Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

Global and Sociocultural Studies

First Advisor's Name

Kathleen Martin

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Hugh Gladwin

Third Advisor's Name

Stephen M. Fjellman

Date of Defense

11-3-1998

Abstract

A major concern in Cultural Anthropology has been the question of change and continuity. In a world immersed in a process of globalization, with concomitant socioeconomic and political effects, the quest for ethnic reaffirmation, and indigenous identity, has increasingly become reconsidered by scholars from without and from within cultures under geared change. Indigenous identity is thus the main theme of this thesis, specifically based on ancient Maya cosmovision, which is applicable to the present-day Maya. This inquiry, by means of text interpretation of the Maya sacred books, the Popol Vuh and the Books of Chilam Balam, coupled with descriptive commentary and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Yucatan in the past three years, led to what is presented here as a theoretical model of Mayaness. This thesis discuss the essence of being Maya by interpreting current Maya reality through ancient Maya texts, and thus, reinventing that reality.

Identifier

FI14060111

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Sociology Commons

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