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Death as a Way of Life: The Increasing Resort to Homicide in a Maya Indian Community 1
Author(s) -
NASH JUNE
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1967.69.5.02a00020
Subject(s) - homicide , legal guardian , context (archaeology) , maya , criminology , agency (philosophy) , power (physics) , sociology , history , law , political science , social science , poison control , suicide prevention , medicine , medical emergency , archaeology , physics , quantum mechanics
The breaking‐down of a social‐control system based on belief in the guardianship of the spiritual ancestors and their temporal agents, the curers, is reflected in a rising homicide rate as people turn to individual sanctions when threatened. The acts of homicide differ in their social significance according to who is killed, the context, the agency, and the motivation of the killer. Thirty‐seven homicides between 1938 and 1965, analyzed in terms of these component variables, reflect the conflicts arising from competition in new economic enterprises, the rising suspicion of curers' abuse of their supernatural power, and the loss of belief in the guardianship of the ancestors.