Promoting the value of the Maya house as Cultural Heritage

Yucatan and Campeche seek to have the value of the Mayan house declared a cultural heritage

The aim is to obtain the declaration of local heritage

Researchers from the Autonomous University of Yucatan (Uady), in coordination with the Ministry of Culture of Campeche, began work to have the knowledge of the Mayan house recognized as intangible cultural heritage.

The head of the Social Sciences Unit of the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales “Dr. Hideyo Noguchi” (CIR-Uady), Aurelio Sánchez Suárez, indicated that the objective is to achieve the declaration for the Mayan people, based on national and international guidelines.

In a statement he recalled that the Uady presented a first declaration proposal in 2014, later in 2017 the documentary “Ichil xaánil naj” was presented to representatives of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) Mexico and a second declaration was proposed.

“Consultation will be carried out as part of an intercultural process, as well as the inclusion of the teachers who bind houses, in order to enrich and formalize the proposal for the declaration,” he explained.

In this sense, he listed the topics that are considered traditional knowledge, among them: knowledge and uses related to nature and the universe; traditional arts and crafts; vernacular architecture and part of the elements that make up the Mayan cultural landscape in the towns of Campeche.

He is also co-author of the book “Amarrando los saberes. Resilience in inhabiting the Mayan house and territory”, recalled that it has taken several years for “the act of binding” to be recognized.

“To bind within the constructive systems is the essential verb used to define the construction of the house linked to nature that gives all the elements,” he added.

Likewise, he warned that the design and technique to tie or bind the Mayan house has not varied in more than 3,000 years, according to records of the first works that have been given, and this knowledge has remained latent.

On the other hand, he pointed out that the investigations that nurtured the works compiled in his book were carried out in the communities of Nunkiní, in Campeche, and Maní, in Yucatán, where the teaching of this knowledge prevails, and the variants and similarities could be observed.

This body of knowledge contributed by Sánchez Suárez has served to learn about the methodology used, combining different disciplines such as architecture, history and anthropology, to approach the subject from different perspectives on how the knowledge of how to tie the Maya house is transmitted.

The Uady is the first university that seeks to promote and revalue the tablado that is built in towns of the state, as well as the Mayan house, since they are part of the main expressions of the Mayan vernacular architecture that are still in force.