Roads to Change in Maya Guatemala

Book excerpt: Between 1995 and 1997, three groups of college students each spent two months in K’iche’ Maya villages in Guatemala. Led by Professors John P. Hawkins and Walter Randolph Adams, they participated in an ongoing field school designed to foster undergraduate research and documentation of K’iche’ Maya culture in Guatemala. In this enlightening book, Hawkins and Adams first describe their field-school method of involving undergraduate students in primary research and ethnographic writing, and then present the best of the student essays, which examine the effects of modernization on K’iche’ Maya religion, courtship, marriage, gender relations, education, and community development. The process of actively involving undergraduate students in research is one of the most effective methods of enhancing education. Indeed, there is growing interest in this idea—currently the Council on Undergraduate Research, a national organization, boasts members from more than 870 colleges and universities. For educators of all fields interested in learning how to organize a field school that fosters research and publication, Hawkins and Adams discuss the methods they used and the problems they encountered. Anthropologists and sociologists will find this demonstration of undergraduates’ achievements useful for introductory and field methods courses. Finally, the book’s portrayal of the K’iche’ Maya culture in transition will appeal to Mesoamericanists and Latinamericanists of any discipline.