Lacandon Totally Explained

Everything about Lacandon Language totally explained

Ceremonial Buildings, Sacred Places, and Objects of Ritual Practice Most Lacandón villages have a God House where ceremonies take place. Some are located near the religious leaders abode or close to the home of a well-respected or elderly male. Some villages hide the God House away from the village in the jungle so that outsiders are unable to find them. Often these sites are also guarded and even shielded with vegetation so that the rituals performed inside can't be seen. The God House is built very low to the ground so that it's hard to see into and it's oriented to North, South, East, and West with the entrance on the east side where it faces toward Maya ruins and the sunrise. Inside the God House are the necessities used for various ceremonies. These include drums suspended in the ceiling so they don’t touch the ground until they're needed for ritual song and dance; a fire starter traditionally consisting of a fire drill (two sticks) and more recently a lighter, matches or flint; benches to sit around; ceramic bowls for preparing and eating ritual meals or offerings; a conch shell “trumpet” to announce the beginning of a ceremony for both villagers and the gods; a large hollowed trough to make the alcohol Balché for ritual consumption; and most importantly the God House contains rubber characters, incense nodules (made of copal), and ceramic God pots used to burn the offerings for the rituals. Sacred places included caves (where the sun went to the underworld each night), Maya ruins where the Gods had once resided, next to rivers, rock outcroppings or particular places in the jungle (there wouldn't be any cutting of vegetation in these areas). These places are often remote, secret, and not to be viewed by outsiders . Ultimately, there isn't a great understanding of the exact meaning of the anthropomorphic rubber figures though the symbolism appears to be representative of human sacrifice) acted somewhat as a barrier to social interaction outside of the small and dispersed groups in which the Lacandón lived from pre-Conquest times up to the 20th century .
   The southern Maya lowlands which are home to the Lacandón are characterized by rugged karstic topography and sub-tropical rainforest, known as the Selva Lacandona, or the Lacandon Forest. Several rivers feed into the eastern Chiapas region, such as the Pasión, San Pedro Martir, Lacantún, Jatate, Usumacinta, and Chixoy. The rivers, along with many lakes, swamps and shorelines, contribute to the diversity of the Lacandón lands. The availability of various different types of flora and fauna which inhabit these aquatic and terrestrial areas have allowed the Lacandón to thrive in a geographical setting which at first glance appears to be hostile to humans. In order to take full advantage of their resources, the Lacandón have used specific agricultural, hunting and gathering techniques which have been designed to be conservative of the land and ecozone as a whole, which allows for sustainable use and therefore continued yield in the future. 20% of the approximately 700 Lacandón people living today continue to use such techniques .
   James Nations recognizes four zones which the Lacandón utilize to maintain a diverse food supply and healthy diet. The primary or old growth forest consists of small portions of tropical rain forest and lower mountainous rain forest, which constitutes the majority of the forest ecosystem and map at ). The primary growth forest provides hunting for the Lacandón, as deer, peccary, agouti, and monkeys inhabit the area . This zone is also very important for the maintenance of rich and stable soil, of which the Lacandón take advantage in their milpa systems, the second zone.
   The milpa, or farmed field, is crucial to the survival of the Lacandón people. Here, they utilize sustainable slash and burn techniques to ensure the continued richness of the soils of the milpa and health of the region in general. The Lacandón people engage in swidden agriculture on a primary or secondary growth forest in January, February or March, and allow the remains to dry until April. During this time, fire breaks are also put into place so as to keep the coming burn from catching other parts of the forest on fire. The firing occurs in April and planting begins soon thereafter. Different crops are grown together in the milpa amongst each other, such that plants of a single crop are separated from one another and surrounded by different crops. Also, tree species (bananas, plantains, etc.) are interspersed amongst maize and vine plants such as squash and chiles . In addition, the shells from this organism provide great nutritional value, as they provide calcium and lime when burned. The lime is then added to maize to release amino acids such as tryptophan and lysine and the vitamin niacin, which would otherwise be unavailable from the maize (unable to be metabolized) if the lime were not added .
   By utilizing the primary forest, milpas, acahuales and aquatic areas, the Lacandón have been able to provide a healthy diet for themselves which has contributed to their ongoing survival.

Archaeology

Three sites have been excavated and yielded artifacts that are historically Lacandón, El Caobal, Matamangos and El Magal. The location of these abandoned Lacandón sites have been passed down through generations of fathers taking their sons to the sites for hunting or exploring. The locals who had traveled there as children are the last informants who know the location of the Lacandón settlements. Since the Lacandón didn't typically build “stone-and-earth” platforms it's almost impossible to find their lost settlements, making the knowledge of the elder locals crucial.
   Each site yielded different artifacts, some proved evidence of a home or residences, others may have been manufacturing sites. All show strong evidence of Lacandón inhabitance. The easiest characteristic of Lacandón settlement to spot is the presence of non-native vegetation such as fruit trees. Another being traditional Lacandón pottery. The ceramic vessels found at all of the sites were dark brown and black with dark clouding on both the inside and outside and had a hemispherical shape. The hemispherical shape mimicked the familiar shape of the gourd vessels that were also very important. The gourds had a practical form and were used often for ritual food and drink. The rims of the ceramic vessels were squared off, as if they'd been cut with a knife before being fired. Unlike Lacandón gourd bowls, which were typically decorated with carved designs, the ceramic vessels had no designs or adornments. This might have shown some insight as to why they were left behind, perhaps they were so simple and easily produced that they were left behind and new vessels were made after the tribe migrated to a new location .
   The first site discovered near the ruins of Dos Pilas was El Caobal, located on raised terrain and surrounded by swamp. In Spanish, caobal means “place or abundance of mahogany trees,” this refers to the large concentration of them which most likely due to planting by the Lacandón who relied on them for canoes and also because mahogany trees are not indigenous. El Caobal also has a large amount of mango and banana trees, which are also non-native, which were planted by the Lacandón as a source of food. Beneath the jungle floor laid hundreds of artifacts including pottery, stone tools, metal pots and broken glass to name a few. Some of the artifacts were brought up by root action or a metal detector located and others were found from blind digs. The abundance of artifacts suggests the location a home or possibly a discard zone. The local artifacts that were found included utilitarian ceramics and stone tools, imported items consisted of white earthenware vessels with painted designs, glass bottles and metal tools .
   At Matamangos, the site approximately one kilometer from El Caobal is identified by its abundance of mango trees (again showing that non-indigenous vegetation points to settlement). Matamangos was also on slightly raised ground and was located near a small group of Maya house mounds. After deciding to dig near one of the largest mango trees large amounts of chert debris such as chert cores, arrowheads and small blades were uncovered, another object that's characteristically Lacandón. Chert was a hard stone that the Lacandón used to make arrowheads and other lithic tools. A large piece of chert (also called a core) would first be heated and then bone is struck with a round hammerstone (made of volcanic rock) against the core, using indirect percussion fragments were chipped off to make prismatic chert blades. A hammerstone (probably imported from the Guatemalan highlands) was also found nearby the chert fragments. The stone was identified as being a hammerstone because of its smooth and rounded from use and fits comfortably in the hand and has scratches and chips from use. The uncovering of these related artifacts suggests possibly a tool manufacturing area or a discard site .
   Known as El Mangal or “place of many mango trees” by the locals, this site has trees that were much larger than those at Caobal or Matamangos. The area also had a lagoon that was known on regional maps as “El Mangal” (showing a knowledge of the area by people other than the locals). The water in the lagoon isn't good for drinking or cooking but it useful for washing and catching fish. A current family has made residence at El Mangal and has unearthed a whole machete, they also found pieces of thick, hard, brown pottery (traditional Lacandón ceramic). While digging a trash pit the family found more pottery, although it wasn't the traditional smooth bowls that had been found at El Caobal, they were still ethnographically Lacandón. The vessels were identified as incense burners. The shape was hemispherical with a ring base and a hole for venting the fire and releasing smoke. Unlike the smooth ceramics used for every day life these vessels were adorned with the modeled head of a deity on the rim, proving this object is used for religious rights. The modeled heads “closely resemble those made by the ethnographic Lacandon.” Other decorations include incised lines and holes down the front of the bowl and protruding spikes. These vessels were used in “God houses” for religious purposes. During the Lacandón incense burner renewal ceremony men isolated themselves from the community and crafted the burners in solitude. They were placed in the god house and the old burners were deposited at a sacred place in the forest. The presence of these incense burners points possibly to a religious god house, a manufacturing site or even a sacred place of disposal.

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