37 

 Ejido members must be Maya in order to be ejidatarios. Previously ejido membership at X- 

 Hazil y Anexos was granted automatically to all young men (about 16-18 years old) upon application to 

 the comisariado and after fulfilling the requirements of planting a garden, maintaining a residence at the 

 ejido, and collaborating on community work projects (faenas). These members then shared in the 

 profits of timber sales by the ejido. Presently, the ejido has about 400 members. New members no 

 longer are being accepted because current ejidatarios voted to restrict membership after per c^ita 

 profit shares became unacceptably small. Today, as young men come of age, they still may live and 

 work on the ejido but cannot share in any distribution of timber sale profits. 



Social Organization 



The social organization of indigenous groups is affected by many factors. One important 

 factor is the ability to obtain food for personal consumption (Harris, 1974). Many indigenous people 

 also share or exchange game for social and nutritional reasons (Stearman, 1989). In some cases, these 

 exchanges extend to all group or village members, while in other instances, the sharing is limited to the 

 immediate family of the hunter. Maya hunters are known to share or exchange game, but the 

 importance of game to Maya social organization has not been studied. 



Maya households at X-Hazil Sur today vary in size and composition. Nuclear family 

 households (husband, wife, and children) are the most common type, composing about 75% of the 

 households, and are similar to those described by Redfield and Villa Rojas (1962), Webber (1980), and 

 Villa Rojas (1987). Multiple family households (each family a separate economic unit; e.g., an adult 

 man and his immediate family living adjacent to his parents with father and adult son working together, 

 but dividing the crops) and extended domestic families (more than one family constituting a single 

 economic and social unit; e.g., an adult man and his immediate family living adjacent to his parents 

 with father and adult son working together, and sharing the crops) also are common. The typical 

 household at X-Hazil Sur is composed of 8-10 people. Household size and composition may vary over 

 time as children become independent and elderly adults become dependent as they no longer can care 



