Last Lords of Palenque: The Lacandon Mayas of the Mexican Rain Forest

by Victor Perera, Robert D. Bruce

The Last Lords of Lalenque is an extraordinary firsthand account of life among the Lacandon Indians of Nahá in southern Mexico. A community of 250 whose genealogy has been obscured by the absence of a written tradition, the Lacandones may nevertheless be traced back linguistically and culturally to the great Maya civilization. They are the sole inheritors of an oral tradition that preserves-more than 400 years after the Spanish Conquest-a cosmology, a morality and a psychology as sophisticated as our own. Journalist and novelist Victor Perera and linguist Robert Bruce have lived among the Lacandones, chronicling their imperiled Mayan culture.

Genres: History, Anthropology

343 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 1986

Reviews

[Mark Blackham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book prior to traveling to Palenque & Yaxchilan, Mexico in the Lacandon area. I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences with some of the most isolated Indian tribes in the western hemisphere. Chan Kin is an interesting and complex person. I'm not so sure the outside influences are as harmful to this people as the author and like minded foreigners seem to think. I was so stoked to meet some of the Lacandon young men at the exit of the Palenque ruins. They were selling bow and arrow sets. I asked the young man why there were different looking arrows. He smiled and in his staccato Spanish explained, pointing to the unique arrows that one was for monkeys, another for jaguars, and so on. It was so cool. Unfortunately, it was something that I couldn't carry it on the airplane.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but limited in its scope. The author is definitely typifies the western mystification of indigenous tribes. His unswerving sympathy for the Lancandones and enmity for all things "western" appears to lock him in a position of awed helplessness and resignment.

[Dustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting retrospective of the last true mayan peoples before westernize thought and values corrupted their culture. I liked this a lot.

[Gusman Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent time there, so interesting for me, bought from Better World Books, they invest in literary projects WW, so good guys.

[Jarkko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mielenkiintoinen kirja viimeisistä länsimaalaistumattomista mayoista ja heidän länsimaalaistumisprosessistaan 1950-1970-luvuilla.