The Language Ideologies of Courtship Ritual: Maya Pentecostals and Folk Catholics Available to Purchase

This article examines the traditional Mayan practice of negotiating marital alliances, which is played out in a series of ritualized dialogues between two families. A Pentecostal hybrid ceremony incorporates evangelical symbols and speech forms that index a religious identity and ideology founded on biblical authority. In intergroup marriage negotiation, Mayan Pentecostals and traditionalists employ an accommodated form oj ritual speech that works around irreconcilable differences pertaining to authority and the relationship with the divine.