Social Organization and Disorganization in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala

Abstract

The Tz'utujil Mayan community of Santiago Atitlan has written a most remarkable chapter in recent Guatemalan history. Following a decade of unprecedented violence, in late 1990 the Atitecos (the name for the people of Santiago Atitlan) stood up to one of the more notorious national armies on the contemporary world scene, and won. Although the Atitecos fired not one shot, today not one soldier now treads on their soil (Loucky and Carlsen 1991). When the Guatemalan Army periodically tests that arrangement, the Atitecos merely repeat their earlier success, confronting the intruding soldiers en masse until the army backs off (Scott 1991; Carisen 1994). The current drama is only the latest episode in a lengthy history, a past that at once promotes community solidarity, yet also provides fertile ground for factionalism. The struggle between the forces of local autonomy and those of state integration overshadows another ongoing confrontation, the conflict between Atiteco customary subdivisions and emergent local factions. A complex of destabilizing ecological and economic factors fuels dissension within the community. In a word, Atitlan is simultaneously coming together and falling apart. This article traces the evolution of Atitlan community organization from the period shortly before the Conquest to the present. In the process, it challenges certain prevailing orthodoxies about pre-conquest social organization in the Tz'utujil area, and demonstrates that prior to the Conquest the local Mayas were organized into atomized polities. They were not united into a single kingdom or other such state. It is erroneous to assume that Spanish disruption and control of the area led to an abrupt appearance of fragmented polities. Quite the opposite is true. The people we now call Atiteco survived the Conquest largely intact due to the strength of indigenous social organization and the relative absence of intensive Spanish colonization. Throughout the subsequent centuries, the Atitecos adapted their social configuration as necessary to incline colonial relations in their favor and influence the course of their own history. Over time, almost no aspect of Atiteco culture was left untouched by contact with Guatemala's dominant sector, but most features of the culture could nonetheless be traced to pre-conquest antecedents. Many of the changes that have transformed Atitlan over the last 500 years have been relatively gradual and orderly, perhaps at times nearly invisible to the community. Importantly, by normalizing cultural intrusions, such as the Catholic cult of the saints, the Atiteco social configuration proved capable of adapting to its changing environment. Stated differently, the Atitecos were able to change so as to stay the same. In contrast, current transformations of Atiteco society are abrupt and spasmodic, and reflect serious sociocultural instability. This difference between past and present is thrown into high relief by Protestant Atitecos' purposeful rejection, indeed the Satanization, of their own cultural past. In the course of the last 100 years, the consolidation of the Guatemalan state has eroded the adaptive capacity of local communities, including Atitlan. Major elements in this transformation have been the expropriation of large amounts of Mayan land, and the development of the infrastructure and military apparatus necessary to protect the interests of the emergent landed class. Added to these external factors is the explosive population growth within Mayan towns. The net result for Atitlan has been increasing poverty, heightened competition for scarce resources, factionalization, and the undermining of customary subdivisions. Yet, as the success of the Atitecos in evicting the army from their territory attests, it is inaccurate to say that the dynamics of Atiteco autonomy have been entirely overwhelmed. As part of their efforts to prevent the army from reoccupying the town, the Atitecos have reinstituted certain earlier features of their social organization which serve to buttress community autonomy. …