Maya Intellectual Renaissance : Identity, Representation, and Leadership

by Montejo, Victor D.

• ISBN13: 9780292709393
• ISBN10: 0292709390
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-30
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

When Mayan leaders protested the celebration of the Quincentenary of the "discovery" of America and joined with other indigenous groups in the Americas to proclaim an alternate celebration of 500 years of resistance, they rose to national prominence in Guatemala. This was possible in part because of the cultural, political, economic, and religious revitalization that occurred in Mayan communities in the later half of the twentieth century. Another result of the revitalization was Mayan students' enrollment in graduate programs in order to reclaim the intellectual history of the brilliant Mayan past. Victor Montejo was one of those students. This is the first book to be published outside of Guatemala where a Mayan writer other than Rigoberta Menchu discusses the history and problems of the country. It collects essays Montejo has written over the past ten years that address three critical issues facing Mayan peoples today: identity, representation, and Mayan leadership. Montejo is deeply invested in furthering the discussion of the effectiveness of Mayan leadership because he believes that self-evaluation is necessary for the movement to advance. He also criticizes the racist treatment that Mayans experience, and advocates for the construction of a more pluralistic Guatemala that recognizes cultural diversity and abandons assimilation. This volume maps a new political alternative for the future of the movement that promotes inter-ethnic collaboration alongside a reverence for Mayan culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xiii
Maya Identity and Interethnic Relations	1	(103)
Pan-Mayanism
The Complexity of Maya Culture and the Process of Self-Representation	16	(21)
Representation via Ethnography
Mapping the Maya Image in a Guatemalan Primary-School Social-Studies Textbook	37	(24)
The Multiplicity of Maya Voices
Maya Leadership and the Politics of Self-Representation	61	(25)
Truth, Human Rights, and Representation
The Case of Rigoberta Menchu	86	(18)
The Ethnohistory of Maya Leadership	104	(14)
Theoretical Basis and Strategies for Maya Leadership	118	(40)
Maya Ways of Knowing
Modern Maya and the Elders	139	(19)
Leadership and Maya Intellectuality	158	(26)
Indigenous Rights, Security, and Democracy in the Americas
The Guatemalan Situation	169	(15)
The Twenty-first Century and the Future of the Maya in Guatemala	184	(17)
Notes	201	(8)
Selected Bibliography	209	(14)
Index	223