Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

As ideas, goods, and people move with increasing ease and speed across national boundaries and geographic distances, the economic changes and technological advances that enable this globalization are also paradoxically contributing to the balkanization of states, ethnic groups, and special interest movements. Exploring how this process is playing out in Guatemala, this book presents an innovative synthesis of the local and global factors that have led Guatemala's indigenous Maya peoples to assert and defend their cultural identity and distinctiveness within the dominant Hispanic society. Drawing on recent theories from cognitive studies, interpretive ethnography, and political economy, Edward F. Fischer looks at individual Maya activists and local cultures, as well as changing national and international power relations, to understand how ethnic identities are constructed and expressed in the modern world. At the global level, he shows how structural shifts in international relations have opened new venues of ethnic expression for Guatemala's majority Maya population. At the local level, he examines the processes of identity construction in two Kaqchikel Maya towns, Tecpán and Patzún, and shows how divergent local norms result in different conceptions and expressions of Maya-ness, which nonetheless share certain fundamental similarities with the larger pan-Maya project. Tying these levels of analysis together, Fischer argues that open-ended Maya "cultural logics" condition the ways in which Maya individuals (national leaders and rural masses alike) creatively express their identity in a rapidly changing world.

Mayas --- Cakchikel Indians --- Cakchiquel (Indiens) --- Ethnic identity --- Politics and government --- Identité ethnique --- Politique et gouvernement --- Guatemala --- Economic conditions --- Conditions économiques --- Ethnic identity. --- Politics and government. --- Cachiquel Indians --- Cakchiquel Indians --- Kacchiquel Indians --- Kaqchikel Indians --- Indians of Central America --- Quiché Indians --- Maya Indians --- Mayans --- Indians of Mexico

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In this rich and dynamic work, David Carey Jr. provides a new perspective on contemporary Guatemalan history by allowing the indigenous peoples to speak for themselves. Combining the methodologies of anthropology and history, Carey uses both oral interviews and meticulous archival research to construct a history of the last 130 years in Guatemala from the perspective of present-day Mayan people. His research took place over five years, including intensive language study, four summers of fieldwork, and a year-long residence in Comalapa, during which he conducted most of the 414

Oral tradition --- Cakchikel philosophy. --- Cakchikel Indians --- Tradition, Oral --- Oral communication --- Folklore --- Oral history --- Philosophy, Cakchikel --- Philosophy, Guatemalan --- Cachiquel Indians --- Cakchiquel Indians --- Kacchiquel Indians --- Kaqchikel Indians --- Indians of Central America --- Quiché Indians --- Historiography. --- Ethnic identity. --- Guatemala --- Gvatemala --- Goatemala --- Republic of Guatemala --- República de Guatemala --- Central America (Federal Republic) --- Politics and government. --- Ethnic relations. --- History.