Maya Culture, Learning,

1
Maya Culture, Learning, Adaptation

• Effects of Ethnocentrism in
• Rural Development

2
ETHNOCENTRISM

• ETHNO CULTURE
• CENTRISM FOCUS
• My way of doing things is right because that is
  what my parents and my teachers and my friends do.

3
Cultural Relativism

• Private property or commons?
• Peaceful strategies or rebellion?
• Green vs. yellow?
• Is there a right way to shake hands?
• How about, how are we different?

4
CIVILIZATION?

• primitive
• violent response to differences
• family and clan loyalties only
• extreme punishments/rituals,
• civilized
• civility in exploring differences
• negotiations and discussions
• working together for common goals

5
MAYAS

• History - peace vs. war in Campeche
• Before European contact
• Olmecs
• Teotihuacan, Aztecs
• Acalan-Putun
• Spaniards 1540s
• la mala palea, water and self defense
• peaceful negotiations, alliances
• Franciscan missionaries

6
Long-distance Maya Trade

• Information flow - technology religion
• Marriage alliances status symbols (feathers,
  jade, obsidian, jaguar pelts)
• commoners - trade in useful and decorative items
  (ceramics, cotton, salt, dried fish, medicinal
  herbs, shells, dyes)

7
HYBRIDITY

• Adaptation - syncretism or assimilation?
• Cultural survival - self determining or stubborn?
  
• Technology, science and religion
• Invisible long-term consequences
• losing local knowledge
• ecological degradation

8
PROGRESS TECHNOLOGY

• making work easier
• information flow
• televisions and radio
• telephones and telegraph
• computers, e-mail internet
• transportation competition
• LEGAL FRAMEWORK - ACCOUNTABILITY

9
Campeche Maya Resource Use

• Logging
• Chicle
• Cattle
• Honey and wax
• Subsistence crops and selling surplus
• WHAT HAS BEEN OVER USED?

10
Community Divisions

• Rich and poor - perspectives on forest commons
• Generations - perspectives on traditions
  change
• Effects of government projects on combination of
  traditional knowledge and modern technology?

11
PROCESS OF CHANGE

• Between Spaniards and independent Mayas
• Cheating the boss man - debts and slavery
• Difference between richer and poorer families
  over time?
• Elections, politics, and the ejido lands
• Work for women