Full Description
The 1994 Zapatista uprising of Chiapas' Maya peoples against the Mexican government shattered the state myth that indigenous groups have been successfully assimilated into the nation. In this wide-ranging study of identity formation in Chiapas, AÍda HernÁndez delves into the experience of a Maya group, the Mam, to analyze how Chiapas' indigenous peoples have in fact rejected, accepted, or negotiated the official discourse on "being Mexican" and participating in the construction of a Mexican national identity.
HernÁndez traces the complex relations between the Mam and the national government from 1934 to the Zapatista rebellion. She investigates the many policies and modernization projects through which the state has attempted to impose a Mexican identity on the Mam and shows how this Maya group has resisted or accommodated these efforts. In particular, she explores how changing religious affiliation, women's and ecological movements, economic globalization, state policies, and the Zapatista movement have all given rise to various ways of "being Mam" and considers what these indigenous identities may mean for the future of the Mexican nation. The Spanish version of this book won the 1997 Fray Bernardino de SahagÚn national prize for the best social anthropology research in Mexico.
Contents
Foreword by Renato Rosaldo
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
First Border Crossing. Don Roberto: Working for Change in the Sierra
1. The Postrevolutionary National Project and the Mexicanization of the Mam People
Forced Integration into the Nation
Mam Women and the Myth of Mestizaje
Federal and Local Indigenismos
From the Finca to the Ejido: Economic Integration
Presbyterianism and a New Mam Identity
2. The Modernizing Project: Between the Museum and the Diaspora
The "Stabilizing Development"
Anthropologists in the Sierra: The Mam People as Health Problem and as National Heritage
Diaspora to the Rain Forest
Second Border Crossing. Pedro: Searching for Paradise on Earth
3. Mam Jehovah's Witnesses: New Religious Identities and Rejection of the Nation
In Search of Paradise
Everyday Life at Las Ceibas
The Strength of Utopia and Antinational Discourse
Different Contexts, Different Identities
4. From Mestizo Mexico to Multicultural Mexico: Indigenism in the Sierra Madre
Two Struggling Perspectives
From San CristÓbal to PÁtzcuaro
Participative Indigenismo
The CCI Mam-MochÓ-Cakchiquel
Third Border Crossing. Don Eugenio: "Rescuing" Mam Culture
5. Mam Dance Groups: New Cultural Identities and the Performance of the Past
The Mam Supreme Council
Mam Dances
Memory and Performance of Everyday Life
Dispute in the Construction of Mam Traditions
Fourth Border Crossing. DoÑa Luz: Organizing for Women's Rights
6. Organic Growers: Agro-ecological Catholicism and the Invention of Traditions
The ForanÍa de la Sierra: The New Social Ministry
Globalization and Organic Markets: Mam Identity and Agro-ecological Discourses
New Cultural Discourses and the Reinvention of Mam Utopia
Collective Reflection and New Spaces of Organization
Mam Women and Gender Demands
7. From PRONASOL to the Zapatista Uprising
Salinismo: The Administration's Two-faced Policy
PRONASOL Indigenismo
The Impact of the Zapatista Rebellion on the Life of Mam Peasants
Claiming the Power to Name: The Struggle for Autonomy
The Voices of Women
Again a Two-faced Policy: Economic Aid and Paramilitarization
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
