Q'anjob'al - Marriage and Family



From the age of 3 or 4, children are dressed in miniature copies of the clothes their parents wear. Female children work with their mothers around the home, and male children accompany their fathers to the milpa plot.

Marriage involves much ritual social interaction, and it is necessary for the groom's parents to pay a bride-price to the family of the bride. Marriages are arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. Most often marriage occurs between the ages of 12 and 16 for females and 15 and 18 for males. Upon marrying, the couple moves into the compound of the groom's father. Households are generally nuclear units; however, because sons build their houses close to their father's dwelling, it is possible to describe Q'anjob'al households as patrilocal extended-family compounds.

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