México profundo : reclaiming a civilization / by Guillermo Bonfil Batalla ; translated by Philip A. Dennis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo.

Contributor:

Dennis, Philip Adams, 1945- translator.

Series:

Translations from Latin America series.

Translations from Latin America series

Standardized Title:

México profundo. English

Language:

English

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Indians of Mexico--Ethnic identity.

Indians of Mexico.

Indians of Mexico--Government relations--History.

Government, Resistance to--Mexico--History.

Government, Resistance to.

Mexico--Civilization--Indian influences.

Mexico.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [1996]

Summary:

This translation of a major work in Mexican anthropology argues that Mesoamerican civilization is an ongoing and undeniable force in contemporary Mexican life. For Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, the remaining Indian communities, the "de-Indianized" rural mestizo communities, and vast sectors of the poor urban population constitute the México profundo. Their lives and ways of understanding the world continue to be rooted in Mesoamerican civilization. An ancient agricultural complex provides their food supply, and work is understood as a way of maintaining a harmonious relationship with the natural world. Health is related to human conduct, and community service is often part of each individual's life obligation. Time is circular, and humans fulfill their own cycle in relation to other cycles of the universe. Since the Conquest, Bonfil argues, the peoples of the México profundo have been dominated by an "imaginary México" imposed by the West. It is imaginary not because it does not exist, but because it denies the cultural reality lived daily by most Mexicans. Within the México profundo there exists an enormous body of accumulated knowledge, as well as successful patterns for living together and adapting to the natural world. To face the future successfully, argues Bonfil, Mexico must build on these strengths of Mesoamerican civilization, "one of the few original civilizations that humanity has created throughout all its history."

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Translator's Foreword

Preface to the Second Edition

Introduction

Part I. A Civilization Denied

1. A Land of Millenarian Civilization

2. The Indian Recognized

3. De-Indianizing That Which Is Indian

Part II. How We Came to Be Where We Are

4. The Problem of National Culture

5. The Colonial Order

6. Forging a Nation

7. Our (Revolutionized) Modern Times

8. The Paths of Indian Survival

Part III. The National Program and the Civilizational Project

9. The Nation We Have Today

10. Civilization and Alternatives

References Cited

Bibliographic Appendix

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-79185-2

0-292-74780-2

OCLC:

1280943807