Chol Ritual Language
with Terrence Lee Folmar, Heidi Altman, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, and Bernardo Pérez Martínez
©1996 J. Kathryn Josserand and Nicholas A. Hopkins

Kinship and Family

Kinship terminology and kin-based social organization are rapidly acculturating to regional hispanic norms (bilateral kinship, with a tendency to patrilineality but no unilineal descent groups). Reconstructions of kin terms and the kinship system, based on internal Chol and external Mayan comparisons, indicate an earlier stage of Chol society which had patrilineal clans; this hypothesis is further supported by evidence from Classic Period hieroglyphic inscriptions (Hopkins 1988). Various forms of evidence indicate the former existence of patrilineal exogamous clans (Villa Rojas 1969: 236), but these currently survive mainly in a feeling of implied kinship and reciprocal obligation between persons of the same surname. Tila Chol still utilizes a special form for the word ’who?’ majch-ki, which is based on the root majch, as in majch-il ’family, kinsman’, suggesting that a stranger’s first identification was his family affiliation.

Ethnohistorical records in Classic Period hieroglyphic inscriptions indicate rule normally passed to a child of the preceding (male or female) ruler, preferentially to a male heir, since the society was patrilineally based. But, as is true of England and other monarchies, women heirs occasionally interrupted the dynasties of patrilineally-related kings, potentially allowing for changes in the power structure at a particular site. But beyond doubt, patrilineal descent groups were important elements in Classic Maya political organization.

Kinship terminology of Omaha type (a particular system of patrilineal terminology) is attested for Chol, but in most communities a degree of acculturation is noted: for example, collateral terminology shifts from Omaha (parallel cousin = äskun ’mother’s sister’s son = father’s brother’s son = brother’) to descriptive (yalobil chich ’child of aunt’) and then is replaced by Spanish terms (primo/prima ’cousin’). Unacculturated terminology is structurally identical to the working Omaha system attested in the nearby Tzotzil community of Chalchihuitán, where patrilineages are maintained through sibling exchange between neighboring families (Hopkins 1969). Family units are important to and positively valued by Chols. Relations between brothers are said to be strained and competitive, while relations with cousins are friendly. Uncles are counselors and helpers; grandparents are treated with respect and are sought out for advice.

Marriage is expected to take place when both parties are about 21; the prospective groom visits the bride’s parents with an older male (father or other family member) in a series of informal visits, during which gifts of food are delivered to show the boy is capable of maintaining a wife. Courtship, after tacit agreement is reached, is expected to take six months or more. Marriage is accomplished by both civil registration and religious ceremonies. Postmarital residence is usually patrilocal, but this depends greatly on individual circumstance, and the possibilities include the groom residing matrilocally and working with his father-in-law, even ultimately inheriting as if he were a son (in the absence of other sons). Residential units are nuclear family or extended family households with elder parents or recently married children added to the nuclear family. Inheritance of the homestead goes to the last child, especially if this child is male. If the last child is female, she should be unmarried to receive inheritance so that the goods remain in the same patrilineal family. Socialization of young children is by a combination of good role models, discipline and instruction, with the expectation that positive early formation prevents later problems from happening.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page