Cancun Mexico Travel Information
Cancun Mexico Travel
Quintana Roo   Yucatan   Campeche
You are here:   Main » Mayan Ruins » Modern Maya » Ticul Pottery Making

MAYAN RUINS
Intro - Ruin Sites
Ruin Site Maps
Site Guides
Recommendations
Museums
Tips
Field Schools
FEATURES
Indigenous Peoples
Modern Maya
Story of Color
Maya Fashions
Mayan Holy Week
mayan arts crafts
Mayan Arts & Crafts

Cut from the inverse side, a mirror ceases to be a mirror and becomes a glass.

Mirrors are for looking on this side, and glass is made to look to the other side.

Mirrors are made to be etched.

A glass is made to be broken... to cross to the other side...

P.S. The image of the real or the unreal, which searches among so many mirrors, for a glass to break.

TICUL POTTERY MAKING

Meet the Modern Maya Main

During a visit to Ticul I had the opportunity to meet with David Trabajador. He is a fifteen year old worker in a cottage industry that creates pottery for commercial use. David told me that he had been working in this particular business for two years. He said that he learned to do his job (putting pots in the kiln, "horno" for baking) by watching others, and then by doing the job himself. He also said that he was currently learning to do other jobs at the factory, including learning the art of making pots.

David said that most of the young people in Ticul learn the "family business," whatever that may be, as a trade. Many young people in Yucatecan pueblos become socialized into their parents' work world as soon as they are old enough to wander around a shop, or help with small tasks. David said that as children get old enough to work, they usually begin ¨training¨ for the trade that will most likely become their future career. As many of these young people continue a family business, the knowledge of technical terms, where to get materials, how to do the task and how to earn money from the trade is acquired through everyday family interaction, rather than through reading or formal training.

Maria Augusta Tzu, the mother of the current Jefa, explained that despite this, young workers do go through a "training process". This is an informal process where the younger workers spend time observing people in various tasks, such as mixing "sascab," a mixture of barro and stone dust; making the pots; preparing the wood and placing it in the oven for cooking the pots; firing the pots in the horno; and then mastering each task in a sequential order. She explained that reading about the tasks is not how they are learned, but rather the young workers experience the task.

David told me that he hopes to one day be a pot maker. At this time he is learning that trade, while working in the area of cooking the pots. David attends school, but spends many long hours working as well. This summer he is working 10 hours a day, six days a week. He makes the equivalent of $3.00 American dollars per day. For David, work is not a way to pass time after school or gain pocket change; rather it is a way to learn about how to make a living.

TravelYucatam.com expresses thanks to Ilvia L. Osceola
University of Florida for permission to reprint this article.

Meet the Modern Maya Main

by availability
Check In:
Check Out:
Destination:
Make selections then click

HotelsCancun Airport TransfersCancun Tours

TRIP PLANNING
Entry Info: Immigration Customs
Where to Visit in the Yucatan
Mayan Ruin Sites
Open Water/Cave Diving Snorkeling
Yucatan Has Beautiful Beaches
Ecology & EcoTours
MAYA TRIVIA

 
Today's Maya number more than six million, are divided in to many differnt ethnic groups and speak more than 30 distinct indigenous languages.

Natural wells are called cenotes from the Mayan word dsonoot.

The Maya describe the Yucatan as "u luumil cutz, u luumil ceh, mayab u kabah" - the land of the pheasant, the land of the deer and Mayab is its name.

The word puuc means "hilly country" in the Maya language of the Yucatec.

The first three rows of a Mayan corn field were for travelers.

True windows are rarely found in Maya architecture.

Travel Green
Learn How!

e-mail TravelYucatan.com HotelsCancun Airport TransfersCancun Tours

TravelYucatan Logo

Cancun Mexico TravelTravelYucatan.com