ABSTRACT
Panajachelenos share cultural traits common to Indians throughout Mesoamerica. The cargo system also demands expenditures of money and for agricultural produce to service the religious fiestas. Sol Tax remarks on the region as a whole suggest that just as each municipio has its particular economic specialization, each municipio has evolved its own distinct civil/religious hierarchy. In the case of traditional communities in Guatemala, the cost of participation in the civil/ religious hierarchies is not expressed in terms of labor time alone. In the Guatemalan highlands the population is predominantly Maya-speaking Indians. The farmers of the flood plain of the Panajachel River, who are mostly Indians, fall within the categories of "traditional" or "modified" indigenes, using the typological continuum offered by Richard N. Adams. Tablon farming is primarily an Indian occupation in Panajachel. Panajachelenos are also distinguished by their dress, speech, and system of beliefs.
