Watching Lacandon Maya Lives
Although romanticized as the last of the ancient Maya living isolated in the forest, several generations of the Lacandon Maya have had their lives shaped by the international oil economy, tourism, and political unrest.

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives is an examination of dramatic cultural changes in a Maya rainforest farming community over the last forty years, including changes to their families, industries, religion, health and healing practices, and gender roles. The book contains several discussions of anthropological theory in accessible, jargon-free language, including how the use of different theoretical perspectives impacts an ethnographer’s fieldwork experience. While relating his own mishaps, experiences of community strife, and conflicts, Jon McGee encourages students to shed the romantic veil through which ethnographies are usually viewed and think more deeply about how events in our own lives influence how we understand the behavior of people around us.

New to the Second Edition:

  • Revised Introduction incorporates the author’s recent work with the Lacandon and discussions of anthropological writing, culture theory, and how events in the author’s personal life have changed his approach to anthropological fieldwork.
  • Revised chapter, “Finding an Income in the Lacandon Jungle” focuses on families who have shifted from a subsistence farming economy to earning revenue by renting facilities to tourists, owning small community stores, working as hired labor for archaeologists, or make use of a variety of government rural aid programs created in the last two decades (Chapter 5).
  • New chapter, “Forty Years Among the Lacandon: Some Lessons Learned,” discusses what the author’s 40 years of experience as an ethnographer has taught him about the discipline of anthropology and the concept of culture (Chapter 8)

1141874812
Watching Lacandon Maya Lives
Although romanticized as the last of the ancient Maya living isolated in the forest, several generations of the Lacandon Maya have had their lives shaped by the international oil economy, tourism, and political unrest.

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives is an examination of dramatic cultural changes in a Maya rainforest farming community over the last forty years, including changes to their families, industries, religion, health and healing practices, and gender roles. The book contains several discussions of anthropological theory in accessible, jargon-free language, including how the use of different theoretical perspectives impacts an ethnographer’s fieldwork experience. While relating his own mishaps, experiences of community strife, and conflicts, Jon McGee encourages students to shed the romantic veil through which ethnographies are usually viewed and think more deeply about how events in our own lives influence how we understand the behavior of people around us.

New to the Second Edition:

  • Revised Introduction incorporates the author’s recent work with the Lacandon and discussions of anthropological writing, culture theory, and how events in the author’s personal life have changed his approach to anthropological fieldwork.
  • Revised chapter, “Finding an Income in the Lacandon Jungle” focuses on families who have shifted from a subsistence farming economy to earning revenue by renting facilities to tourists, owning small community stores, working as hired labor for archaeologists, or make use of a variety of government rural aid programs created in the last two decades (Chapter 5).
  • New chapter, “Forty Years Among the Lacandon: Some Lessons Learned,” discusses what the author’s 40 years of experience as an ethnographer has taught him about the discipline of anthropology and the concept of culture (Chapter 8)

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Watching Lacandon Maya Lives

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives

by R. Jon McGee Texas State University
Watching Lacandon Maya Lives

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives

by R. Jon McGee Texas State University

Paperback(Second Edition)

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Overview

Although romanticized as the last of the ancient Maya living isolated in the forest, several generations of the Lacandon Maya have had their lives shaped by the international oil economy, tourism, and political unrest.

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives is an examination of dramatic cultural changes in a Maya rainforest farming community over the last forty years, including changes to their families, industries, religion, health and healing practices, and gender roles. The book contains several discussions of anthropological theory in accessible, jargon-free language, including how the use of different theoretical perspectives impacts an ethnographer’s fieldwork experience. While relating his own mishaps, experiences of community strife, and conflicts, Jon McGee encourages students to shed the romantic veil through which ethnographies are usually viewed and think more deeply about how events in our own lives influence how we understand the behavior of people around us.

New to the Second Edition:

  • Revised Introduction incorporates the author’s recent work with the Lacandon and discussions of anthropological writing, culture theory, and how events in the author’s personal life have changed his approach to anthropological fieldwork.
  • Revised chapter, “Finding an Income in the Lacandon Jungle” focuses on families who have shifted from a subsistence farming economy to earning revenue by renting facilities to tourists, owning small community stores, working as hired labor for archaeologists, or make use of a variety of government rural aid programs created in the last two decades (Chapter 5).
  • New chapter, “Forty Years Among the Lacandon: Some Lessons Learned,” discusses what the author’s 40 years of experience as an ethnographer has taught him about the discipline of anthropology and the concept of culture (Chapter 8)


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781538126172
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 02/22/2023
Edition description: Second Edition
Pages: 230
Product dimensions: 6.06(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Reece Jon McGee is a professor of Anthropology at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He is the author of numerous works on the Lacandon including Life, Ritual and Religion Among the Lacandon Maya and is also the coauthor of the texts Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (Rowman and Littlefield), Sacred Realms: Essays in Religious Practices, Beliefs and Culture (Oxford University Press), and Introduction to Cultural Anthropology: An Interactive Approach (National Social Science Press). McGee is also the managing editor for Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia (Sage Publishing Company).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Myth of Lacandon Origins.

Romantic Images

Archaeological, Linguistic, and Historical Sources.

Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries: Chol-LacandonEighteenth Century: Yucatec Lacandon

Lacandon in the Nineteenth Century

Lacandon in the Twentieth Century

Lacandon 1980-2015

Chapter Two: Reconstructing the Historical Lacandon:

Who Is Lacandon?

What Does Traditional Lacandon Mean?

Lacandon Life from 1790-1903

Men and Women’s Work

Religion

Marriage and Household Life

Selling Lacandon Religion

Two Case Studies and Concluding Thoughts

So, How Can I Write About “the Lacandon”?

Chapter 3: Watching Life in a Lacandon Community

An Overview of Women, Men, and Work.

Women’s Work

Men's Work

Family Examples

Chan K'in Viejo and his Household

Koh III and Koh IV, Summer1985

Child Birth, and Infant Mortality

The Death of Nuk

Chapter 4: 1970-2020, Five Decades of Change

Government, Oil and Immigration, an Overview

Family Relations, Work, and Historic Lacandon Horticulture

Roads, Bows and Arrows, and Tourism

Adapting Agricultural to Tourism: Comparing Two Communities

Men, tourism, and Agriculture in Nahá.

Agriculture and Tourism in Lacanha.

Women, Tourism, and Work

“Traditional” women

Women in households oriented to tourism

Widows

Chapter 5: Finding an Income in the Lacandon Jungle

Providing Food and Lodging for Visitors

Household-Level Entrepreneurial Activities

Archaeology in Mensäbäk

Working for CONANP

Four Families in Mensäbäk

Economic and Cultural Changes

Shifting to a Money-Based Economy and Culture Change

Changing diet and health

Changing household-based reciprocity

Changing status

Changing household demographics

Growing Up in a Changing World: The Cases of K'in and Chan K'in Quinto

Chapter 6: Decline of Non-Christian Religion

Cosmology

Ritual Places: Classic Period Ruins

Caves and Rock Shelters

God Houses

Ritual Implements

Types of Offerings

Edible Offerings

Ritual and Agriculture

Healing and Ritual

The End of the World

Conclusions: The End of Non-Christian Religion

Chapter 7: Changing Healing Practices

Lacandon Categories of Sickness

Curing Through Prayer

Therapeutic Incantations

Curing Strings

Medicinal Plants

Decline of Healing Rituals

Chapter Eight: Forty Years Among the Lacandon: Some Lessons Learned

What is Lacandon Culture?

What People Say is Different from What They Do

Marriage, Fatherhood, and McGee’s Position in the Community

The Fire: 6/9/99

Glossary References Cited

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