Suchergebnisse

The dramatic re-enactment of an event compresses in symbolic form psychological and social processes. For this reason, ritual dramas are useful events for the study of transmission of culture and reformulation of tradition. Dramatization as a communication strategy has a special importance for solidarity groups, as Young (1965:2) has pointed out. The potential for transforming given attitudes and values has not been explored by social scientists although playwriters, actors, and directors have consciously or unconsciously attempted this in dramaturgy.

The breaking‐down of a social‐control system based on belief in the guardianship of the spiritual ancestors and their temporal agents, the curers, is reflected in a rising homicide rate as people turn to individual sanctions when threatened. The acts of homicide differ in their social significance according to who is killed, the context, the agency, and the motivation of the killer. Thirty‐seven homicides between 1938 and 1965, analyzed in terms of these component variables, reflect the conflicts arising from competition in new economic enterprises, the rising suspicion of curers' abuse of their supernatural power, and the loss of belief in the guardianship of the ancestors.

Guatemala blickt stolz zurück auf seine indianische Vergangenheit. Tatsächlich ist die Maya-Kultur heute verschüttet, zerstört. Ihre Ruinen sind Anziehungspunkte für Touristen, denen die Nachfahren jener Maya als Souvenirverkäufer oder Bettler am Wegesrand begegnen. Sie leben in den Slums der Städte oder verdingen sich als Gelegenheitsarbeiter auf den Plantagen; einige wenige haben sich - fernab der Zivilisation, im Dschungel - Reste ihrer traditionellen Lebensformen bewahrt