History, Culture, Learning, and Development

The authors report a diachronic investigation of cultural apprenticeship, creativity, and cognitive representation in a Zinacantec Maya community of Chiapas, Mexico. Focusing on the culturally central domain of weaving, they explore the implications of an ecocultural transition from agriculture to commerce for learning and development. Their studies cover 24 years and explore the implications of historical change in two generations of Zinacantec Maya children. The first wave was studied in 1969 and 1970. The next generation was studied in 1991 and 1993; it comprised mainly daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, and godchildren of the first generation. The results show that in the space of a single generation, weaving apprenticeship moved from a more interdependent to a more independent style of learning, woven textiles changed from a small stock of defined patterns to widely varied and innovative patterns, and cognitive representation of woven patterns became less detailed and more abstract.