![]() ![]() Examining Highland Maya environmental and social activism in the context of recent archaeology and ethnohistory on natural resource management reveals contemporary work that reflects both present realities and cultural heritage. Their cultures and communities are neither static reiterations of the past nor constructions from unanchored contingencies of the present moment. Fox (2004) encourages ethnographers to recognise continuity as vital to understanding the Maya of the present. As she rinses the dishes that Emilia passes to her, Rosa is reminded that her host family does not treat the cold rinse water with bleach, despite what she had learnt earlier about best practices for dishwashing in rural Guatemala. Water from the comité is generally more reliable and cleaner than municipal water, but is not entirely safe to drink, especially for international guests. When repairs are needed, money is collected to pay for materials and all are expected to work to return function to the system. In rotation, each household contributes labour to maintenance. The comité acquired land with a spring, built a collection cistern, and laid pipe to deliver water to member households. The other faucet is sourced by the water committee ( comité de agua) that the Yax family and several neighbouring households formed. She and her neighbours wonder whether the amount of chlorine used by the municipal authorities might make the water harmful to drink. Emilia comments that chlorination may make the water free of contamination, but that the smell and taste are unpleasant. It is somewhat reliable and generally not potable, even though municipal authorities occasionally chlorinate the water. Emilia informed her that one set of pipes connects the household to the municipal water supply. She had noticed that the lines supplying the faucets leave the house in different directions. In the process and over the course of her stay, Rosa learnt that the two spigots that feed the pila represent two sources of water. They work together to wash the breakfast dishes. Rosa is a college student from Chicago and a guest of Emilia, whose family provides homestay hospitality through a community tourism project. Emilia is K'iche’ Maya she speaks Spanish as a second language by virtue of a colonial history that has clear vestiges in the present. Rosa is Mexican American and a fluent speaker of Spanish, as it is the language of her home and family. ![]() Situated just outside the centre of San Miguel Totonicapán, Guatemala, the household is in a compound of five dwellings, all belonging to members of the same patrilineage. 1 The large, cast concrete reservoir of water is flanked by two drained washing stations. Rosa Alvarado is at the pila with Emilia Yax. ![]()
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