DEMOCRACY, MARGINALITY AND ETHNIC RESISTANCE: The aftermath of “La Violencia Guatemala is a multinational society…That is to say ‘Guatemalan Culture’ cannot be other than a confederation of cultures and languages in which each preserves its originality (Cojti Cuxil, in Kay Warren 1008: 195).

Aftermath of “La Violencia” The impact of la violencia on Maya communities The internalization of violence in those communities

Anthropologists sought to: Reveal patterns in the killings, Reveal the personal character of intracommunity violence And to understand the social characteristics of the perpetrators of the violence

Anthropologists’ Work Carmack (1988) “Harvest of Violence” Stoll (1993) “ Between Two Armies” Warren (1998) “Indigenous Movements and Their Critics”

Pan Maya Movement Elements of Maya culture utilized to inform the construction of pan-Maya politics -- traditional, pre-conquest How pan-mayanism contributed to nation building through reverse orientalism

Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) The Orient signifies a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien ("Other") to the West.

Orientalism Orientalism is "a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient." It is the image of the 'Orient' expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship.

Local events and international developments created possibilities for the growth of the Pan- Maya movement New opportunities created with unanticipated results Exposing “democratic” contradictions

International developments International law “to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”

Declaration of the right of Indigenous Peoples (UN 1989) To protect their own cultural practices and ceremonial, archaeological sites; To practice their own spiritual traditions; To promote their own language; To control their own educational systems; To have access to mass media; To gain recognition of their own customary laws and land tenure systems, etc

The role of international organizations ILO (International labor organization UN Catholic church NGO’s Amnesty International Human right watch Cultural survival

Observers expressed fears Ethnicity could lead to destructive break up No clear ethnic boundaries No such thing as transcendent concept of indigenous people

Pan-Mayanists the movement means Challenging the legacy of colonialism, racism Maya is not Static: represent a mix of practices and knowledges See Indigenous identity as he only pathway to social change and self-representation Legitimating the position of their people Finding a place in the nation

How do Pan-Mayanists try to achieve inclusion in the Guatemalan political process? Creating a sense of cultural distinctiveness Political essentialism: issues of representation Challenging others who claim to speak for them

The development of the pan-Maya movement in Guatemala Transforms from cultural to a political movement They seek to: 1.Recognition of cultural diversity within the nation state 2.A greater role for indigenous politics in national culture 3.A reassessment of economic inequities 4. Wider distribution of cultural resources and literacy in indigenous languages

May Studies: Research Centers, these intellectuals have created counter histories denouncing 1.The racism of national histories 2.Critiquing foreign research practices and scholarship (including anthropological) 3.Challenging western models of development and political psychology to counteract internalized racism

From issues of origin to nation building Who are we if we are not the negative stereotype we have been taught? “ Only when a people accepts its history and assumes its identity do they have the right to define their future” New demands on the state: reforms on law, language, etc

Pan-Mayanists priorities 1.Language revitalization: literacy training in all May languages 2.The revitalization of Maya chronicles of culture, history and resistance to the Spanish invasion. Popol vuj and the Annals of the Kaqchikels (sacred cosmological texts and indigenous histories 3.Revitalization of May leadership norms (community council run by elders, midwives, and May shaman-priests 4.The dissemination of an internationally recognized discourse of indigenous rights focusing on recognition and self-determination. (Radical transformation of Guatemalan politics to accommodate a pluricultural nation, candidates for national office, etc.

Critics 1. Ethnic separatism, ethnic polarization, 2. Violating the local grounding of indigenous identity in place and community, 3. Not appropriate for the country, some regions populated predominantly by a single group, 4. The Ladino cultures include indigenous elements 5. Building on a language as a key basis of revitalization, stressing language group endogamy 6. Pan-Mayan leaders and urban participants are seen as a neither indigenous nor ladino but rather a third ethnicity

Pan-Mayanists reaction Attempts to disempower the movement They are pragmatic and chose to work with any ideological persuasion

Discussion questions What is the film “Haunted Land’ about? Why are historical/cultural memories important in situations of violence and oppression such as those experienced by the Maya in Guatemala? According to what you can discern from the film “Haunted Land’ and the readings, what is the future place for the Maya in the nation state of Guatemala? What is the social, cultural and political impact of ‘la Violencia’ on Maya communities?