THE STRUCTURE OF CLASSIFICATION AND RANKING IN THREE HIGHLAND MAYAN COMMUNITIES

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Victoria Reifler Bricker

Resumen

The complementary terms bankilal and ?i¢'inal are applied by the people of Zinacantán, Chamula, and Chenalho to a number of domains of their experience: kinship, religious and political social roles, physical objects, and natural features of the landscape. The contrast between btmkilat and ?i¢'inal seems to be fundamental to the thought of the Indians living in the three communities. Here the ·logical implications of this contrast will be explored.

The terms are difficult to define empirically in general terms; their meanings seem co be contextually determined. I submit that the terms belong to what might be called the ethical language of these communities rather than to a natural or empirical language and that any empirical definition will fall short the "true" meaning of the terms.

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Cómo citar
Reifler Bricker, V. (2013). THE STRUCTURE OF CLASSIFICATION AND RANKING IN THREE HIGHLAND MAYAN COMMUNITIES. Estudios De Cultura Maya, 9. https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ecm.1973.9.360
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Victoria Reifler Bricker

Doctorada en Antropología de Harvard University ( 1968). Ha realizado trabajos etnológicos de campo en el Estado de Chiapas (Zinacaotao y Chamula). Profesora auxiliar en el Departamento de Antropología de Tulane University. Ha publicado: El Hombre, la Carga y el Camino: Antiguos Conceptos Mayas sobre tiempo y espacio, y el Sistema de Cargos; The Pattern of Interaction between the Computer and the Ethnographer in the Field; Nicknames and Social Structure in Zinacantan; Three Genres of Tzotzil Insult; Relationship Terms with Suffix in Tzotzil and Yucatec Maya.