Rare Guatemalan Tz'utujil Mayan Language Primer, Qtz’ib’aaJ Qsik’iiJ Qtzojb’al, First Edition, 1975

Guatemala Qtz’ib’aaJ Qsik’iiJ Qtzojb’al

First Edition

[Indigenous Language] [Latin America] Qtz’ib’aaJ Qsik’iiJ Qtzojb’al. Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala: nd [1975]. Mimeographed literacy booklet in Tz’utujil. First edition. 67 pages. 8vo.Staple-bound in illustrated paper wrappers.

Produced in the highland town of Santiago Atitlán, this mimeographed booklet represents one of the earliest printed efforts at vernacular literacy in Tz’utujil, a Mayan language spoken around Lake Atitlán. Entirely in Tz’utujil, it presents short narratives, dialogues, and lessons accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations of daily indigenous life, women carrying water jars, villagers before traditional thatched houses, and scenes of subsistence farming. The final note states it was the product of five years of radio-based literacy programming, situating the text within broader Indigenous education initiatives of the 1960s, when both the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and community-based projects sought to expand vernacular reading materials in Guatemala. This copy carries the embossed ex-libris seal of Nathaniel Tarn, poet, anthropologist, and translator whose career intertwined Mayan cosmology with Latin American revolutionary thought. Tarn’s ownership roots this rare publication in a transnational circuit of Indigenous preservation and anthropological fieldwork. As SIL bibliographies record only a handful of mimeographed cartillas en Tz’utujil from this period, and as few surface in trade or institutional catalogs, this survival is extraordinarily rare. A true ethnographic artifact, it embodies both the grassroots struggle for Mayan literacy and the experimental educational practices of Cold War–era Guatemala. Covers show staining on the margins and light edge wear throughout, binding is tight and else clean. Overall very good condition. A scarce Tz’utujil literacy primer of great significance for collections in Indigenous linguistics, Guatemalan history, and anthropological pedagogy.

Item #22629

Price: $485.00

Status: On Hold