RELATIONSHIPS
The religious societies known as cargos in Chiapas and cofradias in Guatemala have been an important vehicle of social cohesion among the Maya. Charged since colonial times with organizing Catholic religious festivals, they provided the means for the Maya to conform to the customs of their colonizers while privately preserving their own religion, traditions, and world-view. Mayan villages today have both civil and religious cargos, whose officials may ascend through a hierarchy of positions to ultimately become respected village elders, or principales .
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