Hach Winik: The Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, Southern Mexico

by Didier Boremanse

Hach Winik may be the last comprehensive study of traditional Lacandon Maya society based on intensive ethnographic fieldwork. Long isolated, culturally conservative, and bearing a mystique of Mesoamerican "primitivism," the Lacandon now live on the brink of cultural disintegration. Their habitat is all but destroyed by lumbering and by the large-scale invasion of other Maya peoples in search of land. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Didier Boremanse collected cultural data and textual materials from two groups of Lacandon who still remained relatively isolated. Hach Winik describes and compares the cultural traditions of these two groups. Topics presented in this volume include the history of Lacandon contact with other peoples as well as settlement patterns, life cycle, social control, residence and marriage, the kinship system, and the ritual expression of these social domains. Statistical data are balanced by a wealth of descriptive detail concerning events and individuals. A number of oral narratives are also presented and include many words and utterances in the original language with English glosses.

201 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 1998

Reviews

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading as a layperson, this is a detailed cultural overview of the Lacandon Maya that gets somewhat repetitive and lacks some granular material analysis. Boremanse provides many instances where the importance of the Lacandons' material circumstances is clearly crucial, but little data was collected in this regard. The study was almost exclusively of social phenomena, which is useful but incomplete. There is also not enough synthesis of ideas to elevate the work much beyond an impressive, but simple study. Too often the author falls into rote comparison and contrast between Northern and Southern Lacandon. I also wish that the another engaged more with other studies and theorists- a few other studies on the Lacandon are referenced, and Levi-Strauss is mentioned near the end, but on the whole this work falls into the data/journal category (not necessarily a problem, but know what you're getting into). Recommended for people interested in this region and pre-columbian cultures generally.

[Tomek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must admit that I prefer McGee's treatment of the history and religion of the Lacandon. Boremanse provides some novel insight into their settlement patterns and social structure, but there is a lot of overlap with McGee's work. Another criticism I have of this the complete lack of discussion of the Lacandon production and resource management system. This is a good resource to supplement McGee if interested in ethnography and anthropology, but is hardly necessary for somebody studying the physical sciences.