Cognitive and Geographic Maps: Study of Individual Variation Among Tojolabal Mayans

Disease and geography are related domains for Tojolabal‐Maya. Using multidimensional methods, we compare two domains: (1) individual cognitive “maps” from disease terms and (2) hand‐drawn maps, both with one another and with an official topographic map. Multivariate study of individual informant data demonstrates correspondence of the axes of maps. Least squares fitting of dimensional representations using a method specifically modified for ethnosemantic data allows meaningful comparisons both among and within informants, and with an aggregate from a related survey of 33 informants as well. These multivariate operations help integrate individual data, sampled simultaneously for several domains, tasks, and occasions, with aggregate data. For semantic domains, we achieved rapprochement between psychological and anthropological approaches. [disease, folk theories, ethnosemantics, cognition, multivariate, Tojolabal‐Maya]