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Table of Contents The Problem of Culture
You've probably heard the old adage: "If you want to know what water is, don't ask a fish." Anymore than we can be very specific about "air," so a fish--even if it could talk--could tell you little about the primary element sustaining its life. Start to remove that element, and the fish--again, if it could talk--would start getting much more specific and detailed! The same thing is true about cultures: we all have one, but it sure would be hard for most of us to attempt to explain our culture to someone else. Culture is all the elements, taken together, that make us who we are. Cultures, then, are extremely complex, embodying not only the objects with which we surround ourselves, but what we know about ourselves, about those around us, the values we have come to assign to each element, our beliefs, our habits, even the attributes that reflect our style--the way we choose to do things. All these factors constitute our "culture." Because we identify ourselves with our "culture," it is very difficult to be objective. In fact, it is impossible since all culture is subjective. It's much easier for outsiders to describe us for ourselves, because their culture is sometimes very different from our own. This humanities program is not so much about another culture as much as it is about our own. By studying a culture which, in many respects, is very different from ours, we can say--almost by default: "Because I am not like the people in that culture, then I must be like something else." In other words, by studying that which we are not, we can more easily step outside of our own culture to say, "This is what we are; this is what I am." "Three Keys to Culture" examines a country that is very different from our own: one of the twenty-two Maya groups, in this case, the Quiché Maya of Guatemala. Our study explores the Quiché Maya from three perspectives: 1) How the Quiché Maya define themselves in terms of myth; 2) How the Quiché Maya define themselves in terms of religion; and 3) How the Quiché Maya define themselves in terms of art. Finally, we examine that culture in conflict and how one culture can come to dominate and, in some cases, even contribute to the extermination of another culture entirely. In this case, we will examine how a so-called "progressive culture" in Guatemala has come to repress its Mayan counterpart which is, in still so many ways, what is characterized as a "traditional culture." In the case of Guatemala, the dominant culture has come to use the mythology, the religion, and the arts of the traditional culture against that very culture in its attempts to control and exploit its members. The point, of course, is that same kind of conflict is universal, found in societies around the world. Three Keys to Culture Human Cultures in General The Ancient Mayas The Contemporary Maya Human Rights Sites
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The
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