Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: In This Body
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: McAllen
STATE: TX
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://webapps.utrgv.edu/aa/dm/index.cfm?action=profile&user=servando.hinojosa * https://webapps.utrgv.edu/aa/dm/index.cfm?action=vitae&user=servando.hinojosa * https://www.linkedin.com/in/servando-z-hinojosa-193298b2/ * http://www.utrgv.edu/bsa/en-us/people/servando-z-hinojosa/index.htm
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2015038903
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2015038903
HEADING: Hinojosa, Servando Z., 1968-
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670 __ |a His In this body , 2015: |b ECIP title page (Servando Z. Hinojosa) data view (born 03/26/1968)
670 __ |a Healing by hand, c2004: |b ECIP t.p. (Servando Z. Hinojosa) data view p. (b. March 26, 1904)
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PERSONAL
Born 1968.
EDUCATION:University of Texas, Austin, B.A., 1990; University of California, Los Angeles, M.A. 1993; Tulane University, Ph.D., 1999.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Tulane University, adjunct instructor, 1997; University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (formerly University of Texas-Pan American), lecturer, 1998, 1999-2000, assistant professor, 2000-05, associate professor, 2005-16, professor, 2016—; Texas A&M, adjust instructor, 1998-99.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Revista Cultura y Religión, Ethnology, and Ketzalcalli.
SIDELIGHTS
Servando Z. Hinojosa earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas, Austin in 1990, and he completed his master of arts in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles three years later. He then went on to receive his doctorate in anthropology from Tulane University in 1997. Hinojosa continued his academic career at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (formerly University of Texas-Pan American), and he joined the faculty as a lecturer in 1998. He was promoted to the role of assistant professor in 2000, associate professor in 2005, and professor in 2016.
Hinojosa is an expert in traditional Mexican American folklore and folk healing. He has organized conferences on these subjects, and his related articles have been published in such periodicals as Revista Cultura y Religión, Ethnology, and Ketzalcalli. As an anthropological researcher, Hinojosa has studied, lived, and worked with the Kaqchikel Maya of Guatemala. His research in this era centers on mating, spiritual lore, and dancing. In particular, Hinojosa has dedicated much of his work to the study of Maya midwives, folkloric dancers, and beliefs and rituals surrounding the practice of soul healing. In fact, much of his research traces the intersections between faith and medicine in Maya culture. Much of this research appears in Hinojosa’s 2004 volume, Healing By Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective (edited with Kathryn S. Oths).
Since completing Healing by Hand, Hinojosa has turned his attention to Mexican American folk practitioners and the ritual (and often licensed) dealing and use of peyote. He has also deepened his research of the spiritual beliefs of the Kaqchikel Maya, and his 2015 book, In This Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit, addresses this topic. Indeed, Hinojosa explains how Maya beliefs about the soul inform related beliefs and practices for healing, birth, death, and even for interpreting dreams. The author then details various rituals and several practices related to nature, as well as the symbolism that shapes them. According to the author, the Kaqchikel hold very detailed and complicated beliefs in regards to the soul, and these beliefs also translate to the physical body and the natural world (this is the “grounding” mentioned in the book’s title). Even more compelling, the author notes, is the fact that Kaqchikel beliefs largely survived colonization without being eradicated or significantly altered. That Kaqchikel spirituality managed to withstand centuries of Christian missionaries is unique in and of itself, the author explains. Thus, after establishing this historical context, Hinojosa explores how Kaqchikel Maya believe that souls are guided into the body during pregnancy, and how midwives practice delivery methods with this belief in mind. Practices for returning lost soul parts to bodies, and ritual masked dances are also explored. Regarding the latter, Hinojosa explains the masked human dancers are meant to merge with the spirits of the forest, the water, and the mountains.
According to Medical Anthropology Quarterly Web site correspondent Timothy Knowlton, “Hinojosa thoroughly documents his central thesis that the body serves as the primary vehicle of Maya spiritual realities.” Yet, “this work misses an opportunity to develop an anthropological argument of more relevance to scholars working beyond the confines of the region. Nonetheless, Hinojosa’s book is an excellent ethnographic case study of the body in a Guatemalan Maya community, rich in engaging vignettes.” Nevertheless, Knowlton concluded, “Hinojosa’s clear writing style makes it a good candidate for use in undergraduate anthropology and Latin American studies courses that would benefit from an analysis of the intersection of body, landscape, and spirit in an indigenous Mesoamerican culture.” P.R. Sullivan, writing in Choice, was even more impressed, and they called In This Body “a very welcome addition to the growing literature on Maya spirituality and cultural revival.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, June, 2016. P.R. Sullivan, review of In This Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit.
ONLINE
Medical Anthropology Quarterly, http://medanthroquarterly.org/ (May 31, 2017), Timothy Knowlton, review of In This Body.
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Web site, http://www.utrgv.edu/ (May 31, 2017), author profile.*
Servando Z. Hinojosa
Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (formerly UT-Pan American)
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Universities in Texas, California, and Louisiana
McAllen, Texas Area 19 19 connections
Experience
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Company NameThe University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Dates Employed1998 – Present Employment Duration19 yrs
LocationEdinburg, Texas
Education
Universities in Texas, California, and Louisiana
Universities in Texas, California, and Louisiana
Degree Name Ph.D. Field Of Study Anthropology
Dates attended or expected graduation 1993 – 1999
Accomplishments
Servando Z. has 2 publications2
Expand publications section
Publications
Just Released!: In this Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit. Healing by Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective
Servando Z. Hinojosa
Servando Z. Hinojosa
A faculty partner in the Traditional Mexican American Folklore holding, Servando Z. Hinojosa (Tulane University, 1999 PhD Cultural Anthropology) served as Interim Curator of the Border Studies Archive during the 2014-2015 academic year and co-organized the conference Folk Healing, Curanderismo and the Practice of Biomedicine, which commemorated the 1970s curanderismo project Proyecto Comprender, in April 2015.
Dr. Hinojosa has conducted research among the Kaqchikel Maya of Guatemala, focusing on various dimensions of reproduction, spiritual knowledge, and dance. He has been chiefly interested in understanding how Maya midwives, soul healers, and folkloric dancers relate spiritually to the body. His concurrent research on Maya bonesetting centers on how this age-old healing modality fares within an increasingly biomedically-dominated setting, and is reflected in the volume he co-edited with Kathryn Oths, Healing By Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective (2004). His most recent book is titled In This Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit (2015).
Throughout his research focus on Mesoamerica, he has maintained an interest in Mexican American folk massage specialists in South Texas, and on Mexican American licensed peyote dealers. In 2013, Dr. Hinojosa began researching manual medicine in Turkey. He teaches U.S. and Other World Cultures, Peoples and Cultures of Mexico, and Mexican American Folk Medicine at the university. He can be reached at servando.hinojosa@utrgv.edu.
Dr. Servando Z. Hinojosa
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
(956) 665- 7002
Email: servando.hinojosa@utrgv.edu
EDUCATION
PhD, Tulane University, 1999
Major: Anthropology
Dissertation Title: Spiritual Embodiment in a Highland Maya Community
MA, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993
Major: Anthropology
Dissertation Title: Prescriptions for Tradition: Healing in a Highland Maya Community
BA, The University of Texas - Austin, 1990
Major: Anthropology
Areas of Emphasis: Latin American Studies
EMPLOYMENT
Professor of Anthropology, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (September 2016)
Associate Professor, The University of Texas-Pan American ( 2005)
Assistant Professor, The University of Texas-Pan American (2000 - 2005)
Lecturer, The University of Texas-Pan American (1999 - 2000)
Adjunct Instructor, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (1998 - 1999)
Lecturer, The University of Texas-Pan American (January 1998 - May 1998)
Adjunct Instructor, Tulane University (January 1997 - May 1997)
Licensures and Certifications
Foreign Study Program, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. (1989 - 1989)
PUBLICATIONS
Book Chapters
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Servando Hinojosa. "La lógica curativa maya kaqchikel: oración, fármaco y supervivencia cultural."
Enlaces con lo divino en la ritualidad indígena: Los que hablan con las deidades. Patricia Martel
and Ruth Gubler (Ed.) Saarbrücken: Editorial Académica Española, 2012: 89-108.
Servando Hinojosa. "The Hands, the Sacred, and the Context of Change in Maya Bonesetting."
Healing by Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective. Kathryn S. Oths and
Servando Z. Hinojosa (Ed.) Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press, 2004: 107-129.
Servando Hinojosa. "Tras el velo del baile: la identidad maya en Guatemala." Cuarto Congreso
Internacional de Mayistas: Memoria. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
2003: 659-669.
Journal Articles
Servando Hinojosa. Mayas, Spirituality, and the Unfinished History of Conflict in Guatemala.
Revista Cultura y Religión. 5, no. 2 (2011): 173-186.
Servando Hinojosa. Ritual Effigies and Corporeality in Kaqchikel Maya Soul Healing. Ethnology.
50, no. 1 (2011): 79-94.
Servando Hinojosa. Golpes, shock, y el vehículo corporal en la ritualidad maya. Ketzalcalli. 1,
(2010): 77-88.
Servando Hinojosa. The Mexican American Sobador, Convergent Disease Discourse, and Pain
Validation in South Texas. Human Organization. 67, no. 2 (2008): 194-206.
Servando Hinojosa. Divination Bowls and Blood Simulacra in Colonial and Contemporary
Mesoamerican Curing. John F. Chuchiak and Bodil Liljefors Persson (Ed.) Change and Continuity in
Mesoamerican Medicinal Practice . Acta Americana. 13, no. 1-2 (2005): 79-99.
Servando Hinojosa. Authorizing Tradition: Vectors of Contention in Highland Maya Midwifery.
Social Science & Medicine. 59, no. 3 (2004): 637-651.
Servando Hinojosa. Bonesetting and Radiography in the Southern Maya Highlands. Medical
Anthropology. 23, no. 3 (2004): 263-293.
Servando Hinojosa. K’u’x como vínculo corporal en el cosmos. Estudios de Cultura Maya. 22,
(2002): 185-197.
Servando Hinojosa. “The Hands Know”: Bodily Engagement and Medical Impasse in Highland
Maya Bonesetting. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 16, no. 1 (2002): 22-40.
Servando Hinojosa. Human - Peyote Interaction in South Texas. Culture & Agriculture. 22, no. 1
(2000): 29-36.
Servando Hinojosa. Levels of Meaning in the Maya Midwife Experience. Human Mosaic. 28, no. 1
(1994): 41-53.
Servando Hinojosa. Turning Prophets in their Own Land: The Problem of the Maya Physician.
Anthropology UCLA. 21, (1994): 1-14.
Monographs
Servando Hinojosa. In this Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit. University of New
Mexico Press. (November 2015)
Other
Servando Hinojosa. Tensions in Post-Coup-Attempt Turkey: Kurdish Participants in Politics face
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Servando Hinojosa. Tensions in Post-Coup-Attempt Turkey: Kurdish Participants in Politics face
Concerted Challenges, Some of their Own Making. . Anthropology News. (September 2016)
Servando Hinojosa. "Guatemala" in The Sage Encyclopedia of Cancer and Society, 2nd. Edition..
The Sage Encyclopedia of Cancer and Society, 2nd Edition.. (October (4th Quarter/Autumn) 2015)
Servando Hinojosa. Deepening Fractures in Turkish Society. In Anthropology News.. Anthropology
News. (March 2015)
Servando Hinojosa. Postcard from Istanbul: Anatomy of a Crisis. Anthropology News. 54, no. 9-10
(September 2013): 28-29.
www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/06/07/postcard-from-istanbul/
Servando Hinojosa. Whither Turkey: Democracy Interrupted, Youth Obstructed. Anthropology
News. (July (3rd Quarter/Summer) 2013)
www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/07/17/whither-turkey/
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization, by M.G.
Looper. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. 15, no. 2 (2010): 515-517.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Curandero: A Life in Mexican Folk Healing, by E. Torres and T.L.
Sawyer. Río Bravo. 1, no. 2 (2009): 167-169.
Servando Hinojosa. Tex-Mex. In Latino History and Culture: An Encyclopedia. David J. Leonard,
Carmen Lugo-Lugo (Ed.) Latino History and Culture: An Encyclopedia. Armonk, New York: M.E.
Sharpe. (2009)
Servando Hinojosa. Healing by Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective.
Kathryn S. Oths and Servando Z. Hinojosa (Ed.) Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press. (2004)
Servando Hinojosa. Introduction. Kathryn S. Oths and Servando Z. Hinojosa (Ed.) Healing by Hand:
Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press.
(2004): 13-23.
Servando Hinojosa. Maya Bone Divination. Eva Jane Neumann Fridman and Mariko Namba Walter
(Ed.) Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Santa Barbara,
California: ABC-CLIO. (2004): 425-426.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Chicano Empowerment and Bilingual Education: Movimiento
Politics in Crystal City, Texas, by A.L. Trujillo. Río Bravo. 1, no. 1 (2002): 87-89.
Servando Hinojosa. Vocational Directives among Maya Bonesetters in two Guatemalan
Communities. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI). (2001)
Servando Hinojosa. Orishas (Trinidad). Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, Ana M. López (Ed.)
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. London and New York:
Routledge. 3, (2000): 1080.
Servando Hinojosa. Peyote. Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, Ana M. López (Ed.) Encyclopedia of
Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. London and New York: Routledge. 3,
(2000): 1145-1146.
Servando Hinojosa. Tobacco. Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, Ana M. López (Ed.) Encyclopedia
of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. London and New York: Routledge. 3,
(2000): 1473-1474.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Cuentos y colorados en popoluca de Texistepec by S. Wichmann.
Latin American Indian Literatures Journal. 14, no. 2 (1998): 154-155.
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Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer, by R. Arvigo.
Diálogo. 2, (1997): 45-46.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Tejano Empire: Life on the South Texas Ranchos, by A. Tijerina.
Río Bravo. 5/6, no. 2/1 (1997): 151-154.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: El Tzolkin es más que un calendario, by W. Rupflin-Alvarado. Latin
American Indian Literatures Journal. 12, no. 2 (1996): 189-191.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy, by V. Perera. Latin
American Anthropology Review. 5, no. 1 & 2 (1995): 86-87.
Servando Hinojosa. Review of: Indigenous Religion and Cultural Performance in the New Maya
World. 2014. Journal of Anthropological Research. 70, : 162-163.
Servando Hinojosa. Mexican American Folk Medicine. Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today.
Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO.
Media Contributions
Radio
National Public Radio / Latino USA. (October 30, 2015)
TV
NBC Universal - Telemundo. (October 31, 2014)
Univision, FOX 2. (October 01, 2012)
CONTRACTS, GRANTS AND SPONSORED RESEARCH
Fellowships
Servando Hinojosa, "Graduate School Fellowship," Tulane University, (1995 - 1996)
Servando Hinojosa, "National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship," (1995 - 1996)
Servando Hinojosa, "Graduate School Fellowship," Tulane University, (1994 - 1995)
Servando Hinojosa, "Graduate School Fellowship," Tulane University, (1993 - 1994)
Servando Hinojosa, "National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship," (1992 - 1993)
Servando Hinojosa, "National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship," (1991 - 1992)
Grants
Servando Hinojosa, "General Research Grant," Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican
Studies, (June 1, 2001 - June 30, 2001)
Servando Hinojosa, "General Research Grant," Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican
Studies, Inc., (June 2000 - July 2000)
Servando Hinojosa, UTPA Faculty Research Council, (May 2000 - June 2000)
Servando Hinojosa, Mellon Foundation, (June 1995 - August 1995)
Servando Hinojosa, Tulane University, (December 1994)
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Servando Hinojosa, Tulane University, (December 1993)
Servando Hinojosa, Department of Anthropology, (July 1992 - September 1992)
Sponsored Research
Servando Hinojosa, "Barriers to Breast Cancer Screening among Latinas in the U.S.-Mexico Border
Region," (2006 - 2011)
Servando Hinojosa, "Voices of the Valley," (2007 - 2010)
Servando Hinojosa, "Research Experience for Undergraduates," (2001 - 2010)
AWARDS AND HONORS
Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching, CSBS 2014. (March 2014)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2011)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2010)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2009)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2008)
Course Development Award, UTPA Latin American Studies Program (April 2008)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2007)
HBCU/MI Partnership Training Award. (2006)
Provost's Award in Latin American Studies, The University of Texas-Pan American (April 2006)
Who's Who Among America's Teachers. (2004)
Outstanding Faculty Award in Teaching, The University of Texas-Pan American (August 2003)
PRESENTATIONS
Servando Hinojosa. ""Human Bones and Ossified Selves in Three Manuscripts of Colonial
Guatemala: The Precursors to Healing Uses of Bone among the Maya."." American Society for
Ethnohistory Annual Meeting, Nashville, Tennessee. (November 9, 2016)
Servando Hinojosa. ""Maya Bonesetters, Aires, and Effect of Natural Cycles on the Body."," Sixth
Annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica, University of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio.
(November 6, 2015)
Servando Hinojosa. ""The Maya Apocalypse."." South Texas College PSYCH Talks, (October 27,
2014)
Servando Hinojosa. ""The Limits of Conversion: Evangelical Experience and Core Maya
Principles."." 5th Annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica, Middle American Research
Institute, Tulane University. (October 25, 2014)
Servando Hinojosa. "Humoral Medicine in Western Anatolian Folk Medicine." CSBS Annual
Research Conference 2014, UTPA. (March 2014)
Servando Hinojosa. "The Role of Heat in HIghland Maya Dance 2013." 4th Annual South Central
Conf. on Mesoamerica, University of Houston. (October 2013)
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Servando Hinojosa. "Maya 2012 and the Closing of Baktun 13: An Inconvenient Truth about Maya
Chronology," International Museum of Arts and Sciences, McAllen, Texas. (December 2, 2012)
Servando Hinojosa. "Foods of Day of the Dead," Day of the Dead festivities, International Museum
of Arts and Sciences, McAllen, Texas. (November 1, 2012)
Servando Hinojosa. "The Place of Effigies and Surrogation in Maya Ritual Life," Third Annual
South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. (October 26,
2012)
Servando Hinojosa. "Mis-Conceptions about Turkey during the Arab Spring," International Days,
UTPA, Edinburg, TX. (November 15, 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Grasping Bones in Mesoamerica: Maya Bonesetting and its Non-Ritual
Foundations," Second Annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica, Trinity University, San
Antonio, Texas. (November 4, 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Foods of Day of the Dead," Day of the Dead festivities, International Museum
of Arts and Sciences, McAllen, Texas. (October 30, 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Latin America: An Inner Look," Pan American Roundtable, UTPA, Edinburg,
TX. (April 11, 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Bonesetters, Natural Disasters, & Vocational Obstacles," College of
Social and Behavioral Sciences 2011 Conference, UTPA, Edinburg, TX. (March 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Central American Calamity and the Formation of Maya Bonesetters," 2011
Lozano Long Conference From Natural Events to Social Disasters in the Circum-Caribbean, The
University of Texas at Austin, (February 23, 2011)
Servando Hinojosa. "Concerns about Breast Cancer Heredity: Suggestions from a Study of Mexican
American Women." Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association, Houston,
Texas. (March 31, 2010)
Servando Hinojosa. "Bones, Bonesetters, and the Dilemma of the Sacred Bone." 70th Annual
Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Mérida, Yucatán. (March 24, 2010)
Servando Hinojosa. "Golpes, shock, y el vehículo corporal en la ritualidad indígena," 53° Congreso
Internacional de Americanistas Mexico D.F, Universidad Iberoamericana, México D.F.. (July 19,
2009)
Servando Hinojosa. "Demystifying the Curandero," The Big Read, Sekula Memorial Library,
Edinburg, Texas. (March 5, 2009)
Servando Hinojosa. "Indigenous Representations in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto," Social Justice and
Peace Conference, UTPA, Edinburg, Texas. (January 2009)
Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Ritualists and Conditional Media Promotion." XXVII International
Congress, After the Washington Consensus: Collaborative Scholarship for a New America,
Montreal. (2007)
Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Ritualists and Conditional Media Promotion." XXVII Congress of the
Latin American Studies Association, Montreal, Quebec. (September 5, 2007)
Servando Hinojosa. "Incorporando espíritu en materia sacra: dos casos en un pueblo maya
kaqchikel." 28ª Mesa Redonda of the Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, México D.F.. (August 6,
2007)
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Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Ritualists, the Print Media, and the Subtext of Publicity." Society for the
Anthropology of Religion Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona. (April 13, 2007)
Servando Hinojosa. "Peyote Shrines in Mexican American South Texas." Southwestern Social
Science Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas. (April 12, 2006)
Servando Hinojosa. "Sobadores, Convergent Disease Discourse, and Pain Validation in South
Texas." Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver. (March 28, 2006)
Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Shamanic Elements and the Lived Landscape," World Congress of the
International Forum of Social Sciences and Health, Yeditepe Universitesi, İstanbul, Turkey. (August
21, 2005)
Servando Hinojosa. "Consumers and the Consumed: Maya Indians and the Bodily Imaginary in the
United States." 29th Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association of Turkey, Antalya,
Turkey. (October 29, 2004)
Servando Hinojosa. "Mexican American Folk Massagers in a Pluralistic Context." Society for
Applied Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology Annual Meetings, Dallas, Texas. (April
2, 2004)
Servando Hinojosa. "Divination Bowls and Blood Simulacra in Colonial and Modern Mesoamerican
Curing." 101st. Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans,
Louisiana. (November 24, 2002)
Servando Hinojosa. "Technology and the Maya Bonesetter." Society for Applied Anthropology
Annual Meetings, Atlanta, Georgia. (March 7, 2002)
Servando Hinojosa. "The Hands, the Sacred, and Technology in Maya Bonesetting." Society for
Applied Anthropology Annual Meetings, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. (March 2001)
Servando Hinojosa. "Peyote and Peyoteros in the South Texas Borderlands," Rio Bravo Association
Annual Conference, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, (March 2000)
Servando Hinojosa. "The Hands Know: Bodily Engagement and Technology in Highland Maya
Bonesetting." Society for Applied Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology Annual
Meetings, San Francisco, California. (March 24, 2000)
Servando Hinojosa. "The Nature of Huesero Work: Maya Men and Body Knowledge." 121st Annual
Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, Portland, Oregon. (March 1999)
Servando Hinojosa. "Tras el velo del baile: la identidad maya en Guatemala." IVº Congreso
Internacional de Mayistas, La Antigua Guatemala. (August 1998)
Servando Hinojosa. "Guatemalans at the Threshold: Borders and Bodily Boundaries," 9th Annual
Meeting of the Río Bravo Association, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas. (April
1998)
Servando Hinojosa. "Perspectivas críticas sobre la salud pública en Guatemala," IVº Simposio de
Antropología Física "Luis Montané", Universidad de La Habana, La Habana, Cuba. (December
1994)
Servando Hinojosa. "Maya Health Specialists and Biomedical Materials: Pragmatic Outlooks for a
Traditional Role." 18th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Atlanta,
Georgia. (March 1994)
Servando Hinojosa. "Turning Prophets in their Own Land: The Problem of the Indigenous
Physician." National Symposium on Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Social Issues,
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Tampa, Florida. (March 10, 1994)
Servando Hinojosa. "El nuevo botiquín maya kaqchikel: oración, fármacos y supervivencia cultural,"
Séptimo Congreso Internacional de Medicina Tradicional y Folklórica, Academia Mexicana de
Medicina Tradicional, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. (December 1993)
Servando Hinojosa. "Etiological Appraisal of Changing Medical Resources in Highland Guatemala."
92nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.. (November
1993)
Servando Hinojosa. "Etiological Extremes and Cultural Mediation: Traditional and Formal Medical
Practitioners in a Highland Maya Community," Annual Meeting of Rocky Mountain Council for
Latin American Studies, British Columbia, Vancouve, Canada. (April 1993)
Servando Hinojosa. "Pharmaceuticals in Guatemalan Popular Medicine: Westernization or
Resistance?." Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association Conference, Austin, Texas.
(March 1993)
Servando Hinojosa. "Pharmaceuticals in Guatemalan Popular Medicine: Westernization or
Resistance?," Culture, Institutions and Development in Latin America, UCLA Latin American
Center, Ventura, California. (May 1992)
TEACHING
Courses Taught
Cultural Anth
Directed Studies
Intro to Cultural Anth
Mex Amer Folk Medicine
Mexican Am Folk Medicine
People & Culture Mexico
People & Culture Mexico
Peoples Cultures Mexico
Peoples Cultures-Mexico
Peoples of Mexico
Thesis
U.S. & Other World Culture
US & Other World Culture
US & Other World Culture
US/Other World Cultures
Directed Student Learning
Supervised Research. Ethan Portillo, "Retail Clinic Distribution in the Texas Urban Landscape."
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(January 2015)
Master's Thesis Committee Member. Destiny Rodriguez, "MA-Level Written and Oral
Comprehensive Exams" , Department of Communication. (May 2016)
Master's Comprehensive Exam Committee Member. Adolfo Hernandez, "Mexican American
Health" (December 2015)
Supervised Research. Michael Mena, "Genesis, Creation, and Role of Woman" , Other (within
UTPA). (January 2014 - April 2014)
Supervised Research. Ethan Portillo, "Retail Clinics and Pharmacies in the Rio Grande Valley" ,
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Dr. Servando Z. Hinojosa
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Maya culture, Mesoamerica, Folk Medicine
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PhD, Anthropology, Tulane University, 1999
MA, Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993
BA, Anthropology, The University of Texas - Austin, 1990
Hinojosa, Servando Z.: In this body: Kaqchikel
Maya and the grounding of spirit
P.R. Sullivan
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
53.10 (June 2016): p1514.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Hinojosa, Servando Z. In this body: Kaqchikel Maya and the grounding of spirit. New Mexico, 2015. 249p bibl index
ISBN 9780826335234 cloth, $75.00; ISBN 9780826337474 ebook, contact publisher for price
(cc) 534452
F1465
CIP
Maya beliefs about the nature of the soul animate their approach to birth, death, healing, the interpretation of dreams,
the proper approach to using the natural environment, the symbolism found in public religious rituals, and much more.
This is true not only of the Kaqchikel Maya, about whom anthropologist Hinojosa (Univ. of Texas, Rio Grande Valley)
writes so eloquently in this book, but also in study after study of Indigenous peoples throughout Mexico and Central
America. As Hinojosa notes for the Kaqchikel, complex, nuanced, and strange Indigenous understandings of soul,
body, and spirit throughout Mesoamerica survived centuries of Christian missionizing if not largely intact, then at least
in distinctively nonChristian form. Hinojosa focuses here on three realms of highland Maya life in which soul concepts
are prominently displayed and discussed: midwifery and the guided entry of souls into bodies during gestation; healing
involving the recovery and return to bodies of lost soul parts; and masked public dancing, in which human bodies and
the spirits of local lords of forest, mountain, and water are joined in colorful, choreographed dance and music
performances. A very welcome addition to the growing literature on Maya spirituality and cultural revival. Summing
Up: *** Highly recommended. All levels/ libraries.P. R. Sullivan, independent scholar
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Sullivan, P.R. "Hinojosa, Servando Z.: In this body: Kaqchikel Maya and the grounding of spirit." CHOICE: Current
Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 2016, p. 1514. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454942863&it=r&asid=dba95ab118572999f2658d5b7d4e6555.
Accessed 13 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454942863
Book Review: In This Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit
Timothy Knowlton
In This Body: Kaqchikel Maya and the Grounding of Spirit. Servando Z. Hinojosa, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015, 272 pp.
Servando Hinojosa’s ethnography explores the bodily basis of spiritual knowing among Kaqchikel Maya people of San Juan Comalapa, a community in the highlands of central Guatemala. Hinojosa takes as his lead how many local Maya people themselves speak about spiritual experiences, which they often describe in terms of the body. The author pursues this exploration through participant observation and interviews with practitioners in three domains of activity: midwifery, soul therapy, and community dance. Although the practitioners in these domains encompass both Catholic and evangelical Protestant Mayas, Kaqchikel narratives all make frequent recourse to the body when communicating spiritual states and experiences. The ethnography is admirably clear in its written style and remains closely grounded in Comalapans’ words and Hinojosa’s own fieldwork observations, although its explicit engagement with anthropological theory beyond specifically Mesoamericanist concerns is slight.
The ethnography is organized into four parts. Hinojosa begins by introducing the relationship of soul and place in Mesoamerican cultures more broadly. This includes a comparative look at different Mesoamerican groups’ notions of multiple and divisible souls, as well as specifically Kaqchikel notions such as k’u’x (heart, animistic center) and chuq’a (soul strength and heat). Hinojosa relates these concepts to folk syndromes such as fright sickness (xib’iril) and common Maya diagnostic techniques like pulsing. Also important to Mesoamerican soul concepts are features of the local landscape and their rajawal, or spirit-owner. These rajawala’ (plural) are stewards of hilltops, forests, and even certain animals and objects, such as dance costume masks. Appearing to Comalapans as well-dressed, fair-skinned (Ladino or gringo) men, spirit-owners often are held responsible for cases of fright sickness, taking a portion of a person’s soul in response for the person making use of natural resources while not ritually acknowledging the spirit-owner in their domain. Therefore, understandings of body, landscape, and spirit intersect for various Mesoamerican peoples, including the Kaqchikel Maya with whom Hinojosa conducts his research.
The second part of the ethnography focuses on the domain of midwifery. Midwives in Comalapa are considered spiritually gifted individuals. Through embodied knowledge, the skills of their hands, midwives follow the development of fetuses’ and children’s bodies and the concomitant bodily signs of their animating essences. Kaqchikel midwives’ activities includes the massages that orient the fetus prior to birth as well as the investigation and ritual treatment of the umbilical cord and placenta, the latter also referred to as the k’u’x. Midwives’ work goes beyond ushering bodies into the land of the living; events during childbirth portend future vocations, and umbilicus treatments serve as a means of gendering the newly born child in terms of skills needed later in life. Thus, midwives’ manipulation of the body and the components of childbirth is simultaneously a means of fashioning the person.
In the third part, Hinojosa explicates the work of soul therapists (oyonela’) in Comalapa. These specialists treat fright sickness, a spiritual malady that affects health by fragmenting the relationship between body and life force (chuq’a). Soul therapists treat this through oyonïk (calling) rituals, which are typically performed in multiples of three, and often prescribe the final ceremony to occur at the place in the local landscape where the fright is thought to have occurred. Oyonela’ make use of a wide range of ritual tools, in some cases fashioning effigies of clients who cannot attend the healing ceremonies as a surrogate body. These effigies are called k’al k’u’x, referring to wrapped animating essence made of the client’s unwashed clothing, which is said to still contain ruxla’ (the breath or odor) of the person. Through analysis of the soul therapists’ work, Hinojosa gains insight into Kaqchikel understanding of how the body grounds and emits spiritual essences, and thus into the relationship of wholeness to health in Kaqchikel Maya culture.
Although at first the focus on community dances in the final part of Hinojosa’s work may seem to diverge from the previous sections’ discussion of health-specific practices, this section refines and reinforces several themes already present in the discussions of midwifery and soul therapy. As much as in more explicitly medical domains, the performance of Kaqchikel dance dramas involve ceremonies in which spiritual experience is grounded in body. Performers engage in a series of rites (kotz’i’j) at places in the local landscape in the course of receiving and feeding their costumes, or more specifically, the rajawal tzyaq (lord of the costumes). Participants embody their characters in dance, their masks redden at being fed “hot” liquor, and some hug and weep when parting with their costumes at the close of the dance season.
Through both his own ethnographic research in Comalapa and his wide-ranging comparisons with other Mayan-language speaking groups, Hinojosa thoroughly documents his central thesis that the body serves as the primary vehicle of Maya spiritual realities. A weakness of the work however, is that beyond some brief applications of Csordas’s (1993) concept of somatic modes of attention (pp. 68–70), the author does not especially engage with anthropological theory much beyond Mesoamericanist scholarship. This is unfortunate, particularly with regard to Maya soul therapy, for which comparable practices have been investigated by theoretically engaged anthropologists of the body elsewhere around the globe. Therefore, this work misses an opportunity to develop an anthropological argument of more relevance to scholars working beyond the confines of the region. Nonetheless, Hinojosa’s book is an excellent ethnographic case study of the body in a Guatemalan Maya community, rich in engaging vignettes. Hinojosa’s clear writing style makes it a good candidate for use in undergraduate anthropology and Latin American studies courses that would benefit from an analysis of the intersection of body, landscape, and spirit in an indigenous Mesoamerican culture.
Reference Cited
Csordas, T. J.
1993 Somatic Modes of Attention. Cultural Anthropology 8:135–156.