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a pragmatic past: folk history, environmental change, and society in a Petén, Guatemala town
Author(s) -
SCHWARTZ NORMAN B.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1977.4.2.02a00080
Subject(s) - politics , period (music) , linguistic change , history , social change , sociology , aesthetics , linguistics , political science , law , art , philosophy
Over a fifteen year period (1960–1975), folk historians in a Petén, Guatemala town have revised their conceptualizations of the past without revising their reports of the facts as such. Simultaneously, a series of rapid changes in the demographic, economic, and political environment of the town has occurred. The connections between these two sets of changes are explored to show that the folk history has changed in response to the changing environment and that it serves both to promote desired social forms and conduct in a new situation and to make the new situation comprehensible. How and why the folk historical changes are possible is discussed, along with some general implications of such change.