FUNCTIONS OF WEALTH 



207 



tice in Chichicastenango is therefore wide, for while 

 in theory everybody passes up the fixed steps of 

 the hierarchy of offices, in practice the masses of 

 people serve in the lower offices and never get 

 further, while a relatively few rich families monop- 

 olize the high ofiices without having passed through 

 the low ones. The theory in both Chichicasten- 

 ango and Panajachel is therefore much like the 

 practice in Panajachel. Thus there is a tendency 

 toward the formation of what approximate social 

 classes in Chichicastenango. A relatively few 

 families are not only wealthy, but have a monopoly 

 of the respect that comes with the performance of 

 ritual functions, and have as well a monopoly of 

 political power. Furthermore, in Chichicasten- 

 ango there is a strong tendency for these wealthy 

 families to intermarry among themselves. As a 

 result, they are not only more distinctly set apart 

 as an elite class, but there is some tendency for the 



wealth and power of the community to remain in 

 the same families for generation after generation. 

 There is a sort of aristocracy. The contrast be- 

 tween Chichicastenango and Panajachel is strik- 

 ing, and particularly interesting in that one sees 

 operating a single cultural mechanism with such 

 different effect. By the contrast one understands 

 why Panajachel cannot have social classes. 



It becomes evident that the full answer to the 

 questions posed for Panajachel requires not only 

 all of the variety of data presented in this volume, 

 but insights gained as well through comparative 

 study. At the same time, imique as conditions in 

 Panajachel may be, it seems likely that under- 

 standing of its social and economic system, in 

 terms of questions like these, will help us to under- 

 stand mechanisms operative in other societies, 

 including our own. That is the expectation, at 

 least, on which anthropologists base their method. 



