Watching Lacandon Maya Lives

by R. Jon McGee

In Watching Lacandon Maya Lives, the author follows three generations of one Lacandon Maya family. Readers track the subjects' lives as they shift through events such as marriage, parenthood, and religious conversion, all set against a backdrop of increased tourism, road construction, and the murders of two people in the community. This book encompasses both ethnography and a critique of ethnographic writing. At one level, the book is about social, agricultural, technological, and religious changes that have occurred in a Lacandon Maya community in Mexico. At a second level, the book is a critique of those who invented a Utopian picture of a "traditional" Lacandon past that never really existed. For cultural anthropologists, or anyone interested in learning more about this Mayan culture.

194 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2001

Reviews

[Sav]

This book was very informative and I want to support it because my favorite professor wrote it, but I do have some critiques. Many parts of the book were very repetitive as if McGee doesn't expect people to read every chapter so he say things again. There were two pieces that were probably actually cut and paste then a couple words got changed. Other than that though, I learned a lot about the Lacandon society and I enjoyed it. The story of Nuk made me tear up. Overall I think this book has great information but could have been written better.

[Loran (Inked with Curiosity)]

This book was required reading for my Cultural Anthropology class, taught by the author. It was a very interesting read and extremely informative yet very simple to understand. I had never heard of the Lacandon Maya before reading this ethnography and I did enjoy the book. However be aware: the author copy-pastes large sections repeatedly again and again throughout the book which gets very tedious because its literally word for word the same information. Also the way the Maya language is set up, it was confusing how people were identified as many of them have no names and simply share the same title. That being said, I thought it was a good book and enjoyed both it and the class.

[Tomek]

A thorough, clear, and enjoyable read about the history and culture of the Lacandon Maya. McGee's analysis of the effects of recent changes in Lacandon communities is eye-opening and convincing. My one criticism is that there are many later sections of the book are redundant to the point of being copy-pasted from previous chapters.

[Barb]

I adored this book. It connects ethnographic research to a broad audience along with diving into the lives of a culture unlike our own.