Jun Toj

En su cuidadoso estudio del Popol Wuj, el destacado lingüista k'iche' Sam Colop (2008: 141fn225) declara que "El nombre Tojil deriva del día Toj del calendario maya que significa 'día para ofrendar', 'día para pagar' por el verbo tojo 'pagar'. Esta deidad del fuego estableció un 'pago' por el fuego y también está asociado a los truenos y relámpagos que producen las tormentas tropicales conocidas como Jun Raqan, 'huracán' en español. El significado del término Toj, así observado en el nombre de la deidad Jun Toj, parece proporcionar evidencia de contacto y cambio lingüístico entre los pueblos mayas de las tierras altas. Colop (2008: 160fn260) arguye que "En términos lingüísticos, el idioma de los habitantes de Rabinal es k'iche'." Conforme la explicación lingüística de los autores del Popol Wuj, tres pueblos de las tierras altas, los K'iche', Tamub y Rab'inaleb', tal como el pueblo Yaqui de México, conservan el mismo nombre de la deidad Tojil y la figura asociada de Jun Toj. En cambio, señala el texto k'iche', los Kaqchikel le llaman al dios Sotz'i Ja Chimalkan, debido a las divergencias morfosintácticas producidas por las migraciones históricas de Tulán Suywa. Colop (2008: 159fn258) añade que está "de acuerdo con Tedlock (1996: 305-6), quien dice que el equivalente de Tojil no es Yolkwat ni Quetzalcóatl sino Tezcatlipoca y que en todo caso" las comparaciones de los autores k'iche' a las deidades mesoamericanas tienen "una conotación política." Véase al respecto van Akkeren (2003).

Mayanist scholar Allen J. Christenson (2007: 125fn311) explains that Toj is one of the days of the Maya calendar, falling between Q'anil and Tz'i'. The Toj are one of the lineages historically associated with cacao production (2007: 126fn313), linking family structures, foodways, and the marking of time in the Guatemalan highlands. The word Toj forms the root of the deity Tojil, although its use in the Popol Wuj provides evidence of language contact among highland Maya communities. According to the K'iche' authors, Toj is the Rabinal term for the god Tojil. K'iche' linguist Sam Colop (2008: 160fn260) argues that the two languages are so closely related that Rabinal is equivalent to K'iche'.

Citing personal communication with anthropologist Ruud van Akkeren, Christenson (2007: 126fn313) describes some of the ways in which contemporary communities across the Guatemalan highlands put the calendar into practice in ritual celebration. He writes: "Modern aj q'ij priests invoke the days of the calendar in their prayers and ceremonies as lords and attribute to them specific power to bless or to punish. Thus they conceive of the days as living beings with personalities and specific spheres of influence. Toj is “tribute or payment.” Metaphorically it may also be “punishment or illness” caused by sin. In her note on Toj, as one of the named days in the traditional Quiché calendar, Ruth Bunzel quotes an aj q'ij priest collaborator: “T'oj (enfermedad, sickness). Symbolizes the suffering which is caused by sin. ‘This is a bad day, a day of sickness. On the day t'oj one burns incense in the house for the Lord of Sickness. T'oj is also a day for calling sickness to punish an enemy. If divination comes out in 7 qanil, 8 toj, 9 ts'i' it is bad. These are bad days. The content of qanil is corn, or the milpa, toj is sickness, ts'i', “dog,” some shameless act. When one has a sickness of the body that is like a worm eating the flesh, we call this xu jut qanil, which is a worm that is found sometimes in the milpa [maizefield]. When this worm gets into the body and eats at the flesh then it is because of these days. For this sickness comes from stealing corn or else it may be due to sorcery, for they are the days of sorcery also. For instance, if a man finds that his milpa has been robbed he goes to his milpa at midnight, breaks off an ear of corn and places a candle between the two halves, and asks San Jacinto and San Augustín, the patrons of the milpa to punish the robber, and he calls the days 7 qanil, 8 t'oj, 9 ts'i' to punish him. Then after a time the man who has stolen the corn will suffer from this disease, which is like cancer and ulcers. This is the meaning of these days” (Bunzel 1952, 282-283).