460 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
women are barred from civil office, the joint participation of husband and wife in the
religious cargo system (cofradía service) enhances communication and cooperation
between them, and strengthens the marital bond. Chamulans say that the deities
that couples serve grant them blessings, bringing them material well-being and im-
proving their relationship. In this way, Chamulan culture encourages the interde-
pendence of husbands and wives (Rosenbaum 1993).
Interdependence is especially relevant in the lower socioeconomic sectors of in-
digenous societies. Among higher-income indigenous people, interdependence be-
tween spouses diminishes. As mentioned before, the male bias of the larger society
enhances men’s greater access to education, credit, and contacts with the outside
world. Some indigenous men are able to benefit from these privileges. Women whose
husbands’ cash earnings are much greater than theirs lose leverage in their house-
holds. Their economic value to their household diminishes as their dependence on
their husbands increases.
In the past twenty years, the intense penetration of modern capital into indige-
nous communities has radically altered gender systems. For example, in the Mam
Mayan town of San Pedro Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, the introduction of capitalism
brought about a remarkable rise in living standards. Similar processes took place
among Zapotec Indians of Teotitlán del Valle with the entry of artisan production into
international markets, and among Zapotecs of the Sierra de Oaxaca when coffee (a
major commercial crop) replaced a household-oriented system of production. In
these three relatively egalitarian communities, social classes and gender stratifica-
tion gradually crystallized over time leading to a dramatic deterioration in women’s
status.
How did this change occur? Because of their advantages, men were able to se-
cure loans; buy trucks; engage in more modern, industrialized production; or forge
links with national and international markets to sell their products. As the demand for
industrial goods began to replace demand for traditional products of cottage indus-
tries largely in women’s hands, women’s income often diminished. Whereas women
have been valued as defenders of identity and continuity in traditional communities,
in rapidly modernizing societies, women become identified with backwardness. In
these societies women become increasingly dependent on their husbands who have
ultimate control of cash earnings. Frequently this dependency means that women
lose power. They are less likely to be influential in important family decisions and
often have no alternative but to tolerate their husbands’ infidelity or abuse.
Chan Kom, a Mayan Indian village in Yucatan, presents a contrasting case (Re
Cruz 1998). The traditional way of life in Chan Kom has been centered around milpa
production characterized by interdependence between husbands and wives. In recent
decades both men and women have emigrated to the tourist center of Cancun in
search of jobs. In Cancun, women work as domestics, and men work in construction.
Migrants return periodically to Chan Kom to visit family, take care of business, and
reconnect with their community.
As a consequence of this social transformation, both traditionalists and migrants
have come to hold differing views of what constitutes Mayan identity and the right