A recent study reveals that the last three decades of globalization have significantly changed certain aspects of family interactions among Indigenous communities in Guatemala. Despite these changes, families have managed to preserve a remarkable degree of harmony in their relationships.
A new paper published in the journal Child Development outlines how family dynamics among Indigenous people in Guatemala have been transformed by rapid globalization, yet these families have retained a distinct level of harmony in their interactions.
Barbara Rogoff, a psychologist from UC Santa Cruz, has spent five decades working with Mayan communities in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala, and has observed a sophisticated model of collaborative play among children in these communities. In a research study conducted 30 years ago, mothers and their young children interacted in a unique manner, with all three of them actively engaged in examining new objects presented by the research team.
This type of collaboration is a key element of what Rogoff and her colleagues refer to as Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) to family and community activities. This traditional approach is prevalent in many Indigenous and Mexican-heritage communities throughout the Americas, allowing children to learn by participating alongside adults in the full spectrum of daily family and community tasks.
“Everyone plays a role, takes the initiative to collaborate, and helps steer the group’s direction, while children receive feedback and corrections during these shared tasks,” explained Rogoff. “Over the years, this understanding of learning has fueled interest among educators and developmental psychologists globally and has supported Indigenous and Mexican-heritage communities in their efforts to preserve this learning approach.”
Because LOPI contrasts sharply with Western classroom learning methods, Rogoff sought to understand how globalization might influence this practice in San Pedro la Laguna. The research team conducted follow-up studies with family members from the original 30-year-old study.
The latest findings revealed that today’s groups consisting of a mother and two small children now collaborate about half as often as families from three decades ago. In this regard, contemporary Mayan families are showing similarities to European American middle-class families, who tend to interact in ways that often exclude at least one of the three participants.
Factors contributing to these changes in Mayan family interactions may include the decreasing usage of the Indigenous Maya language and cultural traditions, along with increased engagement in Western education and digital technologies. Rogoff and her graduate student colleague also noticed that the growing use of chairs and couches, compared to the traditional practice of sitting on mats on the floor, has led to greater physical distance that seems to hinder inclusive collaboration.
Nonetheless, Mayan families still differ notably from European American families in their ability to maintain harmonious interactions with very little conflict. Today’s Mayan families, like their predecessors, exhibited harmonious interactions in approximately 95% of their engagements, while European American families experienced conflict or resistance in over 20% of similar situations.
In additional studies, Rogoff and her team have observed that children of European heritage in collaborative settings often tend to dominate, ignore, or resist others, focusing on promoting their separate ideas rather than working together towards a common goal.
In contrast, fostering harmonious relationships is a critical value for many Indigenous communities across the Americas. Rogoff posits that this focus is essential not just for the Mayan community but also in addressing many of the social and environmental challenges that globalization presents on a global scale.
“LOPI represents a valuable learning tool for whole communities, including children who grow as attentive, community-oriented participants,” said Rogoff. “This understanding has been ingrained in everyday life and cultural wisdom long before our research began. Sharing the concept of LOPI across various cultures can guide us all towards becoming more community-focused.”
