The Emergent Participant: Interactive Patterns in the Socialization of Tzotzil (Mayan) Infants

Ethnographies of some Mayan groups have reported that there is minimal interaction with prelinguistic infants. This study shows, to the contrary, that Zinacantec Mayan infants are socialized as participants in a flux of dyadic and polyadic interactions. I provide two kinds of evidence in favor of the child's emergence as a participant: (1) native evidence based on local theories of socialization, and (2) ethnographic evidence based on a microanalysis of verbal and nonverbal phenomena in different facets of the participation structures in which infants are immersed.