NAST invites you to the Anthony Aveni Lecture Series with Dr. Victor Montejo.In this talk, Dr. Montejo will focus on the central idea developed in his newly published book Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures (SUNY Press, 2021). Indigenous ideas of culture are very complex since they must make reference to their relationships with other living beings on earth. This ancient idea can be used retaken and used once again for explaining Indigenous belief systems in relation to the great connection or trilogy: human-nature-and the supernatural or spiritual world as the conciencia cosmica (cosmic consciousness). For Indigenous people there is a consciousness of belonging to the totality of creation: humans, plants, animals, rivers, mountains, the moon, the sun, the galaxies, and the spiritual world. In other words, this trialogical connection and reciprocity is of great scale that extends to the cosmic dimension for which rituals and ceremonies are necessary for pleasing the Creator. As Dr. Montejo mentions in Mayalogue, interactionism here can be labeled with the Maya term salap, the cross-weaving of threads to produce multicolored patterns of weaving, a metaphor for the diversity of cultures.Dr. Victor Montejo (Jakaltek Maya from Guatemala) is a renowned socio-cultural anthropologist, scholar, novelist, poet, activist, journalist, and important Maya public intellectual, specializing in Mesoamerican Indigenous cultures. Montejo's work integrates discourses on human rights, migration, Indigenous worldviews, and sustainable development. His contributions to understanding indigenous worldviews, such as the Popol Vuh, have been crucial in centering non-Western perspectives in academia through publications, such as Voices from Exile, Maya Intellectual Renaissance, and Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures. He served as Guatemala’s Minister of Peace and a congressman, where he championed Indigenous rights, including establishing the National Day of Indigenous People of Guatemala and advancing reparation programs for civil war victims.Montejo also co-founded the American Anthropological Association's Commission for Human Rights, oversaw the implementation of Guatemala's peace accords as Minister of Peace, and continues to advocate for Indigenous self-representation through his leadership in the pan-Maya movement.As a Fulbright Scholar and award-winning writer, Montejo’s efforts have helped bridge Indigenous and Western perspectives and have worked to decolonize scholarship more broadly.