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Box 8.5 The Cultural Logic of Local Mayan Identities in GuatemalaMany classic ethnographies have been written on Indian communities in Guatemala emphasiz-
ing the persistence there of traditional Mayan institutions and local Mayan identities. A recent de-
scription of identity in the Kaqchikel Mayan community of Tecpan by the anthropologist Edward
Fischer (1999; 200l) is particularly useful because it also generalizes his findings about this com-
munity to many other Mayan communities in Guatemala.
Fischer addresses the controversial split among scholars between the ethnographic “es-
sentialists,” who tend to see Mayan cultures as a direct legacy from the original Mayan culture,
and the “constructionists,” who see them as the temporary outcome of continuous cultural trans-
formation in response to changing political and material conditions. The two approaches come
together, he claims, if we look at Mayan culture and identity as resulting from an underlying “cul-
tural logic” that involves cultural construction as well as continuities of “essential” cultural ele-
ments by human agents.
The cultural logic of Mayan communities such as Tecpan provides broad and general “foun-
dations” for thought and behavior. Mayan “logic” defines a cosmology, or metaphysics, for a
culture that cannot be easily explained or subsumed by Western or any other culture. Mayan
logic, for example, sees unity in diversity, balance between society and the cosmos, sacrifice as
the way to achieve balance, cyclic and calendrical rejuvination operating in all spects of life. Two
key Mayan terms that provide a basis for understanding the cultural logic of Tecpan and other
Mayan communities of Guatemala are k’uxand anima’, which roughly translate as “heart” (or
more specifically, “soul”); and “vital force.”
Animá (vital force) is conceptualized as a uniquely human force laid down at birth. It is sub-
ject to outside threats and can be lost. But it survives death “and lives on as a disembodied soul
in the heavens and/or earth” (p. 482). K’ux (heart, soul) is “the point of contact between individ-
uals and the cosmic force animating the universe,” and is particularly important for understand-
ing Mayan cultural logic. It symbolizes the essence of humans and other phenomena, provides
self-identity, defines normality, makes balance possible, and has regenerative power. These two
concepts together provide “the foundation for individual agency and intentionality while at the
same time being a product of social interaction” (p. 486). They promote balance between the so-
cial and cosmic worlds, so that even though changes occur, they remain the foundation upon
which new constructions are made and identities maintained.
Similar cultural logic operates in the many other Mayan communities of Guatemala despite
language differences. As in Kaqchikel-speaking Tecpan, the cultural emphasis in these commu-
nities is on finding balance in the cosmos, achieved through a symbolic covenant between hu-
mans and the cosmic forces. Similar key terms in the diverse Mayan languages provide symbols
for the underlying cultural logic. Closely paralleling the k’uxand anima’Kaqchikel terms in Tec-
pan, the Mam Mayas employ the terms naab’land aanima,“sense” and “soul”; and the Tz’utujil
Mayan cultural logic can be illustrated by the terms jalojand k’exoj,“maturation” and “re-
juvination” (transformation and renewal).
Such deeply imbedded concepts in the local cultures of Guatemalan Mayan communities
have helped sustain the continuities of these local cultures, at the same time that their highly
general meanings made it possible for diverse cultural changes to take place.