Community Before Individual
The welfare of the community takes precedence over individual desires.
The individual exists within and for the community. Personal ambition that harms the community is wrong; personal sacrifice for the community is honored. This doesn't eliminate individuality but channels it toward collective benefit.
The hand serves the body; so the person serves the community.
Community orientation structures all aspects of Mayan social life.
Living Tradition
Written about in
- What the Maya tradition says about envy and comparison
Ambition is not condemned, it is aimed — ambition that harms the community is wrong, sacrifice for it is honoured. Comparison loses its footing when the unit that counts is not the individual.