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from Natural Life magazine, July/August
2009 In one of my favorite country-folk tunes, the singer pledges, “Just a hand-woven love song – is all I have to bring to you.” (Portales by Ray Wylie Hubbard). When I was touring the Yucatán Peninsula, I saw some actual “hand-woven love songs” in the form of the hammocks that are made there. The City of Mérida in the Yucatán is famous for the hand-made hammocks that many of its citizens devote themselves to producing. For the most part, they use the same techniques that were used by their Mayan ancestors over 1,500 years ago, and their work is a study in continuity and community.
A guide ushered our group through one of the hammock-weaving businesses where we saw the artisans using a variety of materials. Some of the hammocks were being made of silk or cotton, but sisal is still the most commonly used fiber. Sisal is an indigenous plant that is so strong and useful that countless people died through the centuries, warring over which faction had the right to control its trade. Countless Mayan people died in virtual enslavement, working to produce and harvest the sisal crop at the behest of the Spanish conquerors. If we wanted to buy a hammock, ones of undyed sisal were suggested as the most natural choices. Still, the multicolored ones were eye-catching. I ended up buying a hammock of varied blues and purples, created with traditional dyes made from tree sap and cochineal bugs. But as interesting as these details of production were, I was even more interested to learn how these hammocks are woven into the fabric of the persisting Mayan/Mexican culture as a whole. The hammocks are produced in three sizes: individual, couples and family. The large family size is the most popular among the area residents themselves. Here, the “family bed” in the form of a hammock is not an arrangement that anyone has to advocate. It is already taken for granted. It is assumed that families will share the one large hammock they own. Cosleeping is the norm. . . . To read the rest of this article, subscribe to Natural Life's digital edition, which includes access to this and other back issues. Rosalie Schultz learned primarily at home, while helping in her family’s Chicago printing business. She still lives in that childhood home where business and residence were mixed together and where there was only one common bedroom. She is considering forming a homeschooling community. Contact her at rosalies101@gmail.com. |
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