Much current historical research on colonial Latin America is focused on native

adaptations to Spanish regimes. In Maya Conquistador, Matthew Restall takes
this approach a step further by presenting the Maya as historians in their own
right. With a keen historian's eye (and superb linguistic skills), Restall has
compiled and translated an excellent small selection of native manuscripts that
illustrate the Maya's sophisticated use of documentary genres to negotiate the
terms of Spanish colonization. In the context of histories that begin with the
conquest, this revelation would be surprising, but Restall is familiar with
multidisciplinary research on the pre-Hispanic past. In his introduction to the
book-and in opening comments on each document-based chapter-he shows
how the Maya's long history of "foreign" (i.e., "Mexicanized") rulership and
social inequality, as well as their partially cyclical approach to time, prepared
them for the events of the sixteenth century.
A number of the documents showcased in this book are published
elsewhere, but often in poorly translated, out-of-print, or hard-to-get Latin
American editions. Maya Conquistador renders this important material
accessible to a broad scholarly audience. The papers are culled from several
documentary genres, and the book is organized along these lines, giving it a
coherent structure that is easy to follow. The manuscripts-written and recopied
over the duration of the Spanish era-reveal that Maya responses to Spanish
processes were neither unified nor static. Below I select a few highlights that
illustrate the rich content of this small book.
Over the course of the colonial era, native notaries maintained community
annals (which include some passages in the famous multigenre Books of Chilam
Balam). These manuscripts (Chapters 4 and 7)-which have antecedents in the
pre-Hispanic codex tradition-are terse, dated records of key events. Spanish-

Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 56, 2000

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 246 JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH

related incidents-the arrival of white men from the east or the inquisition
simply inserted into longer histories of recurring migrations, natural disaste
foreign invasions, betrayals, and political shifts. The annals were written f
native communities, revealing how the Maya perceived and perpetuat
knowledge of the conquest among themselves. By framing the events of th
sixteenth century in terms of continuing or repetitive patterns, they effecti
denied the uniqueness of the situation that initiated the first global economy
The so-called primordial titles, like the annals, are historical narratives, b
part of their purpose was to gain Spanish administrative recognition of nat
territorial rights. Thus, by necessity, these documents incorporate som
characteristics of Spanish legal papers. The titulos link noble lineages to lan
acquired through the shifting political processes of the Mayan Postclassic. F
some groups (the Canuls and Canches of Calkini, Chapter 5), this history is cl
enough; as in the annals, the Spaniards are underplayed and described w
ambivalence. Yet other lineages employed a different tactic, portray
themselves as staunch Spanish allies-Maya conquistadors-who resis
subordination (and loss of lands) by turning against dissident kin. This strateg
highlighted in the Chontal account from Acalan-Tixchel and the Pech titles fr
Chixulub and Yaxkukul (Chapters 3 and 6).
As the effects of Spanish administration took hold, Maya elites turned
writing formal petitions to the Spanish Crown (Chapters 9 and 10). Throug
these institutional papers, they attempted to renegotiate the terms of Span
administration by requesting lower tribute burdens or the removal of abus
priests. Restall suggests that the skill with which the Maya took up this genre ref
pre-Hispanic oral grievance processes described in several Spanish accounts.
Maya Conquistador offers a much more complex perspective on indigen
response to the conquest than I am capable of summarizing in 750 words. All
the documents in this collection contain ambiguities and contradictions, an
these are aptly addressed in Restall's commentaries. My lone criticism is th
most of this book focuses on how the Maya manipulated the terms o
colonization by engaging the Spaniards in some way. There is another angle
the story that is nearly overlooked. Restall makes note of the outrig
antagonism expressed by the Maya in eastern Yucatan, far from the Spanis
capital. He illustrated this perspective with a small section from the Chilam
Balam of Tizimin (Chapter 7). However other passages in the Tizimin, and in
in other Books of Chilam Balam and also in the Chixulub document, describ
violent uprisings in response to Spanish colonization. Other authors (includi
Victoria Bricker, Munro Edmonson, Grant Jones, and myself) have dealt w
parts of this story. Still, I would have liked to have seen what new insights co
be wrested from these materials through Restall's masterful grasp of the nat
literature.

Susan Kepecs
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 56, 2000

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