This study will show that Ellen Kintz' Life Under the Tropical Canopy: Tradition and Change Among the Yucatec Maya, effectively and comprehensively demonstrates her fundamental point---that certain spiritual and cultural elements of the Yucatec Maya are crucial to the harmony of the people's relationship with the environment and to the sustenance of the culture itself. As Kintz writes, "The elders have lived and continue to live a traditional pattern that includes the practice of rituals that protect man and the land by evoking supernatural attention" (131).
The author also wants to show that the so-called progressive processes and methods of technological modernization, from the Spanish conquest on, have been "cataclysmic for the Maya" (129). The traditional spiritual and cultural beliefs and rituals are today in danger of elimination: "The young men, heads of new families, despite having heard of the spirits and rituals, do not believe in them and have never seen most of the traditional rites performed" (131). Kintz wants to show how these spiritual or supernatural rituals are not merely crude ceremonies performed by backward people who have divided their lives into the religious, the agricultural, the cultural, the environmental, etc. To the contrary, they are people who for generations upon generations have meticulously woven the various threads their lives together into a seamless fabric which is purposefully designed to adhere to a world view which produces a respectful harmony with the environment.
In addition, the author wants to understand the whole of the culture under study. She understands, and demonstrates convincingly, that the success and longevity of these people and their culture are the result of the interconnectedness of every aspect of their existence.
The author's arguments and conclusions are rooted in over a decade of fieldwork and research. For example, in arguing that the Maya value most an attitude ...