PLURALISM AND TRANSCULTURATION IN INDIGENOUS MAYA RELIGION

Abstract

Several religions are practiced in a highland Maya community. Costumbre and Maya spirituality perpetuate distinctive syncretic and anti-syncretic Maya tra-ditions, and are analyzed here as orthodox and reform versions of Maya religion adapted to different status groups. Like Maya Pentecostals, both use institutional forms borrowed from other cultures in syncretizing strategies that perpetuate core aspects of Maya culture in a radically changing political economy. Strategic individual behavior, contention, and co-operation are documented for a village, indicating how the two traditions reconstitute Maya religion through transcultural processes.