Cultural logics and global economics : Maya identity in thought and practice / Edward F. Fischer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fischer, Edward F., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mayas--Guatemala--Ethnic identity.

Mayas.

Mayas--Guatemala--Politics and government.

Cakchikel Indians--Ethnic identity.

Cakchikel Indians.

Cakchikel Indians--Politics and government.

Guatemala--Politics and government--1985-.

Guatemala.

Guatemala--Economic conditions--1985-.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (302 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

PART I Contexts of Study

1 Maya Culture and Identity Politics

2 Tecpán and Patzún

PART II Global Processes and Pan-Maya Identity Politics

3 Guatemalan Political Economies and the World System

4 The Rise of Pan-Maya Activism

5 Constructing a Pan-Maya Identity in a Postmodern World

PART III Maya Identity as Lived Experience in Tecpán and Patzún

6 Souls, Socialization, and the Kaqchikel Self

7 Hearth, Kin, and Communities

8 Local Forms of Ethnic Resistance

9 Economic Change and Cultural Continuity

PART IV Conclusion

10 Convergent Strategies and Cultural Logics

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-280) and index.

ISBN:

0-292-79826-1

OCLC:

191935954