Dr. Allen J. Christenson is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature at
Brigham Young University. His MA and PhD degrees are in
Precolumbian Art History and Literature from the University of
Texas, Austin. His research focuses on the art, literature and
ceremonial practices of the highland Maya of Guatemala. He has
worked in the highland Maya region of Guatemala as a linguist,
ethnographer, and art historian since 1976. His publications
include Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community (an analysis
of the ritual life of the Tz’utujil-Maya of Santiago), and a two
volume critical edition of the Popol Vuh that includes a both
literal and grammatic English translations of the text along with
transcriptions in the original colonial as well as modern Maya
orthographies. He recently published, in cooperation with the
Newberry Library, a CD-Rom that includes high resolution scans of
the Popol Vuh manuscript, a searchable database of the text that
includes the Maya text as well as English and Spanish translations,
a complete audio reading of the text by K’iche’-Maya speakers,
hundreds of photographs, maps, and extensive notes.