EL SOLAR AND LA VIVIENDA VERNÁCULA AS EXAMPLES OF TRADITIONAL HOME CONSTRUCTION IN MEXICO’S YUCATÁN

Abstract

The descendants of the Maya living in modern-day Mexico distinguish themselves via language and advanced culture with respect to all other ethnic groups in the country. Features characteristic of the Maya include their dress, customs, and traditional living quarters. Their unique style of home construction is the result of their social and economic status and benefits generated by this form of traditional architecture. However, a number of factors are causing a decline in this traditional form of home construction. Two related factors are modernization and development in rural areas in Mexico. Another key factor is the perception that traditional ways of life and forms of housing are forms of backwardness. This is a view held by many in Mexican society. Many individuals have forgotten that traditional forms of architecture yield certain benefits unavailable elsewhere including the use of natural materials and technologies, ability to create ethnic and regional identity via housing traditions, and traditional ways of life that help the poor survive. All of these reasons may serve as an important basis for action that is designed to help foster sustainable development on a social level and a regional level. One additional reason to protect traditional ways of life is related to the promotion of tourism in a given geographic region. The present study examines traditional home construction, as practiced by the modernday Maya inhabitants of three Mexican states in the Yucatan Peninsula: Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatán. The study relies on statistical data obtained from the Mexican census: Encuesta Intercensal 2015 en Mexico. It also uses data obtained from other sources including fieldwork in the region. The study yields key characteristics of traditional housing and their distribution across geographic space in the study area.