Commentary on Land Settlement in the Peten

Abstract

Nancy Peckenham's Land Settlement in is a generally unsubstantiated and undocumented, emotional response to what is indubitably an outrageous situation. Her sweeping generalizations, her ignorance of Peten history, and her numerous factual errors of commission, omission, and implication blur reader's perception of true setting and hinder understanding of struggle currently being fought in Guatemala's jungle frontier. Peckenham repeatedly claims that Kekchi Maya are the traditional inhabitants of (1980: 174, 175). This is not true. After decline of Mayan Empire's Classic Period (around 1100 AD), Peten was virtually abandoned except for small pockets of Mayan Indians, including Lacandon, Yucatecan, and Mopain, but not Kekchi. The historical and cultural antecedents of Peten are found more in (overwhelmingly Mexican) Yucatan peninsula than in Guatemala itself, where Kekchi have always resided, (see, for example, Reina, 1961). While these Mayan groups of Peten and their cultures have long been exposed to and interacted with other cultural groups (Reina, 1961), not only did they not include Kekchf Mayan, but they did not even have intercourse with Kekchf until very recently. It was not until late 1950s that large numbers of Kekchf began permanently migrating to Peten from their native region, departments of Alta and Baja Verapaz (Adams, 1965). Peckenham (1980Q 169-170) writes,