TITLE:
Being and Becoming Maya in Chan Kom: Towards Heideggerian Interpretations of Cultural Transformation
AUTHORS:
Andrew R. Hatala
KEYWORDS:
Maya; Cultural Change; Heidegger; Being; Styles; Worlds
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Anthropology,
Vol.3 No.1,
February
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: Between the years of 1931
and 1950, Robert Redfield, social science researcher and ethnographer from the
University of Chicago, and Alfonso Villa Rojas described subtle and explicit
cultural changes within Chan Kom, a Maya village in North-Central Yucatán.
Using the theoretical framework developed by Martin Heidegger regarding worlds, being and style, this
paper explores the social and cultural changes in the Maya village of Chan Kom
in order to deepen our understanding of how cultural change occurs more
generally. Through this analysis, several aspects of cultural change emerge.