Mayas in the Marketplace

by Little, Walter E.

• ISBN13: 9780292705678
• ISBN10: 0292705670
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-12
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Selling handicrafts to tourists has brought the Maya peoples of Guatemala into the world market. Vendors from rural communities now offer their wares to more than 500,000 international tourists annually in the marketplaces of larger cities such as Antigua, Guatemala City, Panajachel, and Chichicastenango. Like businesspeople anywhere, Maya artisans analyze the desires and needs of their customers and shape their products to meet the demands of the market. But how has adapting to the global marketplace reciprocally shaped the identity and cultural practices of the Maya peoples? Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork, Walter Little presents the first ethnographic study of Maya handicraft vendors in the international marketplace. Focusing on Kaqchikel Mayas who commute to Antigua to sell their goods, he explores three significant issues: sum; how the tourist marketplace conflates global and local distinctions.sum; how the marketplace becomes a border zone where national and international, developed and underdeveloped, and indigenous and non-indigenous come together.sum; how marketing to tourists changes social roles, gender relationships, and ethnic identity in the vendors' home communities.Little's wide-ranging research challenges our current understanding of tourism's negative impact on indigenous communities. He demonstrates that the Maya are maintaining a specific, community-based sense of Maya identity, even as they commodify their culture for tourist consumption in the world market.

Author Biography

Walter E. Little is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Since 1997, he has also co-directed Tulane University's "Kaqchikel Maya Language and Culture" summer class in Guatemala

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: Subjectivity and Fieldwork among Kaqchikel Vendors	3	(32)
Guatemala as a Living History Museum	35	(29)
Place and People in a Transnational Borderzone City	64	(25)
Antigua Tipica Markets and Identity Interaction	89	(26)
Mercado de Artesania Compania de Jesus and the Politics of Vending	115	(28)
Gendered Marketplace and Household Reorganization	143	(35)
The Places Kaqchikel Maya Vendors Call Home	178	(25)
Home as a Place of Exhibition and Performance in San Antonio Aguas Calientes	203	(24)
Marketing Maya Culture in Santa Catarina Palopo	227	(34)
Conclusion: Traditions and Commodities	261	(11)
Epilogue	272	(3)
Appendix	275	(4)
Notes	279	(12)
Bibliography	291	(24)
Index	315