Maya Spiritual Praxis in the New Baktun: Ritual and Reclamation in 21st Century Chiapas

Abstract

The Maya are-- spiritually -- the Children of the Maize. The far-reaching effects of the divorce between indigenous land-working Maya and their ability to rely on maize farming and traditional subsistence strategies on the milpa (a type of multi-crop, cooperative growing field) have implications for the continuity of Maya spiritual practice. In recent years, Maya communities have struggled against free trade policies and federal legislation that denies them land rights and productive autonomy. Presently, the younger generations in Chiapas are struggling to re-claim their spiritual beliefs as connected to community ecology.