Abstract

MARION SINGER, Marie-Odile. Under the shadow of the big ceiba: the cosmovision of the lacandones. Desacatos [online]. 2000, n.5, pp.45-56. ISSN 2448-5144.

In contrast to other mayan groups such as tzeltales, choles and tojolabales who were withdrawn and forced to settle in different lands loosing many aspects of their social and cultural universe, the lacandones have remained attached to their native jungle of which they consider themselves the real men. Therefore their cosmogonic images retrieved from their oral tradition represents a contemporary mayan cosmovision rooted in ancient ways of thinking, aimed at reproducing the cultural identity of the group. Just as in other native mesoamerican cultures, the lacandona culture explains the world by the movement of the planets. The lacandones imagine the cosmos threatened by destruction and therefore are obliged to maintain that equilibrium.