Las relaciones étnicas en Guatemala, 1944-2000

This book is a comprehensive anthropological study of interethnic relations in Guate-mala during the second half of the twentieth century. Departing from a paradigm that has dualistically framed this discussion in terms of indígenas and ladinos, the authors suggest that a more accurate view of ethnicity is to be found in the multicultural character of the country as described in the 1996 peace accords. The data for this book is based on 16 ethnographies carried out by researchers at CIRMA (Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica), supplemented by 30 other related monographs published after 1950. The authors also make use of survey data collected throughout the country—particularly in those regions where little information previously existed.The study begins with a historical and comparative overview of the question, examining the governmental policies and predominant cultural assumptions that characterized the liberal state from 1870 to 1944. Successive governments viewed Guatemalan society through the prism of cultural assimilation: indigenous peoples were expected to gradually take on ladino ways, which would theoretically create a homogenous nation. This study convincingly shows that such assimilation not only did not occur, but that this model led to a social system of widespread inequality and discrimination in which the ladino population held the upper hand of economic and social life.Central to this work is an examination of ethnic relations in the context of change within social categories and regional histories. A good part of the study explores how ethnic membership influenced participation in different areas of national life, including education, religion, and labor. The authors detail the features and evolution of social relations in each of the country’s five geographic regions. This discussion both highlights the exclusion of indigenous peoples from their rightful place in civil society and underscores regional differences. While this analysis is clear and well argued, the book would have benefited from a good map of Guatemala to accompany the text. There is some overlap of material in the chapters dealing with social categories and regional histories, but this approach may turn out to be didactically helpful for readers referencing specific regional sections of the lengthy text.The authors successfully document that the paradigm of a culturally homogenous country, in which the indigenous population is absorbed into mainstream ladino society, is both historically inaccurate and inappropriate for understanding interethnic relations today. While multiculturalism may be a better paradigm, it too carries its own difficulties and tensions. For example, some people who in the past may have called themselves ladinos now prefer terms such as mestizo or capitalino. In the same way, a growing number of indígenas choose the term Maya to designate their own ethnicity. Thus, differentiation of ethnic terms of self-identification remains vague. The ideological distinction between indígena and ladino remains powerful in real life. A construction deeply ingrained in cultural history, it continues to receive explicit and tacit support from the military and national politics. Thus, understanding and protecting ethnic rights for all Guatemalans remains elusive, even though over 50 percent of Guatemala’s population is of non-ladino origin.How this work came into being deserves some comment. It grew out of weekly seminar discussions undertaken by experts in the field, a total of 30 scholars and researchers, who for almost four years grappled with the question of identity and interethnic relations in Guatemala. This group included participants of different nationalities and various ethnic backgrounds. Together they looked at the available data, gathered additional information, and created an ongoing forum to share their research progress and findings. A project initially headed by Richard Adams, in 2000 he was joined Santiago Bastos. In this volume, the two authors have compiled the insightful outcome of these efforts.This book will become a standard reference for anyone studying the evolution of interethnic relations in Guatemala during this time period. It is conceptually sound, methodologically well researched and organized, and written in clear Spanish. Its readability renders its very relevant discussion accessible to a wider audience and not just to scholars. This fact is, by itself, a high tribute to a work written with the explicit intention of fostering broad conversation and debate. It invites Guatemalans and their allies to examine the theory and reality of what multiculturalism means for the country, and what it can become

Context (archaeology · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Inequality · Multiculturalism · Political science · Population · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropology · Demography · Gender Studies · Indigenous Cultures and History · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America

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