"A significant contribution to the literature on Mesoamerican and material culture studies since it treats the iconography, archaeology, and social life of figurines. The volume focuses on a very intriguing and little-studied art form, and it is refreshing for its focus on small or non-monumental art that is found in elite and non-elite contexts."--Joel Palka, University of Illinois, Chicago
"This overview of the state of art in the study of Mesoamerican figurines of all time periods is packed with new data and lively interpretation."--Richard Lesure, University of California, Los...

Based on more than thirty years of ethnographic fieldwork in Highland Guatemala, this study of Maya diviners, shamans, ritual dancers, and religious brotherhoods describes the radical changes in traditional Maya religious practice wrought by economic globalization and political turmoil. Focusing on the primary participants in the annual festival in the K'iche' Maya village of Santiago Momostenango, the authors show how older religious traditionalists and the new generation of "cultural activist" religious practitioners interact within a single local community, and how their competing agendas...