Question 3: Ajk'ij/Daykeepers

In historical Mayan culture, ajk’il, or daykeepers, “Qualified ajk’ij ‘daykeepers’, men and women who know how to interpret illnesses, omens, dreams, internal bodily sensations, and the workings of the Maya calendar, are quite numerous in a number of Quiche towns. Some male daykeepers hold the title of chuchkajaw ‘mother-father’, which properly belongs to those who serve as the heads of patrilineages and look after shrines that every proper patrilineage has on its lands,” (144-145). 

According to the same article, these daykeepers were responsible for caring for shrines based on the Mayan calendar. “It is without rival among contemporary highland Maya towns in the degree to which its ceremonial life is timed according to the Maya calendar and mapped according to the relative elevations and directional positions of outdoor shrines,” (145). 

Though, this role in society seems to almost reflect those of an astrologist or tarot card reader, this positions are have no superstition in Quiche society.  However, like someone who is a tarot card reader, these readings of Mayan culture and text by daykeepers is a performance of their knowledge. 

However, daykeepers are much more complex than a tarot card reading. Daykeepers are responsible for keeping count of days correlating to the Mayan calendar. However, this still seems to draw ties to the role of something like an astrologer. However, the stars have nothing to do with the calendar. 

-Monica Strauss