History, Culture, Learning, and Development.

N

14

Apprenticeships; Community Change; Cultural Activities; Cultural Context; Cultural Education; Cultural Traits; Development; Economic Change; Ethnography; Experiential Learning; Foreign Countries; History; Longitudinal Studies; Maya (People); Mexicans; Parent Child Relationship; Parents as Teachers; Social Change; Sociocultural Patterns

A longitudinal study explored cultural historical change within the Zinacantecan Mayan culture to create theoretical and empirical links between individual processes of cultural apprenticeship and societal processes of cultural change. The study examined the transmission of culture from parent to child in an apprenticeship relationship as the Zinacantecan culture moved from an agricultural base to a commercial base. Qualitative and quantitative findings point to a process of reciprocal change in which societal conditions provide an ecological push toward new modes of cultural apprenticeship and as new modes of apprenticeship create a younger generation with the skill profile appropriate to the changed societal conditions. The findings indicate that as cultures change over time, so do the processes of cultural learning and cultural transmission. (JPB)

1998

ED414027