Contextualizing My Research with the Yucatec Maya

This chapter provides essential context for later discussions about the Yucatec Maya responsibility-based land ethos, and sets the stage for subsequent chapters. First, I present my rationale for this project, as well as the questions that guided my research and analysis. Next, I provide an overview of the Indigenous peoples’ (including the Yucatec Maya) experiences with colonial power. I then give a focused account of the history of the Yucatec Maya history since first European contact until the present and offer an insight into their spirituality and land-based cultural practices.