330 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
Figure 8.11 Chamulan Indians carrying goods to the markets and shrines in the town of San
Cristóbal de Las Casas. From Ricardo Pozas, Juan the Chamula: An Ethnological Recreation of the
Life of a Mexican Indian,translated and edited by Lysander Kemp, with the permission of the
publishers, University of California Press. Copyright © 1962 by The Regents of the University of
California.majority of the close to twenty million native Mesoamericans of the region with their
primary source of ethnic identity. No community better illustrates this resilience,
perhaps, than the Indian community of Chamula, located in the highlands of Chia-
pas, Mexico.Chamula, a Mexican Case of Local Mesoamerican Identity. The Chamulan
Indians, who speak the Tzotzil Mayan language, have long been famous as
Mexico’s prototypically “closed,” traditional Indian community (Figure 8.11).
They have steadfastly blocked outsiders from taking up residence in their
community and have carefully guarded against beliefs and customs that might
deviate from the accepted traditional Mayan heritage. Indeed, community
members who are thought to deviate from the accepted cultural tradition have
been expelled in large numbers. The Chamulan Indians think of themselves as the
“true people” and perhaps have become the best-known of Mexico’s communities