"Pirates of our spirituality": The 2012 apocalypse and the value of heritage in Guatemala

Maya spirituality serves as a locus of enunciation for the ongoing negotiation between local expressive culture and a changing globalized society. In recent years the Mayas of Guatemala have subversively used the global market provided by tourism to survive economically, recover their cultural property, and reclaim their heritage. Lacking voice and representation in an environment that has historically threatened their way of life, they assert their heritage in order to valorize their culture. They employ public knowledge and experience of natural disasters to demonstrate not just the accuracy of the 2012 prophecies of change at the end of the Maya calendar s long count, but also the value of the knowledge systems that produced them.