JDRC.LIb. I !. ) University of Alberta Widening Paths: The Lives of Three Generations of Maya-Mam Women By Adrienne Dawn Wiebe A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology Edmonton, Alberta FaIl, 2002 Abstract This study of the lives of three generations of women from a highland Guatemalan Maya- Mam, Comitancillo, San Marcos, is based on the narratives of 60 women, supplemented with participant observation, and archival and documentary data. The lives of the "grandmothers" (women born before 1950) followed a standard basic pattern, as is common in smaller, indigenous peasant communities. Their lives were shaped by a relentless routine of gender-based domestic and agricultural labour, large families with high infant mortality rates, externally-imposed labour migrations, and periodic food shortages and epidemics; however, their cultural community provided a measure of security and a sense of identity through a relatively stable subsistence base and internally-integrated household and community institutions. The "mothers," women born between 1950 and 1970, experienced the decline of the traditional economic base of the community, the intensification of external economic changes, and increased educational possibilities. The majority of these women were not in a position to take advantage of the emerging educational and productive opportunities, and at the same time they experienced the loss of status and security associated with the traditional cultural patterns. The lives of the youngest generation of women, the "daughters," exhibit the greatest diversity of life paths, and simultaneously reveal increasing socio-economic stratification as enormous disparities emerge between a minority of young women who have been able to take advantage of new opportunities and the majority of young women who have not been able to do so. The data not only reveal the diversification and stratification of women's life paths over the course of a century, they also both support and challenge the existing theories concerning gender, culture change, households, and development. Patterns of women's access to land are very different from comparable communities elsewhere, in that women inherit, own, and bequeath land. Cultural and social factors play a critical role in land utilization, household strategies, and women's self-definitions, values, and life path choices. Using externally-defined variables to measure women's status are frequently inaccurate, as Maya-Mam women's priorities and values are not necessarily the same as those of dominant and/or external institutions. Acknowledgements In the same way that this research project focuses on the unique convergence of people, time, and place, this dissertation came to be as a result of a similar convergence of people, time, and place. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the people whose support and participation made this particular project possible. This narrative-based research would not have been feasible without the previous opportunity that my family and I had to live and work in Comitancillo (1992-1996). I am grateful to the organizations involved in various ways in our time there: the AsociaciOn Maya-Mam de Investigaciones y Desarrollo (AMMID), Pueblo Partisans, Sombrilla Refugee Support Society, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). AMMID (Asociación Maya-Mam de lnvestigación y Desarrollo) provided the community-based support for the research, and an opportunity to explore participatory-action research processes. I am particularly grateful for the participation of the Board of Directors of the organization and the Research Advisory Committee members: Ruben Feliciano, Sara Ramirez, Maria Eulalia Jimenez, Petrona Cardona, Isabel Miranda Aquilón, and Pedro Ramirez. The research would have been impossible without the excellent research assistance and Mam interpretation provided by Miriam Alicia Salvador. Miriam is not only a thorough and inquisitive colleague, she is also a dear personal friend. Many friends and neighbours in Comitancillo helped me in various ways, and I am grateful to them all. I would especially like to mention Lic. Ruben Feliciano's scholarly and practical support, Nicolasa Cardona's gentle insights, and Lucila Narvarro Velasquez's warm friendship. I was very fortunate to receive wonderfully encouraging intellectual guidance from my supervisory committee at the University of Alberta. My supervisor, Dr. C. Rodenck Wilson, brought steady support and encouragement, perceptive insights, and an incredibly extensive breadth of knowledge to the process. My committee members were equally critical to the outcome. Dr. Ruth Gruhn brought her passion for Guatemalan ethnology and careful editing, and Dr. Philomina Okeke provided decisive analysis of gender issues and of the graduate research experience. As a result of the thorough feedback I received from Dr. Jim Handy, University of Saskatchewan, the historical and contemporary analysis of Guatemala was greatly enhanced. Dr. Mike Evans, University of Alberta, provided critical input that sharpened the economic aspects of the analysis. During the years I worked on this project, I had a very flexible and encouraging supervisor at my part-time position at the Royal Alexandra Hospital: Rev. Dr. Neil Elford. His understanding and support made it possible for the household bills to get paid as well as academic and institutional work to be accomplished. The generous and flexible funding support for this research I received from the International Development Research Centre (Doctoral Research Award), Ottawa and the University of Alberta made the project financially possible. The joy, love, faith, and support, both practical and emotional, that I receive from my parents, Rudy and Tena Wiebe, my brother, Chris Wiebe, and my sister-in-law, Jan Schroeder are a constant in my life. I am very thankful for the intellectual stimulation, cross-cultural curiousity, unwavering encouragement, steady stream of visits in Guatemala and Canada, and practical help that I have received from them. My companero, Arturo Avila, has accompanied me on this journey: traveling, learning, discussing, and providing logistical support" (after all he is a Project Coordinator!). Without his collaboration, support, and love, this endeavour would not have been started or finished. children, Roclo and Camilo, for their participation in I am grateful for my two (mostly) wonderful their this journey, their openness to all kinds of adventure, particularly in Guatemala, and for endurance of the times when Mom was unavailable. Many enjoyable and insightful friends have enriched my life in general and this project in Woelcke, and Denise Spitzer for particular. I am especially grateful to Duane Burton, Magdalene their friendship throughout this process. Of course, ultimately this project would not have come about without the lovely, compelling willingness to share their thoughts women of Comitancillo. I am deeply grateful to them for their and lives with me in this very personal way. My life has been changed by the experience of their daughters and granddaughters, knowing them. I sincerely hope that their lives, and those of fulfill their aspirations as women of this unique community in the coming century. Table of Contents Chapter 1- Introduction and Literature Review 1. Situating the Research Problem 1 2. MarIa, Manuela, and Marta: Three Women's Stones 2 3. Review of the Literature 7 3.1. Gender and Development: Theory and Practice 3.2. Gender Relations within Peasant Households 3.3. Women in Maya Ethnology 3.4. Economic Class, Ethnicity, and Social Structure 4. Thesis Outline 29 Chapter 2— Research Context and Methodology 1. Intersecting Methodologies: Ethnohistory, Gender Studies and Applied Anthropology 30 2. Comitancillo as an Ethnographic Research Site 34 3. Fieldwork Conditions 35 4. Local Relationships to the Research 36 4.1. Research Advisory Committee 4.2. Issues Arising in the Participatory-Action Research Approach 5. Data Collection 39 5.1. Participant Observation 5.2. Individual Interviews 5.3. Ethical and Consent Considerations 5.4. Focal Groups 5.5. Household Activity Records 5.6. Archival and Documentary Sources 6. Data Analysis 45 Chapter 3- Comitancillo: The Case Study Community 1. Introduction 46 2. Geographical Setting 46 3. Comitancillo before 1900 52 4. Comitanclllo in the Twentieth Century 52 4.1. Population and Settlement Patterns 4.2. Key Aspects of Political and Economic Development 4.2.1. Local Government 4.2.2. Land Ownership and Access Patterns 4.2.3. Forced Migratory Labour 4.3. Religion: Maya, Catholic, and Protestant 4.3.1. The Cofradias: Celebrating the Saints 4.3.2. The Chmanes: Mayan Pnests 4.3.3. Return to Orthodoxy: Catholicism and Protestantism 4.3.4. The Re-emergence of Maya Spirituality 4.4. The Impact of the Civil War (1972-1996) on Comitancillo 5. Guatemala and Comitancillo at the end of the Twentieth Century 74 5.1. The National Context 5.2. A Profile of Comitancillo in the 1990s Chapter 4— The Grandmothers: A Predetermined Life Path Josefa's Story 79 1. Land, Inheritance, and Residence: Traditional Patterns and Pnvatization 82 2. Women in Subsistence Agricultural Production 85 2.1. Milpa: Essential Foodstuffs and Cuttural Base 2.2. Animal Husbandry: A Female Responsibility and Resource 2.3. Food Scarcity within the Subsistence Economy 3. Domestic Work: Meeting Daily Family Needs