Modernization among cakchiquel maya: An Analysis of Responses to Line Drawings

Modernization among Cakchiquel Maya on Panajachel, a Guatemalan town, is analyzed by combining a line drawing test with standardized interview schedules and field observations. A strong relationship was found between specific attitudes and behaviors, which also correlate significantly with general modernization and traditional variables. In these correlations there are two significant patterns: social and psychological variables are both the best and most frequent predictors of specific attitudes and behaviors. These patterns support the theory that there is a hierarchy of best predictors toward individual modernization in which economic variables are the best predictors until a threshold of development is reached at which time social and psychological variables become the best predictors. These patterns also suggest that specific attitudes and behaviors have idiosyncratic correlates depending on both the attitude or behavior and the situation in which it is found.