Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross

This pathbreaking synthesis gives an unprecedented view of the first two hundred years of the Spanish colonization of the Yucatec Maya. Drawing on an extraordinary range and depth of sources, William F. Hanks documents for the first time the crucial role language played in this cultural conquest. He explores how colonial Maya emerged in the age of the cross, how it was taken up by native writers to become the language of rebellion against the system that produced it. Converting Words includ...