Bruce Love

In 2014 it will be 40 years since my first visit to Yucatán. In 1974 my wife and I and our two-year-old son drove from California, camped at Palenque, and ended up in a fishing village on the north coast of Yucatán. After five months there we lived for six weeks in Belize and then drove home through Guatemala, making my first visit to Tikal, and then Oaxaca in Mexico. The following year I went back to UCLA and changed my major to Anthropology. I got my BA in 1976, MA in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1986. From the beginning my focus has been deciphering the Maya hieroglyphs and part of my plan was to learn to speak Mayan and study the work of the shamans where I could find clues to the ancient past. After 30 years of fieldwork I have gathered my photographs, tape recordings, interviews, and field notes into this book, which summarizes the rites and rituals of the practicing shamans of Yucatan, ceremonies that continue today. The Maya that I have worked with are eager to share this knowledge with the outside world. I present this book to you, the reader, with their blessing.