Race and Cultural Identity - Guatemala

Paper Topic

1. Paper Title: Race and Cultural Identity: What’s it like being Mayan in post genocide   Guatemala?    

 2. Bibliography:

 Adams, Richard N.

     2005. The evolution of racism in Guatemala: hegemony, science, and anti-hegemony.   

     Project Muse: Histories of Anthropology Annual, 1, no. 1: 132-180.

 Burrell, Jennifer L.

      2013. Maya after war: conflict, power, and politics in Guatemala. Austin:

     University of Texas Press.           

Grandin, Greg.

     2000. The blood of Guatemala: a history of race and nation. Durham and London:

     Duke University Press.

Nelson, Diane M.

     2009. Reckoning: The ends of war in Guatemala. Durham: Duke University Press.

Wolf, Eric R.

     2000. The vicissitudes of the closed corporate peasant community. In pathways of

     power: building an anthropology of the modern world: 160-165. Berkeley: University
     of California Press.

 3. Elevator Pitch: The Peace Accords signed in December 1996 brought to an end 36 years of civil war, and created expectations by Guatemala’s society of a true political will on the part of all sides to build a fair, more inclusive and sustainable model of development for the country. One of the agreements suggested a set of guidelines to overcome the causes of racism, discrimination, exclusion, and social inequality that most of Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan population suffers. The Accord also called for the recognition of Guatemala’s indigenous social and cultural rights.  My research will look at the current status on race relations between the two main social groups: the Mayan Indigenous and the Ladino. How successful has the Mayas’ ethnic identity been in assimilating into Guatemala’s national identity as a nation? How challenging has this been to the Ladino (non-indigenous) notions of citizenship and national identity? The debates draw a close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence.  It brings to the forefront the consideration that the Mayan patriarchs need to develop an understanding of race and nation that is contrary to that of the Ladino notion of assimilation and progress.

4. Theory: The history of racism in Guatemala is conditioned by colonial conquest and oppression of the Mayan population. It was further defined by the emergence of an export-based liberalism in the 19th century, of which two-thirds of the population was Mayan, who were subject to forced labor and worked under extreme poor conditions.  This perpetuated ethnic or racial discrimination that excluded the Mayans from all participation in national politics and resulted in the loss of much of their economic inheritance.  Coming out of a 36 year civil war, which included genocidal activity made public the difficult issues of racism in Guatemala. There are several theoretical approaches at play here. At the forefront is neoliberalism and decolonization, which drives the movement toward incorporating the Mayan population into the Nation’s total identity. Other theoretical approaches date back to Franz Boas and his direction that we should be especially attentive to issues of race and culture. I believe it was Boas who associated homicide and genocide with the racial concept. Even Pierre Bourdieu portrayed colonialism as a racialized system of domination which is backed by force. Although Bourdieu’s work is not generally thought of in the study of colonialism and racial difference, or in intercultural domination, I think it applies in this case. Another theoretical thought comes from Eric Wolf who taught that there are complex power struggles within social groups, and that the very concept of culture was born in the struggle for power. He viewed societies as being vulnerable to external influences because societies are interconnected, and that existing forces within a society, such as national power relations, international trade, and world markets drive a culture’s development and change. Communities that make up part of a society cannot be self-contained and integrated within themselves. They are part of a larger group which extends through all levels of society from a community all the way to that of a nation. This theorical approach would mandate that the Mayan indigenous and the rest of Guatemala’s population need to join into one unified nation to move out from a developing world status. Racism and inequality seem to be the stumbling block for Guatemala. Hopefully, my research will provide an insight on their progress since the 1996 Peace Accord.