Maya of Highland Mexico
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Maya of Highland Mexico
Maya of Highland Mexico Elois Ann Berlin, Brent Berlin, and John R. Stepp
ALTERNATIVE NAMES None.
LOCATION
AND
LINGUISTIC AFFILIATION
The Highland Maya of Mexico are located in the central highland region of Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico. The two largest groups in the Highlands include the Tzeltal and the Tzotzil (see linguistics). These groups are closely related both culturally and linguistically. Beginning in the 1970s some Highland Maya began to emigrate into the lower elevation Selva Lacandon region of Chiapas, to other parts of Mexico, and to the United States. This migration has been largely due to economic reasons and land shortages but is also often related to religious conflict between the traditionalist catholic religious hierarchies, newly converted evangelical Protestants, and modern Catholics. Other Maya groups in Chiapas are the Chol in the northern mountains of Chiapas; Tojolobal in eastern Chiapas; the Zoque in western Chiapas and the Lacandon in the Selva Lacandon rainforest on the eastern Guatemalan border. In addition, there are approximately 25 other Maya socio-linguistic groups living in Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The Maya language family is comprised of approximately 25 distinct languages distributed throughout southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Five of these languages represent the principal linguistic groups of the family presently found in Chiapas—Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolabal, Chol, and Lacandón. Three Maya languages originally spoken in Chiapas are extinct or close to extinction—Coxoh, Chicomuceltec, Mocho, and Motozintlec (see Figure 1, after INEGI, 2001). Speakers of several other Maya languages Kanjobal ≈ 6,000 speakers, Mam ≈ 5,500 speakers, Chuj 1,500 speakers, Jacaltec and Cakchiquel ≈ 500 each, Maya ≈ 100, Chontal and Kekchi 100 each) several of these represent recent migrants from Guatemala.
Of the native Chiapas Maya groups, Lacandón (with perhaps fewer than 900 speakers) is linguistically most distinct, sharing close affinities with the Yucatecan branch of the family (Yucatec, Mopán, and Itzá). Chol (≈ 141,000 speakers), is the next most distinct, followed by Tojolabal (roughly 38,000 speakers). Tzeltal (≈ 279,000 speakers) and Tzotzil (≈ 292,000 speakers) are the most closely related of the group, having separated as little as 800–1200 years ago. These two languages are spoken throughout the Central Highlands region (Mexican national census data, INEGI 2001). Since the early 1950s, speakers of each of the four larger Maya groups have migrated in large numbers and are today found dispersed throughout the southeastern portion of the state.
OVERVIEW
OF THE
CULTURE
Chiapas has been the site of some of the most intensive anthropological research in the world and there is abundant literature describing most aspects of Highland Maya
Figure 1. Map of Maya linguistic groups in Highland Mexico.
The Context of Health: Environmental, Economic, Social, and Political Factors
culture. With colonization the Sp
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