Human rights in the Maya region : global politics, cultural contentions, and moral engagements / edited by Pedro Pitarch, Shannon Speed, and Xochitl Leyva Solano.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pitarch Ramón, Pedro.

Speed, Shannon, 1964-

Leyva Solano, Xochitl.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mayas--Government relations.

Mayas.

Mayas--Legal status, laws, etc.

Human rights--Mexico--Chiapas.

Human rights.

Human rights--Guatemala.

Ethnic relations.

Guatemala.

Chiapas (Mexico)--Ethnic relations.

Chiapas (Mexico).

Guatemala--Ethnic relations.

Mexico--Chiapas.

Physical Description:

ix, 377 pages : map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2008.

Summary:

In recent years Latin American indigenous groups have regularly deployed the discourse of human rights to legitimate their positions and pursue their goals. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the Maya region of Chiapas and Guatemala, where in the last two decades indigenous social movements have been engaged in ongoing negotiations with the state, and the presence of multinational actors has brought human rights to increased prominence. In this volume, scholars and activists examine the role of human rights in the ways that states relate to their populations, analyze conceptualizations and appropriations of human rights by Mayans in specific localities, and explore the relationship between the individualist and "universal" tenets of Western-derived concepts of human rights and various Mayan cultural understandings and political subjectivities.

Contents:

Part 1 Global Politics and Nation-States

1 Cultural Rights and Human Rights: A Social Science Perspective / Rodolfo Stavenhagen 27

2 Perspectives on the Politics of Human Rights in Guatemala / Robert M. Carmack 51

3 Legal Globalization and Human Rights: Constructing the Rule of Law in Postconflict Guatemala? / Rachel Sieder 67

Part 2 Cultural Contentions

4 The Labyrinth of Translation: A Tzeltal Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / Pedro Pitarch 91

5 Are Human Rights Destroying the Natural Balance of All Things? The Difficult Encounter between International Law and Community Law in Mayan Guatemala / Stener Ekern 123

6 "Here It's Different": The Ch'orti' and Human Rights Training / Julian Lopez Garcia 145

7 Indigenous Law and Gender Dialogues / Irma Otzoy 171

8 Human Rights, Land Conflicts, and Memory of the Violence in the Ixil Country of Northern Quiche / David Stoll 187

Part 3 Political Engagements

9 Global Discourses on the Local Terrain: Human Rights in Chiapas / Shannon Speed, Xochitl Leyva Solano 207

10 Breaking the Reign of Silence: Ethnography of a Clandestine Cemetery / Victoria Sanford 233

11 Rights of the Poor: Progressive Catholicism and Indigenous Resistance in Chiapas / Christine Kovic 257

12 "Asumiendo Nuestra Propia Defensa": Resistance and the Red de Defensores Comunitarios in Chiapas / Shannon Speed, Alvaro Reyes 279

Final Comments: Making Rights Meaningful for Mayas: Reflections on Culture, Rights, and Power / Richard Ashby Wilson 305.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [323]-355) and index.

ISBN:

9780822342960

0822342960

9780822343134

0822343134

OCLC:

209335072