Becoming Maya

Becoming Maya
Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Total Pages : 273
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780816550814
ISBN-13 : 0816550816
Rating : 4/5 (816 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Becoming Maya by : Wolfgang Gabbert

Download or read book Becoming Maya written by Wolfgang Gabbert and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, it is commonly held that the population consists of two ethnic communities: Maya Indians and descendants of Spanish conquerors. As a result, the history of the region is usually seen in terms of conflict between conquerors and conquered that too often ignores the complexity of interaction between these groups and the complex nature of identity within them. Yet despite this prevailing view, most speakers of the Yucatec Maya language reject being considered Indian and refuse to identify themselves as Maya. Wolfgang Gabbert maintains that this situation can be understood only by examining the sweeping procession of history in the region. In Becoming Maya, he has skillfully interwoven history and ethnography to trace 500 years of Yucatec history, covering colonial politics, the rise of plantations, nineteenth-century caste wars, and modern reforms—always with an eye toward the complexities of ethnic categorization. According to Gabbert, class has served as a self-defining category as much as ethnicity in the Yucatán, and although we think of caste wars as struggles between Mayas and Mexicans, he shows that each side possessed a sufficiently complex ethnic makeup to rule out such pat observations. Through this overview, Gabbert reveals that Maya ethnicity is upheld primarily by outsiders who simply assume that an ethnic Maya consciousness has always existed among the Maya-speaking people. Yet even language has been a misleading criterion, since many people not considered Indian are native speakers of Yucatec. By not taking ethnicity for granted, he demonstrates that the Maya-speaking population has never been a self-conscious community and that the criteria employed by others in categorizing Mayas has changed over time. Grounded in field studies and archival research and boasting an exhaustive bibliography, Becoming Maya is the first English-language study that examines the roles played by ethnicity and social inequality in Yucatán history. By revealing the highly nuanced complexities that underlie common stereotypes, it offers new insights not only into Mesoamerican peoples but also into the nature of interethnic relations in general.


Becoming Maya Related Books

Becoming Maya
Language: en
Pages: 273
Authors: Wolfgang Gabbert
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-08-30 - Publisher: University of Arizona Press

GET EBOOK

In Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, it is commonly held that the population consists of two ethnic communities: Maya Indians and descendants of Spanish conquerors.
Popular a Memoir
Language: en
Pages: 274
Authors: Maya Van Wagenen
Categories: Juvenile Nonfiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014 - Publisher: Penguin

GET EBOOK

Documents a high school student's year-long attempt to change her social status from that of a misfit to a member of the "in" crowd by following advice in a 195
Invaluable
Language: en
Pages:
Authors: Maya Grossman
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-09-15 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

On Being Maya and Getting By
Language: en
Pages: 178
Authors: Sarah R. Taylor
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-11-19 - Publisher: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies

GET EBOOK

On Being Maya and Getting By is an ethnographic study of the two Ek’Balams—a notable archaeological site and adjacent village—of the Yucatán Peninsula. W
Ancient Maya Politics
Language: en
Pages: 543
Authors: Simon Martin
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-06-18 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

GET EBOOK

With new readings of ancient texts, Ancient Maya Politics unlocks the long-enigmatic political system of the Classic Maya.