NEW INEQUALITIES: CHANGING MAYA ECONOMY AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CENTRAL QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO

Abstract

In this paper I explore how members of rural Maya households in central Quintana Roo (Mexico) interact with the wider social system and cope with long-term transformations in productive relations since c. 1840. Maya householders integrate elements of capitalist and non-capitalist modes of production. Through particular cultural forms they regulate internal uses of wealth and their relationships with the larger capitalist world. Social and economic stratification is a fundamental feature of life among Maya householders today as it was in the past. While disparities between wealth strata within the local context have increased, the community is far from disintegrating into antagonistic groups.

Citation

Hostettler, U. (2003), "NEW INEQUALITIES: CHANGING MAYA ECONOMY AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CENTRAL QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO", Dannhaeuser, N. and Werner, C. (Ed.) Anthropological Perspectives on Economic Development and Integration (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(03)22002-3