The heart of Wool Country lies in the central mountain highlands of Guatemala. Here, sheep farming thrives in these cooler and wetter altitudes in the department of Quiche, and spreads westward into the highlands of the departments of Huehuetenango and San Marcos, then southward from Totonicapan and Quiche into the departments of Solola and northward into parts of Baja Verapaz. These highlands have ideal situations for the raising of sheep and free range grazing, usually above planted valleys and planted slopes. These five modern departments generally correspond to the linguistic groups of Qui’-che’, Ixil, Kakchiquel, Mam, Tzutuil and Kek’-Chi.

The living situation is of remote people living on their lands and raising sheep. They are independent, silent and in harmony with nature. Cultivated fields are selected on lesser grades between forested hilltops and canyons or ravines. Livestock grazing happens between the fields and the forested areas in semi-open grass fields. Sheep are also led along along cris-crossed paths on steep slopes through semi-open undergrowth. Youngsters and women are often pastors of their family sheep and goats. They sometimes carry weaving materials with them, always with one eye on their livestock.

Adobe houses with roofs of clay tiles or thatch seem to be sprinkled, sometimes in clusters composing tiny groups, usually small unmarked hamlets along ribbons of narrow empty limestone dust roads that wind their way through hills and valleys. Complicated networks of unmapped roadways twist along locations of much older trade-routes… mule trails that were first recorded by Thomas Gage. Networks of more recent unpaved logging trails and shortcuts through the mountains link towns and exist quite apart from the inter-American highway. These rural roads are are mostly unmapped.

Physical character of the region: Natural environments shift throughout this region between lake watersheds and valleys at 5,000’ altitude, through pine barrens, wide lime deposits, between active volcanoes, high dry slopes of the altiplano at 10,000’, and even higher slopes of the Cordillera Sierra Madre at 12,500’ above sea level. Complex plant communities vary from ferny cloud forests of rhododendron to rock defined by the native Agave Americana sp. (Maguey, grass plains, and other micro-climate habitats of plants and animals in and around mountain streams, deep canyons and extraordinarily high slopes of the Sierras. A world in which sheep can prosper and graze. Youngsters and women of Mayan families tend their sheep. The people live in near-complete harmony with their natural environment. All parts of the animal stock they herd are used.

CULTURE AND ITS WOOL WEAVING IN THE HIGHLANDS
Wool weaving today finds its largest production center in several communities and towns in southern and mid-Department of Totonicapan. There, we find at least 300 Maya shamen and nearly an equal number of weavers, mostly men, some of whom are also the same shamen, ‘Shamanes’…priests or practitioners of a sacred link to the Maya spiritual world. A group of distinguished elders called a Cofradia hold double honored positions in the Colonial church-and-municipalities, among other responsibilities. Cofradias were set up by the Catholic missionaries to pull the Maya into their institution or else risk losing a connection to them, the church and everything that goes along with Colonial occupation. Women’s roles provide back-up to the men weavers, with responsibilities to card and spin fibers into wool thread and to regulate family life in traditional Maya matriarchal homes and social organizations. Huge custom-made looms made by hand in the Spanish 15’th century model are still in use in every wool weaver’s home. These grand looms, heavy for the women to manage, are at least one reason why weavers of wool blankets is left mostly to men in this art form or craft. Women in these same towns still prepare their own cotton weaving into their traditional clothing, as has been traditional for them to do for at least 8,000 years according to the PopolVul and the Aztec and Maya Codexes that survive.

Linguistic groups: In the daily lives of contemporary Maya wool weavers, their traditional languages continue to define who and where they are in their territories. The Maya here in the department Totonicapan, first were Mam speakers. In the 14’th century the Mam were pushed out by the more militaristic Maya of the linguistic group Qui’-che’ the dominant language in use today.

The traditional Long Count Calendar recorded by the first European explorers in the 15’th century is very much in use today. The calendar is precise as a measuring system of their time space continuum. This calendar includes all Maya concepts rooted deeply in their spiritual history which involves their relation the universe, a Cosmology that varies little between their 27 language groups. To understand and use the calendar on several levels is complex to try to explain here, other than to remind ourselves that it divides a year of 240 days into 20 almost equal months, and these years belong to larger increments of 3,500 years each. A one year 240-day period of the calendar also precisely identifies proper days for ceremonies and particular petitions, as well as those days propitious for agriculture, social relations, and personal and colleactive decisions.

Traditional Maya have a highly developed perception of where they are in the galaxy. Seen in their art forms, the Maya also have traditional ways in weaving or recording images for representing how miniscule they are as individuals in comparison to the vastness of the cosmos. As they were encountered by Europeans, the Maya were in awe of the vastness of the galaxy, beliefs originating from great antiquity and include a very surprisingly advanced knowledge of astronomy.

Curiously, the Maya concept of selflessness did not sink in with the Spanish Conquistadores. As missionaries of the Holy right of their King to occupy a land of heathen, with their hopes of locating quick fortunes in precious metals. With a myopic mentality, the Spanish crown and its generals did not recognize Maya and Aztec cosmology as evidence of a culture as an advanced grasp of science and mathematics, arts, philosophies and intellectual accomplishments.

Did Paleolithic, or pre-Classical period weavers in the Guatemalan western mountain highlands have access to native animals now extinct as a source of animal fibers similar to wool? We don’t know. Weaving materials and methods previous to Maya contact with the Europeans seem to be confined to cotton, then fibers from cultivated plants such as corn silk, corn fibers, Agave fibers, and tints from sources in local trees and flora.

As for the arts today and Maya expression in them, beliefs recorded in textiles are combinations of geometry, symbols and iconography that originated from Classic and Post-Classic periods. Those images are available to us from carved stone stele at ceremonial sites, murals, and the 6 codexes, sacred books that survived and are conserved in museums. Writing there re-appears as figures and symbols or sometimes glyphs that appear in designs of huipiles, women’s traditional blouses which identify where they are from and are distinct in design from those of other towns.

In Totonicapan, we know of examples of some of the geometry which last appeared in cotton ceremonial robes used the Cofradia in the 1880’s. That geometry was vaguely referred to in wool, when it appears in wool at all, and the intention is decorative. Since then, more symbols, and newer versions of old symbols and icons are used today. Symbols and shapes in wool weaving, volcanos, corn, dancing figures and Quetzal birds in a central diamond shape are standard fare. Figures can appear on bands, or ‘rayos’ along the weft lines, and solid bands will be employed along the warp lines. Recent variations on themes appear in representations of animals, new weavings referring to ancient fables for children, etc.

Other practical pieces in wool are diaper cloth to wrap children called ‘panuelas’, smaller blankets also known as ‘ponchos’ or ‘chamarras’ made to wear in cold or at high altitudes, saddle blankets for horses, then modern accessories.

Weaving traditions of the Maya can represent a town or tribe and occasionally a linguistic group. Weaving traditions are keys for Archeologists and Anthropologists tracking influences and movements.

Weaving tradition in wool differs somewhat from that in cotton insofar as it developed after Contact. Designs in wool are decorative, and do not refer to Maya Cosmology ot intend to resemble older forms in cotton. A wider softer thread is adapted for wool weavings. Also, many weaving traditions in wool can be attributed to outside influences as far away as the Saltillo Culture of northern Mexico. The Saltillo regional cultural influence throuigh commercial contact by mule traders with the Navajo and Hopi. It has been speculated that Saltillo traders could have made it far enough in a southerly direction for their weaving techniques to have been observed by Aztec, Olmec and Maya in the form of a serape or a saddle blanket.

Before contact with the Espanoles in the early 1500’s, the Maya of highland Guatemala have their own history of military and political phases. All of the Americas including Central America were completely occupied by various indigenous groups in tribes, chiefdoms and city states belonging to ruling federations which alternately fought and traded with each other. The military history of this highland area of Guatemala and its social convulsions are background notes that help define fragmented groups among today’s population majority… over 85% Maya Qui-che’in the departments of Totonicapan and Quiche.

Curiously, the Maya concept of selflessness did not sink in with the Spanish Conquistadores. As missionaries of the Holy right of their King to occupy a land of heathen, with their hopes of locating quick fortunes in precious metals. With a myopic mentality, the Spanish crown and its generals did not recognize Maya and Aztec cosmology as evidence of a culture as an advanced grasp of science and mathematics, arts, philosophies and intellectual accomplishments.

Did Paleolithic, or pre-Classical period weavers in the Guatemalan western mountain highlands have access to native animals now extinct as a source of animal fibers similar to wool? We don’t know. Weaving materials and methods previous to Maya contact with the Europeans seem to be confined to cotton, then fibers from cultivated plants such as corn silk, corn fibers, Agave fibers, and tints from sources in local trees and flora.

As for the arts today and Maya expression in them, beliefs recorded in textiles are combinations of geometry, symbols and iconography that originated from Classic and Post-Classic periods. Those images are available to us from carved stone stele at ceremonial sites, murals, and the 6 codexes, sacred books that survived and are conserved in museums. Writing there re-appears as figures and symbols or sometimes glyphs that appear in designs of huipiles, women’s traditional blouses which identify where they are from and are distinct in design from those of other towns.

In Totonicapan, we know of examples of some of the geometry which last appeared in cotton ceremonial robes used the Cofradia in the 1880’s. That geometry was vaguely referred to in wool, when it appears in wool at all, and the intention is decorative. Since then, more symbols, and newer versions of old symbols and icons are used today. Symbols and shapes in wool weaving, volcanos, corn, dancing figures and Quetzal birds in a central diamond shape are standard fare. Figures can appear on bands, or ‘rayos’ along the weft lines, and solid bands will be employed along the warp lines. Recent variations on themes appear in representations of animals, new weavings referring to ancient fables for children, etc.

Other practical pieces in wool are diaper cloth to wrap children called ‘panuelas’, smaller blankets also known as ‘ponchos’ or ‘chamarras’ made to wear in cold or at high altitudes, saddle blankets for horses, then modern accessories.

Weaving traditions of the Maya can represent a town or tribe and occasionally a linguistic group. Weaving traditions are keys for Archeologists and Anthropologists tracking influences and movements.

Weaving tradition in wool differs somewhat from that in cotton insofar as it developed after Contact. Designs in wool are decorative, and do not refer to Maya Cosmology ot intend to resemble older forms in cotton. A wider softer thread is adapted for wool weavings. Also, many weaving traditions in wool can be attributed to outside influences as far away as the Saltillo Culture of northern Mexico. The Saltillo regional cultural influence throuigh commercial contact by mule traders with the Navajo and Hopi. It has been speculated that Saltillo traders could have made it far enough in a southerly direction for their weaving techniques to have been observed by Aztec, Olmec and Maya in the form of a serape or a saddle blanket.

Before contact with the Espanoles in the early 1500’s, the Maya of highland Guatemala have their own history of military and political phases. All of the Americas including Central America were completely occupied by various indigenous groups in tribes, chiefdoms and city states belonging to ruling federations which alternately fought and traded with each other. The military history of this highland area of Guatemala and its social convulsions are background notes that help define fragmented groups among today’s population majority… over 85% Maya Qui-che’in the departments of Totonicapan and Quiche.

ETHNOLOGY AND 100 YEARS OF MILITARY HISTORY OF TOTONICAPAN PREVIOUS TO THE FIRST YEARS OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST

Paleo and Proto-Mesoamerican history before contact with the European culture, 30,000-10,000 BC: Arrival of peoples from Manchurian and Mongolian Asia to North America and Mesoamerica. Studies pin down two or three principal migrations across Beringia, the Bering Isthmus. A pre-existence of peoples from other origins (Egypt, Africa and Austrailia), are possible and might be confined to the Indian populations of South America. *Mann

In the area of Totonicapan , the first knows inhabitants were nomad bands of hunters and gatherers entering the land looking for animals. In 1964 an arrowhead of the type “clovis” was found, a link of the highlands of Guatemala to the cultures of Puebla and Chiapas in Mexico.

6,000-2,000 BC Ethnohistory:
The first references to antiquity of the area our modern department of Totonicipan indicate that it was under domination of Maya in the linguistic group Mam who governed a large area in a sash extending from Huehuetenango southward to the valley of Quetzaltenango. The Popol Vuh called these Mam people the Saakulewab, with a famous capital Zacaleu close to modern Huehuetenango. There is no other site in this area that compares to Zaculeu in size or ceramic pieces and worked stone that predate a Qui-che’ period. Mam lineages reigning in neighboring pueblos were Chachibix, Bamak’, Tzizol, and Nima Amak’. * Recinos There is no memory of those names inTot. History. In the Mam pueblo of San Miguel Ixtahuacan’, the line of Bamak persisted long after the Conquest.* Brasseur, 1861

Basic crops were domesticated between 6,000 and 2,000 BC, enabling man in Mesoamerica to establish permanent towns using hunting only to supplement their agricultural diet. Sedenteary life also existed along the Pacific coast near Ocos, based more on a diet of fish than on a diet of crops.

1,000-300 BC:
The first evidence of widespread agro-domestication in the highlands appears. Density of population in today’s Valley of Guatemala caused development in the western highlands between 1,000 to 300 BC. There was a development of civic and religious structures, which grandly expanded the complexity of its culture, explaining the first penetration of habitants into western highlands.

300-600- AD
As it was in other places, the Preclassic inhabitants of Momostenengo settled in fertile valleys. An Izapa Culture from Mexico confined itself to the low countries on the Pacific Coast and did not have cultural influence in Totonicapan, where evidence of flowering culture later appeared in the early Classic period 300-600 AD. The ceremonial center of La Estancia was an expansion of culture and population along with the situation of neighboring sites ie Los corrales in Huitan, Chicol en Huehuetenango. Public structures and a ball court suggests a relation to the classic sites of Saculeu and Kaminaljuyu, but not with the Mexican characteristics of those previous two places.

600-900 AD, Late Classic Period:
In the Late Classic period 600-900 AD, habitation ended in La Estancia, and another site was established a little to the north in the same valley of Jutacaj near the canton there now, called Paracana, Totonicapan. No remains of structures are found, but there are potsherds that differ from those in La Estancia with four footed cookery pots which resemble Late Classic pieces in Nebaj, Quiche’, indicating a westward push by the Qui-che’ Estancia lasted until the end of the Teotihuacana influence in the highlands C. 600 AD, then to merge or fuse into another newer local culture in Paracana.

At the end of this post classic period, another site is established called Xuabaj, in a small valley to the southeast of the seat of Momostenango. Xuabaj was constructed in a higher location, suggesting Mam defenses were a consideration. This late classic tendency is noted in other sites where moves were made from the valleys to the hillsides (as seen in the sites in Cabrican in Huitan, and others.*Borgehy, 1965 Carvings on stone and potsherds are scarce. Outside influences on the mountain cultures during this phase are not strong.

900-1200 AD
Post-classic culture is characterized in its Mexican Toltec influence. New ceramic forms appear, such as bucket-shaped incense burners, tripod figures of animal heads, and pieces of ceramic decorated with pieces in relief. Gold and copper artifacts also appear, and new forms of architecture such as ball courts in the shape of a double T and altars in the centers of plazas, and rounded temples. *Carmack, 1968, Wauchope, 1964 Sites in this phase are more defensive than in the former post-classic period, suggesting an increase in regional warfare. It seems there was not a greater site in Totonicapan during this early post classic period, although Xuabaj could have continued to shine during this time.

1200-1500:
In the last cultural phase, the late Post-classic (1200-1524) we see a development in the Qui-che’ as they were affected by Toltec militarism from the Tabasco-Veracruz coast on the Gulf of Mexico. This influence of the Toltecs on the Maya is blamed by some historians for a switch toward a cultural zest for war and human sacrifices, conquest and colonization of the natives. Expression of a new Puebla-Mixtec artistic style is recorded in sacred codes of its calendar and histories. Semi-urban regions at this time resulted in very fortified districts and regional capitals such as K’umarcaaj (Utatlan), Iximche’, Mixco Viejo, Tziquinaja’ (Atitan), and Chinautla.

The Qui’-che’ influence on Momostenango was very strong, establishing at least two new sites. One of the two, Ojertinamit, located 1 kilometer south of today’s Momostenango on a narrow hilltop plain was quite small, and was abandoned at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The other site called Chwa Tz’ak, is larger and continued to be occupied after the conquista under the name of Pueblo Viejo. It is found some 6 k to the west of modern Momostenango on another ridge. Almost all remains have disappeared because of colonial and modern construction. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that there were buildings there at the time of the conquest. The few ceramics found there indicate Qui’che cultural occupation.

A little north of the modern Momostenango is another site with Qui’che influence. In the canton Pueblo Viejo, Malacatancito, the inhabitants originate from Momostenango and San Bartolo Aquascalientes. Its good preservation offers a magnificent opportinity to study the western limits of the Qui’che’ culture. Two other western sites are Mazatenango and Tzolojche’.

In contrast to other late classic sites in the western highlands, Paracana is not defensive, and is less developed than the earlier cultural phase (of the) militaristic Maya Quiche who moved in from the East in the 8’th century AD and drove the Mam Maya into the far Western regions and much higher up into the Cuchamatanes mountain range, the Cordillera where they remain today.

1200- MORE ETHNOHISTORY
In the highlands of present day Quiche, a political and military force originates and was destined to dominate the last phase of indigenous history in Guatemala. Quiche “many trees” was founded with dynamics coming from Mexican area of Tabasco-Veracruz. Quiche speakers conquered the mountain highlands. At the beginning its influence was limited to the modern area Baja Varapaz, and expandead .

About 200 years before the conquest, modern Momostenango under the Qui-che’ was called Tsunun Che, or tree of Colibri, also the name of a certain type of soldier, putting the place name in question.

MILITARY HISTORY : the last 100 years before contact with Europeans
1300. Constant conflicts and maneuvering between Indigenous groups and language groups is characteristic through all of Indigenous pre-contact history in the western hemisphere. Being no different and with a militaristic tendency, the Maya Quiche organized all its towns in the region Qui-che to attack its neighbors to the west. These neighbors were Maya in the linguistic group Mam in the western region of Totonicapan. Then they invaded the valley of Quetzaltenango. It is probable that the resistance was small, but in the valley of Quetzaltenango the Mam chiefs, called “YOC”, defended themselves ferociously. In one of these battles, so many Mam and Quiche soldiers died that the place was named Aj Camic,..”place of death” . With these conquests, the Quiche began to reign in Totonicapan until about 1300-1400’s. *Recinos

1400-1430:
Data is lacking for the early 1400’s in Totonicapan, an indication of tranquility there

1444-1484 AD:
In the 15’th C during the reign of its most famous king Q’uik’ab, “many arms”, the Quiche’ expanded influence in the Mam area and established strategic outposts. Q’uik’ab led a contingent of Quiche’ military to govern and guard the area. The names of official Quiche’ families or clans represented there at the time of the conquest were Ajpop, Rokche’, K’alel, Lolmet, Siwantay, Sic’a Wanija, Ak’ab, C’otuja’ and Popol. Under the leadership of these new designated leaders, a political-religious center was sited over a long high plain alongside a great thermal bath named Chwa Tz’ak. This same place is now an archeological site in San Bartolo Aguascalientes. The general area of southern Totonicapan was called Palotz Utzakibalja’. An official, Bokche’, was a chief in Udtzakibalja .

1470-1500:
During this time the Qui-che’ authority weakened, especially after a rebellion of the Cakchiquel Maya in 1470.

1480 ? Prince Izquin Nijaib…
To complete the Pre-Contact history of Momostenango, there is data about the life of its most important figure, the Chief Isquin Nijaib. His story begins in the royal houses of the Quiche’ close to Santa Cruz del Quiche’. He was a member of the second Great House called Nijaib. This group had another public house in Utatlan, and a large temple dedicated to its patron god Awilix, son of the moon goddess Ix Chel. One of his grandfathers stood out in the great conquests in the days of Q’uik’ab, but was most famous for founding the house of Balam Ak’ab, Jaguar of the night. According to the Popol Vuh, the totemic symbol of Balam Ak’ab was the eagle, which would have been the insignia of the group. The Nijaib clan had large territories under its control and occupied important posts in the Quiche political authority., the most important post being the Ajaw Q’alel. Izquin is a Nahual name signififying ‘perro’.