U t’aan u xkiki Jach winik (Political Participation of Lacandon women): A communitarian feminist perspective; U t’aan u xkiki Jach winik (Participación política de mujeres lacandonas): una mirada desde el feminismo comunitario

Abstract

Using a qualitative methodology and tools from feminist ethnography, interviews were conducted with women and other key actors of the Lacanjá Chansayab community. Testimonies were contrasted with the Internal Normative System (sNi), the Agrarian Law and the Communal Statute to give an account of how women are perceived in this community and the implications that this has for their full political participation. Thus, the importance of the Bejo’obex as a form of Lacandon family organization is studied from a communitarian feminist and gender perspective. Together with the Mek’bir and the Sikbar, the Bejo’obex is one of the main mechanisms used to recognize members of the community and a specific way of transmitting the rules of coexistence. Elements of a patriarchal junction framework were found to affect women by limiting not only their political participation, but also their full development.