Abstract

ESTRADA OCHOA, Adriana C.. Nature, culture, identity. Some thoughts from contemporary Maya oral tradition. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2009, vol.34, pp.181-201. ISSN 0185-2574.

This article presents some reflections about problems that may rise around the construction and use of nature and culture as concepts for anthropological analysis, and their possibilites for studying mayan cultures. It suggests that mayan communities establish different kind of relationships between this two domains, as well as between humanity and animality. In contrast with the western point of view, which establishes rigid borders and insoluble differences, the mayan vision presents continuities, reversibilities and interconnections, in a universe where materiality and space seem to offer multiple possiblities of passing through for life and being.

Keywords : Nature; culture; human; animal; perspectivism; transformation; border; continuity; discontinuity; oral narrative.

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