Overview

In Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, the author follows three generations of one Lacandon Maya family. Readers track the subjects' lives as they shift through events such as marriage, parenthood, and religious conversion, all set against a backdrop of increased tourism, road construction, and the murders of two people in the community. This book encompasses both ethnography and a critique of ethnographic writing. At one level, the book is about social, agricultural, technological, and religious changes that have occurred in a Lacandon Maya community in Mexico. At a second level, the book is a critique of those who invented a Utopian picture of a ""traditional"" Lacandon past that never really existed. For cultural anthropologists, or anyone interested in learning more about this Mayan culture.

Full Product Details

Author:   R. Jon McGee, Texas State University
Publisher:   Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield
Edition:   Second Edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.40cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 22.40cm
Weight:   0.376kg
ISBN:  

9781538126172

ISBN 10:   1538126176
Pages:   230
Publication Date:   22 February 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One: The Myth of Lacandon Origins. Romantic ImagesArchaeological, Linguistic, and Historical Sources. Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries: Chol-LacandonEighteenth Century: Yucatec LacandonLacandon 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

Reviews

After the exceptional first edition of Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, anthropologist Jon McGee returns with an even more enduring and insightful text reflecting on his forty years of ethnographic work in a Lacandan community. In this engaging work, readers are taken on a journey through the lives of three generations of one large extended family in the community of Nah� and through the author's personal, informal-yet-academically driven writing style, witness the transformative social change in one indigenous culture. From an economy based upon swidden horticulture to one based upon a mixed economy of tourism and government aid, this text offers an insightful view on how economic changes can have sweeping ramifications felt over time, and on multiple levels of cultural practice. McGee draws upon his ethnographic field experience and invites readers in to discover, as he did, how it is that who we are, what we experience, informs how we understand and interact those with whom we share the world. --Bonnie Hewlett, Washington State University In this new edition, McGee invites readers to consider the nature of social change as he reflects on more than 40 years of fieldwork among Lacandon Maya families. Ethnographically driven, theoretically informed, and accessibly written, the text offers a welcome update to an anthropological classic. --Ruth Gomberg-Mu�oz, Loyola University Chicago McGee's second edition to Watching Lacandon Maya Lives provides an honest and valuable insight into Lacandon lifeways from the past to the present. Through the description of his personal experience among three generations of one extended family in a Lacandon village, the author shows how the natives adapted to cultural and environmental changes, underlining the importance of extensive anthropological field work and personal commitment. --Alice Balsanelli, Centro de Estudios Mayas of Mexico City Watching Lacandon Maya Lives presents a pithy account of the northern Lacandones written from the heart of a scholar who demystifies truths of a hitherto enigmatic people, candidly and unapologetically inserting himself into the narrative. As such, the book should appeal to the general reader and anyone else who is captivated by the Mayans past and present. --Suzanne Cook, University of Victoria Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, 2e is the best detailed treatise of Northern Lacandon Maya domestic life and social interaction in rural Chiapas, Mexico to date. McGee's long-term and thoughtful insights on field research, cultural interpretations, gender issues, social change, and people's individual perspectives and actions make Watching Lacandon Maya Lives anthropologically significant. I very much recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Lacandon Maya society and the discipline of anthropology. --Joel W. Palka, Arizona State University Watching Lacand�n Lives highlights the lucid observations that Jon McGee gleaned from decades of research among Lacand�n Maya families in Mexico's tropical rainforest. Through his perceptive description of continuing change in Lacand�n communities--and within himself--he has produced a book filled with friendship, insight, and authenticity. --James D. Nations, author of Lacand�n Maya: The Language and Environment After the exceptional first edition of Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, anthropologist Jon McGee returns with an even more enduring and insightful text reflecting on his forty years of ethnographic work in a Lacandan community. In this engaging work, readers are taken on a journey through the lives of three generations of one large extended family in the community of Nah� and through the author's personal, informal-yet-academically driven writing style, witness the transformative social change in one indigenous culture. From an economy based upon swidden horticulture to one based upon a mixed economy of tourism and government aid, this text offers an insightful view on how economic changes can have sweeping ramifications felt over time, and on multiple levels of cultural practice. McGee draws upon his ethnographic field experience and invites readers in to discover, as he did, how it is that who we are, what we experience, informs how we understand and interact those with whom we share the world. In this new edition, McGee invites readers to consider the nature of social change as he reflects on more than 40 years of fieldwork among Lacandon Maya families. Ethnographically driven, theoretically informed, and accessibly written, the text offers a welcome update to an anthropological classic. McGee's second edition to Watching Lacandon Maya Lives provides an honest and valuable insight into Lacandon lifeways from the past to the present. Through the description of his personal experience among three generations of one extended family in a Lacandon village, the author shows how the natives adapted to cultural and environmental changes, underlining the importance of extensive anthropological field work and personal commitment. Watching Lacandon Maya Lives presents a pithy account of the northern Lacandones written from the heart of a scholar who demystifies truths of a hitherto enigmatic people, candidly and unapologetically inserting himself into the narrative. As such, the book should appeal to the general reader and anyone else who is captivated by the Mayans past and present. Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, 2e is the best detailed treatise of Northern Lacandon Maya domestic life and social interaction in rural Chiapas, Mexico to date. McGee's long-term and thoughtful insights on field research, cultural interpretations, gender issues, social change, and people's individual perspectives and actions make Watching Lacandon Maya Lives anthropologically significant. I very much recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Lacandon Maya society and the discipline of anthropology. Watching Lacand�n Lives highlights the lucid observations that Jon McGee gleaned from decades of research among Lacand�n Maya families in Mexico's tropical rainforest. Through his perceptive description of continuing change in Lacand�n communities--and within himself--he has produced a book filled with friendship, insight, and authenticity.

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives presents a pithy account of the northern Lacandones written from the heart of a scholar who demystifies truths of a hitherto enigmatic people, candidly and unapologetically inserting himself into the narrative. As such, the book should appeal to the general reader and anyone else who is captivated by the Mayans past and present.--Suzanne Cook, University of Victoria

Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, 2e is the best detailed treatise of Northern Lacandon Maya domestic life and social interaction in rural Chiapas, Mexico to date. McGee's long-term and thoughtful insights on field research, cultural interpretations, gender issues, social change, and people's individual perspectives and actions make Watching Lacandon Maya Lives anthropologically significant. I very much recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Lacandon Maya society and the discipline of anthropology.--Joel W. Palka, Arizona State University In this new edition, McGee invites readers to consider the nature of social change as he reflects on more than 40 years of fieldwork among Lacandon Maya families. Ethnographically driven, theoretically informed, and accessibly written, the text offers a welcome update to an anthropological classic.--Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Loyola University Chicago McGee's second edition to Watching Lacandon Maya Lives provides an honest and valuable insight into Lacandon lifeways from the past to the present. Through the description of his personal experience among three generations of one extended family in a Lacandon village, the author shows how the natives adapted to cultural and environmental changes, underlining the importance of extensive anthropological field work and personal commitment.--Alice Balsanelli, Centro de Estudios Mayas of Mexico City After the exceptional first edition of Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, anthropologist Jon McGee returns with an even more enduring and insightful text reflecting on his forty years of ethnographic work in a Lacandan community. In this engaging work, readers are taken on a journey through the lives of three generations of one large extended family in the community of Naha and through the author's personal, informal-yet-academically driven writing style, witness the transformative social change in one indigenous culture. From an economy based upon swidden horticulture to one based upon a mixed economy of tourism and government aid, this text offers an insightful view on how economic changes can have sweeping ramifications felt over time, and on multiple levels of cultural practice. McGee draws upon his ethnographic field experience and invites readers in to discover, as he did, how it is that who we are, what we experience, informs how we understand and interact those with whom we share the world.--Bonnie Hewlett, Washington State University Watching Lacandon Lives highlights the lucid observations that Jon McGee gleaned from decades of research among Lacandon Maya families in Mexico's tropical rainforest. Through his perceptive description of continuing change in Lacandon communities--and within himself--he has produced a book filled with friendship, insight, and authenticity.--James D. Nations, author of Lacandon Maya: The Language and Environment Watching Lacandon Maya Lives presents a pithy account of the northern Lacandones written from the heart of a scholar who demystifies truths of a hitherto enigmatic people, candidly and unapologetically inserting himself into the narrative. As such, the book should appeal to the general reader and anyone else who is captivated by the Mayans past and present.--Suzanne Cook, University of Victoria

Author Information

R. Jon McGee is currently Professor of Anthropology at Texas State University, where he has taught since 1985. His research has focused generally on anthropological theory, field research methods, and the anthropology of culture and religion. More specifically, he has conducted extensive studies on Maya religion, language, and culture. He leads an annual study abroad program in Canterbury, England. Among the many books he’s written or edited are Watching Lacandon Maya Lives (2001) and Life, Ritual and Religion Among the Lacandon Maya (1989). With Richard Warms and James Garber, he authored Sacred Realms: Readings in the Anthropology of Religion, Second Edition (2008) and, with Warms, coauthored Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, Fifth Edition (2011).

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