Download or read book Guatemalan Indians and the State written by Carol A. Smith and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violence in Central America, especially when directed against Indian populations, is not a new phenomenon. Yet few studies of the region have focused specifi cally on the relationship between Indians and the state, a relationship that may hold the key to understanding these conflicts. In this volume, noted historians and anthropologists pool their considerable expertise to analyze the situation in Guatemala, working from the premise that the Indian/state relationship is the single most important determinant of Guatemala’s distinctive history and social order. In chapters by such respected scholars as Robert Cormack, Ralph Lee Woodward, Christopher Lutz, Richard Adams, and Arturo Arias, the history of Indian activism in Guatemala unfolds. The authors reveal that the insistence of Guatemalan Indians on maintaining their distinctive cultural practices and traditions in the face of state attempts to eradicate them appears to have fostered the development of an increasingly oppressive state. This historical insight into the forces that shaped modern Guatemala provides a context for understanding the extraordinary level of violence that enveloped the Indians of the western highlands in the 1980s, the continued massive assault on traditional religious and secular culture, the movement from a militarized state to a militarized civil society, and the major transformations taking place in Guatemala’s traditional export-oriented economy. In this sense, Guatemalan Indians and the State, 1540 to 1988 provides a revisionist social history of Guatemala.
Download or read book Guatemalan Indians and the State written by Carol A. Smith and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1993-03-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Blood of Guatemala written by Greg Grandin and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2000-03-15 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the latter half of the twentieth century, the Guatemalan state slaughtered more than two hundred thousand of its citizens. In the wake of this violence, a vibrant pan-Mayan movement has emerged, one that is challenging Ladino (non-indigenous) notions of citizenship and national identity. In The Blood of Guatemala Greg Grandin locates the origins of this ethnic resurgence within the social processes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state formation rather than in the ruins of the national project of recent decades. Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala’s transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants. This “history of power” reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.
Download or read book Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity written by Brigittine M. French and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this valuable book, ethnographer and anthropologist Brigittine French mobilizes new critical-theoretical perspectives in linguistic anthropology, applying them to the politically charged context of contemporary Guatemala. Beginning with an examination of the Ònationalist projectÓ that has been ongoing since the end of the colonial period, French interrogates the ÒGuatemalan/indigenous binary.Ó In Guatemala, ÒLadinoÓ refers to the Spanish-speaking minority of the population, who are of mixed European, usually Spanish, and indigenous ancestry; ÒIndianÓ is understood to mean the majority of GuatemalaÕs population, who speak one of the twenty-one languages in the Maya linguistic groups of the country, although levels of bilingualism are very high among most Maya communities. As French shows, the Guatemalan state has actively promoted a racialized, essentialized notion of ÒIndiansÓ as an undifferentiated, inherently inferior group that has stood stubbornly in the way of national progress, unity, and developmentÑwhich are, implicitly, the goals of Òtrue GuatemalansÓ (that is, Ladinos). French shows, with useful examples, how constructions of language and collective identity are in fact strategies undertaken to serve the goals of institutions (including the government, the military, the educational system, and the church) and social actors (including linguists, scholars, and activists). But by incorporating in-depth fieldwork with groups that speak Kaqchikel and KÕicheÕ along with analyses of Spanish-language discourses, Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity also shows how some individuals in urban, bilingual Indian communities have disrupted the essentializing projects of multiculturalism. And by focusing on ideologies of language, the author is able to explicitly link linguistic forms and functions with larger issues of consciousness, gender politics, social positions, and the forging of hegemonic power relations.
Download or read book Guatemalan Indians written by and published by . This book was released on 198? with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Invading Guatemala written by Matthew Restall and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The invasions of Guatemala -- Pedro de Alvarado's letters to Hernando Cortes, 1524 -- Other Spanish accounts -- Nahua accounts -- Maya accounts
Download or read book Children of the Maya written by Brent K. Ashabranner and published by Dodd Mead. This book was released on 1986 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the plight of Mayans who have fled the violent political situation in Guatemala and settled in a community in southern Florida.
Download or read book Witness to Genocide written by Craig W. Nelson and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Guatemalan Family written by Michael Malone and published by Lerner Publications. This book was released on 1996 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes a Guatemalan family's struggle to emigrate from their country to the United States and the adjustments they have made.
Download or read book Guatemalan sociology written by Miguel Angel Asturias and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Harvest of Violence written by Robert M. Carmack and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This important and disturbing volume provides ten case histories of recent institutionalized violence and discrimination against the Maya-speaking peoples of Guatemala. The authors... reconstruct events by interpreting oral history, comparing contemporary situations with their knowledge of the recent past, and applying their understanding of complex cultural, economic, and political factors. ...This well-integrated, well-produced book is an important first step in the documentation of one of the major ethnic tragedies of modern times". -- Ethnohistory. "A chilling exposure of a brutal repression that has somehow escaped the headlines". -- Kirkus Reviews.
Download or read book The Symbolism of Subordination written by Kay B. Warren and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Campesino written by Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán and published by Tucson, Ariz. : University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Centered upon contemporary daily life in a small village on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, Campesino illustrates the complex interrelationships among local, national, and international events. Written in a simple and readable style, the diary will be valuable not only for anthropology students, but for anyone interested in contemporary Guatemala and Central America."--Choice "One of the most interesting books written about the Maya Indians of Guatemala, this fascinating work is unique in the sense that it is written in the form of a biography and presents the views of how all these conflicts affects those at the bottom. . . . This is a book that anyone interested in ethnic studies and in humanity in general should read."--Explorations in Sights and Sounds "This volume is an instant classic."--Latin America in Books "Prof. Sexton is to be highly recommended of another excellent work which will be very useful to scholars and lay readers truly interested in the life and struggles of the Indian peoples."--Latin American Indian Literatures Journal
Download or read book The Chorti Indians Of Guatemala written by Charles Wisdom and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2022-10-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The Maya of Guatemala written by and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 1989-12-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Watch towers... barbed wire... heavily armed soldiers... enforced recruitment into civil patrols... re-education centres... Today tens of thousands of Maya indigenous peoples in Guatemala are prisoners in their own land. ‘Model villages’, more accurately described as concentration camps, are now the only homes for thousands of Mayas, forced from their traditional lands by the Guatemalan army. Yet in some ways those imprisoned in the 30-odd model villages are the lucky ones. They are the survivors of the ‘scientific killings’ conducted on a massive scale by the notoriously brutal Guatemalan military. During the early 1980s the indigenous death toll may have been as high as 20,000; a process which even a conservative Guatemalan daily paper described as ‘genocidal annihilation’. As a result over 180,000 Maya Indian refugees fled to Mexico and a further half a million became internal refugees in provincial towns or the capital. The Maya of Guatemala, MRG Report No 62, outlines the horrific situation facing the Guatemalan Maya. Written by Phillip Wearne, a journalist with long experience in the region, it describes in detail the culture, beliefs and history of the Maya, their response to the non-indigenous world and the effects of both the war and the present economic crisis. The report also contains an overview of the present situation of indigenous peoples in the other states of Central America by Professor Peter Calvert. A shocking account of a people who have survived centuries of repression, this report is a passionate plea for solidarity and action on behalf of the Maya who are today facing the greatest single threat to their continued existence since the coming of the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.
Download or read book Political Changes in Guatemalan Indian Communities written by Richard Newbold Adams and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-11-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Political Changes in Guatemalan Indian Communities: A Symposium Following the revolution of 1944, the intendente system was abolished and under a new constitution a new municipal policy was established. Elected mayors and town councils were re-established, but with the difference that the elections were intended to be competitive. Towards this end, poli tical parties were promoted. Silvert (1954) and the various cases to follow provide a description of the local political situation from 1945 on. Aside from these structural changes during the period from 1930 to 1954, there were others which, because of their relevance to the general picture, must be briefly mentioned (see also Goubaud, Prior to the time of Ubico, debt peonage was a standard practice of the large-scale farmers: Ubico abolished this practice and substituted a vagrancy law, and a required annual labor and military service from the Indian population. With the constitution of 1945, both these de mands were abolished and suffrage was extended to all literates and to all illiterate males. During the Ubico period radicalism of any kind was strongly suppressed; fol lowing the 1944 revolution, numerous exiles returned to the country and political beliefs of whatever character, providing they were not reactionary, were encour aged. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book I Rigoberta Menchu written by Rigoberta Menchu and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2010-01-12 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Nobel Peace Prize winner reflects on poverty, injustice, and the struggles of Mayan communities in Guatemala, offering “a fascinating and moving description of the culture of an entire people” (The Times) Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.
