Household Ecology: Economic Change and Domestic Life among the Kekchi Maya in Belize

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Description

Development and economic change are ceaselessly seen as destructive to the circle of relatives and to other traditional varieties of social organization. Wilk’s study of household ecology reveals that the Kekchi Maya of Belize have responded by creating new varieties of circle of relatives organization, working together to stand challenges posed by development. Not merely survivors of an ancient splendor, the Kekchi Maya build upon their wealthy heritage to approach such problems as ethnic strife and rainforest destruction as creative agents.

Wilk combines a wealth of detail on agricultural calendars, hunting practices, land tenure, and labor exchanges in a general interpretation of cultural and ecological transformation. He provides a comprehensive analysis of how tropical farmers continue to exist within the difficult rainforest environment, tracing the ingenuity and adaptability of Mayan culture. Fully incorporating the historical context of ecological processes, he documents the importance of household organization in shaping the trajectory of ecological change and shows how delicate this adaptation will also be. Analyzing household response to localized economic and ecological settings, Wilk argues that the transformation of the rural economy and of Mayan culture proceeds during the conjunction of global and local processes.

The Kekchi refuse to suit into the models of economic evolution set forth in existing scholarship. This sensitive and well-written study challenges current orthodoxies about economic and social change and suggests new approaches to rural development and household ecology.

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