20 



TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY 



is part of the region. In matters of technology, 

 on the other hand, there are class differences within 

 the region. In order to understand better that 

 practiced bj' the Indians of Panajachel, it is 

 therefore necessary to make some general dis- 

 tinctions for the whole area. 



It takes only superficial familiarity with western 

 Guatemala to notice that there coexist three tech- 

 nological "layers" roughly connected with the 

 difference between the city and the rural areas. 

 The top layer is the thin veneer of modern in- 

 dustrial art; the middle layer, a very substantial 

 one, represents European technology of the cen- 

 turies before the Industrial Revolution; the bottom 

 layer is what remains of the technology of the pre- 

 Columbian Indians. A general problem is posed 

 by the fact that even today, after 400 years of 

 contact, Indian culture is still largely charac- 

 terized bj' a pre-Conquest or "primitive" tech- 

 nology. Living in juxtaposition with Ladinos 

 whose culture partakes of the middle (European, 

 preindustrial) layer and even of items of modern 

 technology, and entering with them into a single 

 economy, it seems remarkable that the Indians 

 should be so "backward." A brief discussion of 

 the general situation will serve to introduce de- 

 scription of the technology of Panajachel in its 

 relation to social and cultural differences in the 

 community. 



The top technological layer in Guatemala pre- 

 sents no problem. It is obviously new: an ex- 

 tension to this country of the modern material 

 culture of the western industrial world. It con- 

 sists of such elements as electric-light plants, 

 telephone and telegraph and radio, the steam 

 shovel working on the highwaj^, and motor 

 vehicles. To the south of the region that con- 

 cerns us, there runs the railroad that connects 

 Guatemala City and the Mexican system of rail- 

 roads. In a town called Cantel there is a modern, 

 cotton-textile mill; in another touTi, Amatitlan, 

 there is a smaller woolen textile mill. On the 

 colTee plantations there is some modern farm 

 machinery. In the city and in the larger towns 

 there are also corn-grinding machines operated 

 by gasoline motors. This modern tecluiology is 

 clearly connected with Ladino culture — much of 

 it with educated-Ladino culture — as well as with 

 the citj'. Everj'thiug electrical, mechanical, and 

 automotive is owned and operated by Ladinos. 

 Even their use bv Indians is minimal. The 



Indians very occasionally have an electric-light 

 bulb in the house; they sometimes send telegrams; 

 they occasionally listen to the radio owned by a 

 Ladino or by the Ladino community. They also 

 buy and use such things as flashlights, hair clip- 

 pers, and sewing machines, which may be said to 

 have entered Indian culture in some degree. 

 They do not, of course, 7no/:e any of these things; 

 and except for sewing machines, they do not oper- 

 ate mechanical devices. 



In Panajachel, specifically, there are Ladinos 

 who enjoy the fruits of modern technology. The 

 Indians are quite typical, however, in sharmg 

 it — if at all — strictly as observers. It happens 

 that Panajachel Indians have no sewing machines; 

 so that full technological "participation" is con- 

 fined to the using of flashlights and, in the hands 

 of the local barber, hair clippers. They use some 

 Cantel-spun cotton and machine-woven cotton 

 cloth; they ride on trucks and busses; they oc- 

 casionally hear radios and patronize itinerant 

 photographers. They have not, of course, the 

 faintest notion of how these things work. A cur- 

 rent folk belief is that (somehow) people's heads 

 must be chopped off to make electric light. It was 

 seriously assumed by my friends that because I 

 came from the United States where such things 

 arc made, I "know how" to make an airplane. 

 An amusing incident illustrates the naiivet^ of 

 Indians faced with gadgets of modern society: I 

 had given a friend a cheap alarm clock, telling 

 him to wind it every 24 hours. A few weeks later 

 he reported to me a narrow escape he had had the 

 previous afternoon; he had gone to the Solola 

 market, and was delayed; he suddenly remembered 

 the clock at home and^ — Cindercllalil^e — had 

 dropped everything and run the 5 miles to his 

 house, just in time to wind the clock. 



Analysis of Indian and Ladino participation in 

 the "middle" technology is much more difhcult. 

 It presents, first of all, a methodological problem 

 of the distinction between Indians and Ladinos. 

 It will be recalled that the difference is, essentiaUy, 

 that Ladinos are the carriers of European culture — 

 are Spanish-speaking, wear our type of clothes, 

 etc., and are part of the national society, while the 

 Indians are members of small local societies whose 

 cultures are in large part descended from the pre- 

 Columbian regional cultm-e. The Ladmos tend to 

 have more white blood, and the Indians more 

 Indian blood; but the physical distinction gives 



