40 

 noticed, however, is the pervasive importance of factions in village life (Re Cruz, 1992; Redfield, 



1960). 



In short, village social structure in Quintana Roo sometimes appears to anthropologists as a 

 classic case of a closed corporate peasant community (Wolf, 1957) where distinctions of wealth and 

 status are downplayed. At other times, remnants of the Caste War political leadership system are used 

 to structure social relations. Finally, factions and schisms rise and fall in villages, resulting in the 

 appearance of economic stratification that might be just an accident of recent history. 



The Maya of Quintana Roo are not just Mexican peasants, as Foster (1967) and others 

 describe. But neither are they pristine tribal peoples. They are villagers who have developed systems 

 of social relations that exhibit community differentiation, but are not mirrors of Western social classes. 



The social hierarchy or stratification at X-Hazil Sur can be seen in men who occupy the major 

 administrative positions and some families that tend to be more prosperous than other families. At X- 

 Hazil Sur and throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, village officials are elected, usually for single terms 

 of office, by ejidatarios. Single adult women at X-Hazil Sur are proscribed by community vote from 

 independent or separate economic activities, such as operating a restaurant or having an individual lot 

 for a house or garden in Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos. 



Although Maya villagers do not have a social hierarchy or stratification that mirrors western 

 social classes, there are local individuals who perform special functions. For example, shamans cure 

 illnesses, midwives deliver babies, and religious officials oversee spiritual matters. These people have 

 undergone an apprenticeship locally and continue to serve as long as their services are requested by 

 village residents. There are no shamans in the village of X-Hazil Sur, but there are several midwives 

 (parteras), one male herbalist (yerbatero or curandero), and two men and one young woman who pray 

 at religious ceremonies (rezador). These positions sometimes pass from parent to child after the 

 appropriate training. Several other men direct specific activities at the church, and usually are assisted 

 by their wives. The motivation for undertaking these activities vary. Some men indicated that it was 

 their way of giving thanks to the Maya gods for curing an ill child or granting a bountiful harvest from 



