Sociology/Anthropology 250 - Ethnography of Latin America

Prof. Beverly Nagel

LINKS

• University of Texas LANIC - can be searched by country or topic. Includes links to newspapers, organizations, government offices and more.
• Resource Center of the Americas - see especially the schedule of Coffee Hours
• U.S. Department of State - see Travel and Living Abroad section for information and travel advisories
• The Maya Society of Minnesota
• Rabbit in the Moon
• Guatemalan Society of Minnesota - See the information about their Benefit Dance on Oct. 12!

SCHEDULE

All readings are available on closed reserve in the library, including copies of the books that are available for purchase in the Bookstore. 
Discussion questions are due on the dates indicated with an "*" and cover the required readings to be discussed on that day.
 
Sep. 17,19  -   Introduction; organization and themes
 
Recommended reading: Harris, Patterns of Race in the Americas, esp. Ch. 1 & 2
 
Sep. 23  - A note on methods and materials: Points of view
 
Read: Handler, "On Dialogue and Destructive Analysis" Journal of Anthropological Research 41(2)
Recommended: Sider, "When Parrots Learn to Talk, and Why They Can't" Comp.Studies in Society and History 29(1)
 
Sep. 25   -  Guest lecture – Prof. Alberto Rivera
 
Sep. 27*  -  Discussion of Stern, Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest
 
Recommended: Poma de Ayala, Letter to a King, pp. 21‑34, 48‑59, 84‑86, 104‑122
 
Sep. 30  - Peru's Indian Peoples and points of view (continued)
 
Recommended: Seed, "`Failing to Marvel': Atahualpa's Encounter with the Word" Latin American Research Review 26(1)
Mumford, "The Taki Onqoy and the Andean Nation" Latin American Research Review 33(1)
 
Oct. 2, 4    - Colonial legacies and economic dependency in Guatemala
 
Movie: "Todos Santos Cuchumatan"
Read:  Lovell, "Surviving Conquest," Latin American Research Review 23 (2)
Gudeman and Rivera, Conversations in Colombia, Ch. 1
Recommended: Smith, "Local history in global context," Comp. Studies in Society  and History 26
Also of interest:  Harris, Patterns of Race in the Americas, Ch. 3                   
  Movie "Todos Santos: The Survivors" (showing to be scheduled)


Oct. 7*  -  Discussion of movie and begin discussion of Menchú, I..Rigoberta Menchú

Read:    Menchú, I...Rigoberta Menchú 
Read:  Jonas, Of Centaurs and Doves, Ch. 1                
 
Oct. 9 - Visitor:  Benedict Anderson 

Read:  Anderson, Imagined Communities, Ch. 1-3, 11
Recommended:  Anderson, "Cacique Democracy in the Philippines," Discrepant Histories, ed. by V. Rafael

Oct. 11   - Visitor:  Eulogia López, Assoc. for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR)- Guatemala

Oct. 14    - Finish discussion of Menchú, I...Rigoberta Menchú and the Menchu-Stoll controversy

Read:  "Menchú‑Stoll debate" packet (on reserve)
Recommended: Warren, Indigenous Movements and Their Critics, Ch. 4
See also:  Arias (ed.), The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy


Oct. 16, 18*  -    The Pan-Mayanist Movement
 
Read:  Arias, "Changing Indian Identity:  Guatemala's Violet Transition to Modernity" in Smith (ed.), Guatemalan Indians and the State, 1540 to 1988
Warren, Indigenous Movements and Their Critics, Introduction, Chs. 1, 2, 6, 9, and Conclusion
Recommended:  Cojti, "The Politics of Maya Revindicacion" in Fischer and Brown (eds.), Maya Cultural Activism
 
Oct. 21   -   Midterm Break
 
Oct. 23 -  No class; start reading material on community & development (and midterm essay)

Oct. 25  - Guest lecture: Prof. Chris Chiappari

Oct. 28* -  Aftermath:  Community and Development
 
Read  a selection of the following:
Roxche', "Maya Culture and the Politics of Development" in Fischer and Brown (eds), Maya Cultural Activism
Green, Fear as a Way of Life, Ch. 6
Stoll, "Human rights, Land Conflict, and Ixil Country" in Sieder (ed.), Guatemala After the Peace Accords
Jonas, Of Centaurs and Doves, Ch. 7
Goldín, "Maquila Age Maya:  Changing Households and Communities of the Central Highlands of Guatemala" Journal of Latin American Anthropology 6(1)
 
Oct. 30 - Structural and everyday violence in another context:  Brazil
 
Read: Scheper‑Hughes, Death Without Weeping, Chap. 1 and 2
 
Nov. 1* -  Urban Brazil: The Mother Love Debate
 
Read: Scheper‑Hughes, "Culture, scarcity, and maternal thinking," in N. Scheper-Hughes (ed.), Child Survival
Nations & Rebhun, "Angels with wet wings won't fly..." and  Scheper‑Hughes "Reply," Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 12
 
Nov. 4, 6 - Urbanization and the favelas
 
Finish reading Death Without Weeping, Ch. 3, 10-12                                     
Recommended:  Movie, "Santa Marta: Two Weeks in the Slums" (on reserve)
 
Nov. 8 - The Final Conquest: Indigenous rights, environment, and development on the frontier
 
Read: Maybury‑Lewis, "Demystifying the Second Conquest" in Schmink and Wood  (eds.), Frontier Expansion in Amazonia
Movie: "Contact: Yanomami"
Recommended: Foweraker, The Struggle for Land, Chaps. 8 to 10
 
Nov. 11  - Movie: "Amazon Journal"                  
 
Nov. 13* - Indigenous peoples and development; commentaries from Latin America and sorting out the voices
 
Read: Vargas Llosa, The Storyteller
 
Nov. 15, 18  -   Slippage, planning for field study
 
Read:  Warren, Indigenous Movements and Their Critics, Ch. 3
AAA code of ethics
  Click on the link to AAA Code of Ethics and review the document; see also the cases described under Cases and Solutions
Nov. 20 - Wrap‑up

December 2002 Field Trip
Tentative schedule

Monday 2 - Arrive in Guatemala
Most flights arrive in the evening.
Chalet Suizo 14 calle 6-82, zona 1, Phone: (011-502) 251-3786.

Tuesday 3
Talks:
" Orientation to Guatemala by Alberto Rivera, HECUA Guatemala Program Director
" Indigenous People vs. Modern Mayas: overview by Guillermo Padilla, Colombian lawyer and anthropologist working with UNDP.

Observation and interpretation exercise at Palacio Nacional (Museo de la Cultura), Catedral y Mercado Central

Wednesday 4
Talks:
" Education and social change for the Mayas by Lic. Demetrio Cojtí, K'achiqel Maya working as Vice-Minister of Education.
" Activismo nacional y realidad local by Alvaro Pop CIRMA (Center for regional research in Mesoamerica).

Alternatively
" Virgilio Alvarado (K'iche' professional, Vice-Minister of Culture, specialized in educational reform)
" Otilia Lux de Cojtí, K'iche' woman, Minister of Culture with experience in politics.

Observation and interpretation exercise at La Terminal and Tikal Futura.

Visit to Popol Vuh Museum and Ixchel Museum. Zona viva.

Thursday 5
Talks:
" Juan León, indigenous professional working with the "Defensoría maya" a prestigious Guatemalan NGO. He is a strong critic of government and the Mayan movement.

" Rosalina Tuyuc President of CONAViGUA, one of the oldest and most active and militant indigenous organizations. She was not reelected due to the sexist and racist position of the ex-commanders who head the political activities of the URNG, the old guerrilla umbrella organization.

Alternatively
" Juanita Catinay, actual directora de Defensoría de la mujer indígena del gobierno, creado por los Acuerdos de Paz.

" Francisco (Pancho) Calí, President of the International Council of Indian Treaties and a member of CALDH, an NGO headed by Frank Le Rue and working for Human Rights in Guatemala.

P.M. Explore on your own.

Friday 6
Trip by bus to Antigua (the Old colonial capital of Guatemala- with time to walk the place and get a feeling for it); Iximché (the K'aqchikel capital up to the Conquest); Panajachel a pre-Hispanic town today also known as Gringotenango, stay in
Hotel: Cacique Inn
Nightlife in 'Pana' is varied - Circus Bar, Socrates, etc. - and eating-places are plentiful.

Saturday 7
Talks:
9:00 a.m. Domestic Economy (community) and Market Economy by Alberto Rivera
Orientation to indigenous family home stay by Alberto Rivera - at the Reserva natural Atitlán, 15 minutes away by foot from the Fonda del Sol.

Time to explore the nature reserve and the beach (bring bathing attire).
4:00 p.m. Meet family and leave for villages

Sunday 8
In the villages

Monday 9
In the villages

Tuesday 10
In the villages

Wednesday 11
Meet in the morning at Atitlán Nature Reserve in Pana for instructions and leave for Chichicastenango by bus (on your own). Find Inn/hotel in Chichicastenango

Thursday 12
AM Market Exercise (best if started before sunrise)
2:30pm Trip to Chinique (40 min)
Stay with families in Chinique.

Friday 13
Conversations with youth activist
Conversations with a'kijab (wise men / priests)

2:00 pm Return to Pana, Cacique Inn

Saturday 14
Talk:
Cirilo Pérez, Head of the Mayan priests Council (Consejo de sacerdotes mayas de Guatemala. Don Cirilo is powerful, he understands the cycle of the Mayan calendar as one in which the Mayas have to talk to the world)
Discussion
Mayan Propitiatory Ceremony at the cave of Nimajay

Fonda del Sol

Sunday 15
Trip to Santiago Atitlán / Maximón. (Themes syncretism, markets, impact of Evangelical churches, etc)

Fonda del Sol

Monday 16
AM Wrap-up discussion and evaluation.
PM Return to Guatemala City

Tuesday 17
Return to Minnesota

Information for Village Stays

Fieldwork in the Mayan villages will be conducted in the following towns, depending on local arrangements. These are some descriptive tidbits of the towns.

Students will stay 03 to 05 to a village. There will be one student per family. Usually these families are related and live nearby. Students can buy most everything that they will need in Panajachel or even in the village itself. It might be wise to bring a warm jacket (temps at night can drop to freezing for a couple of hours and then soar to the 20C / 75F during the day). Some find it useful to bring bug repellent.

San Jorge La Laguna - it has around 1.200 families (half of the town split last year and went to live by the lake as a result of a long struggle for land and payments made to the community by the present Ladino owners). Most men work for wages in Panajachel and in Sololá. Women work at home producing necklaces, bracelets for the tourist market. It has a Maximon cofradía and a number of sacred places nearby.

San Andrés Semetabaj - it has around 1.800 inhabitants. 15 minutes away from Pana. Women weave and do other cottage industries. Many men still work the fields others work for wages. This is the town where Kay Warren did her fieldwork. [See chapter 4 in Warren, Indigenous Movements and Their Critics, and The Symbolism of Subordination, by Warren.]

Sololá - a pre-Hispanic town with an interesting history, present day capital of the department of Sololá, it has around 8.400 inhabitants. It retains a strong cofradía system and pre-Hispanic social organization.

Santa Catarina - it has around 1500 inhabitants. Located by the lakeshore some 15 minutes away from Pana, a good many of its men fish, women are famous for their weavings. The colonial church dates back to the 18th century.