Lacandon People - External Influences

External Influences

While the Lacandón have recently seen an influx of outside influence with the coming of roads, logging, tourism, and other modernizations, it is important to recognize that they have had contact with outsiders throughout their history. It should also be noted that the Lacandón were often the initiators of contact with foreigners (including other Mayan groups). Outside contact was usually facilitated by trade and religious conversion. If we examine photographs and drawings of the Lacandón dating from the late 19th century, we can see that their clothing and personal adornments have changed considerably. These valuable historical images show that cultural change has been taking place among the Lacandón for a long time.

The Lacandón have sometimes gone into nearby towns to participate in Catholic mass or other rituals performed by priests. The ritual of baptism was of particular interest, possibly because they perceived a cleansing and therapeutic value for that ritual. Initially, attempts by capuchin priests and other missionaries to Christianize the Lacandón were unsuccessful. The priests repeatedly tried to emphasize the importance of monogamy in their religion, which may have led to the initial general non-acceptance of the religion. Polygyny was seen by the male Lacandón as a way to ensure labor and economic power, retain ritual knowledge in food preparation, and maintain fertility among wives at different times. Interestingly, the Christian religion provided somewhat of a break for Lacandón women because there was no need for the exhaustive process and knowledge base of preparing ritual foods for ceremonies. Because of this, and their exclusion from the traditional ceremonies other than cooking, many Lacandón women asked their husbands to convert to Christianity.

As mentioned earlier, the geographic differences among the Lacandón may have influenced the rate at which Christian conversion occurred. It is noted that the lowland Lacandón have all but abandoned the historical religion while those in the highlands still practice some traditional rituals. The need for privacy for the rites to be performed and outsider interruption likely has something to do with this as well. The use of music and dance has also decreased in ritual behavior inexplicably since ethnographers began studying the Lacandón. Today, it is possible to buy god pots made by the Lacandón specifically for tourists. These pots are not painted and have not been given “souls” and therefore are not alive and can be sold. Jon McGee (2002) notes that increased participation in a monetary economy because of tourists has decreased the need for subsistence agriculture and with it the religious rites associated with agriculture. Other changes include the simplification of god pot designs, the non-existence of once very important pilgrimages to particular sites (because they have been desecrated), disappearance of bloodletting, and rarity of polygyny. Besides the influence of outsiders, these changes can also be attributed to deaths of the elders and knowledgeable persons who practiced the rituals through old age and often disease. Information was not passed on to younger generations, which opened a place for Christian missionaries to convert more Lacandón. For this reason Protestantism is the dominant religion of the lowland Lacandón today. John McGee (2002) has noted that within four years of the introduction of television, traditional ritual practices among the highland Lacandón has been reduced to just two families and one individual. Many others no longer participate in any religion at this point.