In this valuable book, ethnographer and anthropologist Brigittine French mobilizes new critical-theoretical perspectives in linguistic anthropology, applying them to the politically charged context of contemporary Guatemala. Beginning with an examination of the Ònationalist projectÓ that has been ongoing since the end of the colonial period, French interrogates the ÒGuatemalan/indigenous binary.Ó In Guatemala, ÒLadinoÓ refers to the Spanish-speaking minority of the population, who are of mixed European, usually Spanish, and indigenous ancestry; ÒIndianÓ is understood to mean the majority of GuatemalaÕs population, who speak one of the twenty-one languages in the Maya linguistic groups of the country, although levels of bilingualism are very high among most Maya communities. As French shows, the Guatemalan state has actively promoted a racialized, essentialized notion of ÒIndiansÓ as an undifferentiated, inherently inferior group that has stood stubbornly in the way of national progress, unity, and developmentÑwhich are, implicitly, the goals of Òtrue GuatemalansÓ (that is, Ladinos). French shows, with useful examples, how constructions of language and collective identity are in fact strategies undertaken to serve the goals of institutions (including the government, the military, the educational system, and the church) and social actors (including linguists, scholars, and activists). But by incorporating in-depth fieldwork with groups that speak Kaqchikel and KÕicheÕ along with analyses of Spanish-language discourses, Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity also shows how some individuals in urban, bilingual Indian communities have disrupted the essentializing projects of multiculturalism. And by focusing on ideologies of language, the author is able to explicitly link linguistic forms and functions with larger issues of consciousness, gender politics, social positions, and the forging of hegemonic power relations.

Sociolinguists have been pursuing connections between language and identity for several decades. But how are language and identity related in bilingualism and multilingualism? Mobilizing the most current methodology, this collection presents new research on language identity and bilingualism in three regions where Spanish coexists with other languages. The cases are Spanish-English contact in the United States, Spanish-indigenous language contact in Latin America, and Spanish-regional language contact in Spain. This is the first comparativist book to examine language and identity construction among bi- or multilingual speakers while keeping one of the languages constant. The sociolinguistic standing of Spanish varies among the three regions depending whether or not it is a language of prestige. Comparisons therefore afford a strong constructivist perspective on how linguistic ideologies affect bi/multilingual identity formation.

"Analyzes the forced migration of Maya women from the highlands of Guatemala and their turn toward language and indigenous clothing revitalization upon their return home"--

Policymakers, practitioners, and educators frequently group Latina/o immigrant adolescents within a single homogenous category, thus creating a problem in understanding their diverse experiences. To explore these diverse Latina/o adolescent experiences this dissertation cross-culturally compares patterns of ethnic identity and acculturation across a group of Indigenous (Yucatec Maya) immigrant Latino/a adolescents in the U.S. with Yucatec Maya adolescents residing in Mexico and with non-Indigenous immigrant Latina/o adolescents in the U.S. How do ethnic identity, acculturation levels, perceived discrimination, and sense of school belonging compare across Yucatec Maya adolescents in the U.S., non-Yucatec Maya Latina/o adolescents in the U.S., and Yucatec Maya adolescents still in Mexico? What roles do individual factors such as gender, language, generation level, and external factors such as family, cultural practices, ethnic community networks, and peer relationships take in the adolescents' lives in the U.S. and in Yucatan? The study draws on ethnic identity and acculturation frameworks as they relate to perceived discrimination (the study of how the person targeted by discrimination reacts and interprets these acts) and to the adolescents' feelings of belonging at school. The participants included 65 Latina/o non-Yucatec Maya heritage adolescents living in the Los Angeles, California area, 66 Mexican Maya heritage immigrant adolescents living in San Francisco, California or the Los Angeles, California area, and 70 Mexican Maya heritage adolescents living in Yucatan, Mexico. All 201 adolescents took a survey incorporating measures of ethnic identity, acculturation, perceived discrimination, and school belonging. Thirty-eight of the adolescents participated in semi-structured interviews that explored attitudes toward school, culture, discrimination, family, community, and peers influencing the adolescents. Quantitative findings expose the intra-group differences across Yucatec Maya and non-Yucatec Maya Latina/os adolescents and the discrimination faced by the growing population of Yucatec Maya adolescents within the Latino/a immigrant groups. Language, gender, and generation all play roles in the amount of peer and adult perceived discrimination experienced and the distress caused by perceived discrimination across Indigenous and non-Indigenous adolescents. The quantitative findings ultimately show that Indigenous adolescents have different psychological and cultural experiences when compared to non-Indigenous Latina/o adolescents. Being Yucatec Maya, first generation, male, and/or knowledgeable of Maya would put the adolescent at a higher risk of experiencing more perceived discrimination acts and distress. More perceived discrimination from adults also relates to adolescents in the U.S. (both Yucatec Maya and non-Yucatec Maya) resulting in lower levels of school belonging. The qualitative findings across the non-Yucatec Maya adolescents, Yucatec Maya adolescents in the U.S., and Yucatec Maya adolescents in Mexico reveal an in depth look at multiple perspectives surrounding cultural and ethnic identity, cultural practices, American culture, discrimination, school, family, and peers. Specifically for the Yucatec Maya adolescents, the interviews provided a lens into their sentiments about the Maya culture and preserving the culture for future generations. The interviews reflect the agency, reclamation of culture, and lived experiences that make up the Indigenous and non-Indigenous adolescents of this study. The study exposes the Yucatec Maya youth's resilient Indigenous identity that emerges regardless of the discrimination they face from non-Latina/o/non-Mexican groups as well as from their own Latina/o/Mexican communities. This understanding is needed to provide more comprehensive resources and services to these adolescents.

This wide-ranging introduction to the anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean offers broad coverage of culture and society in the region, taking into account historical developments as well as the roles of power and inequality. The chapters address key topics such as colonialism, globalization, violence, religion, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, health, and food, and emphasize the impact of Latin American and Caribbean peoples and cultures in the United States. The text has been thoroughly updated for the second edition, including fresh case studies and new chapters on independence, neoliberalism and immigration, and popular culture and the digital revolution. Students are provided with a solid overview of the major contemporary trends, issues, and debates in the field. Each chapter ends with a summary, up-to-date recommendations for viewing films/videos and websites, and a comprehensive bibliography for further reading and research.

This book examines the hemispheric histories of overlooked peoples and places that shaped colonial Spanish America. This volume focuses on the experiences of Native peoples, Africans and Afro-descended peoples, and castas (individuals of mixed ancestry) living in regions perceived as fringe, marginal, or peripheral. It covers a comprehensive geographic range including northern Mexico, Central America, the Circum-Caribbean, and South America, as well as a sweeping chronological period, from the earliest colonization episodes of the sixteenth century to the twilight of Spanish rule in the late eighteenth century. The chapters highlight the diverse peoples, from semisedentary and nonsedentary Native groups and Mosquito captains to free African governors—who lived, labored, fought, ruled, and formed communities across Spanish America. The volume examines how these overlooked peoples navigated colonial processes of conquest, displacement, and relocation, while drawing attention to local factors that influenced these experiences including ecological change, rivalries, diplomacy, contraband, time and distance, and geography. Through their analysis of the local and temporal contexts, the studies in this volume offer new insight into why the protagonists of these places responded contentiously—through resistance or flight—or cooperatively—by accepting treaties or alliances. Non-specialists-undergraduate students, booksellers, and librarians will be drawn to the individuals case studies, while scholars will find this collection to be an indispensable research tool.

Challenging the distinctions between “old” and “new” media and narratives about the deprecation of orality in favor of inscribed forms, The Maya Art of Speaking Writing draws from Maya concepts of tz’ib’ (recorded knowledge) and tzij, choloj, and ch’owen (orality) to look at expressive work across media and languages. Based on nearly a decade of fieldwork in the Guatemalan highlands, Tiffany D. Creegan Miller discusses images that are sonic, pictorial, gestural, and alphabetic. She reveals various forms of creativity and agency that are woven through a rich media landscape in Indigenous Guatemala, as well as Maya diasporas in Mexico and the United States. Miller discusses how technologies of inscription and their mediations are shaped by human editors, translators, communities, and audiences, as well as by voices from the natural world. These texts push back not just on linear and compartmentalized Western notions of media but also on the idea of the singular author, creator, scholar, or artist removed from their environment. The persistence of orality and the interweaving of media forms combine to offer a challenge to audiences to participate in decolonial actions through language preservation. The Maya Art of Speaking Writing calls for centering Indigenous epistemologies by doing research in and through Indigenous languages as we engage in debates surrounding Indigenous literatures, anthropology, decoloniality, media studies, orality, and the digital humanities.

"The Only True People" is a timely and rigorous examination of ethnicity among the ancient and modern Maya, focusing on ethnogenesis and exploring the complexities of Maya identity—how it developed, where and when it emerged, and why it continues to change over time. In the volume, a multidisciplinary group of well-known scholars including archaeologists, linguists, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and epigraphers investigate ethnicity and other forms of group identity at a number of Maya sites and places, from the northern reaches of the Yucatan to the Southern Periphery, and across different time periods, from the Classic period to the modern day. Each contribution challenges the notion of ethnically homogenous "Maya peoples" for their region and chronology and explores how their work contributes to the definition of "ethnicity" for ancient Maya society. Contributors confront some of the most difficult theoretical debates concerning identity in the literature today: how different ethnic groups define themselves in relation to others; under what circumstances ethnicity is marked by overt expressions of group membership and when it is hidden from view; and the processes that transform ethnic identities and their expressions. By addressing the social constructs and conditions behind Maya ethnicity, both past and present, "The Only True People" contributes to the understanding of ethnicity as a complex set of relationships among people who lived in real and imagined communities, as well as among people separated by social boundaries. The volume will be a key resource for Mayanists and will be of interest to students and scholars of ethnography, anthropology, and cultural studies as well. Contributors: McCale Ashenbrener, Ellen E. Bell, Marcello A. Canuto, Juan Castillo Cocom, David A. Freidel, Wolfgang Gabbert, Stanley P. Guente, Jonathan Hill, Charles Andrew Hofling, Martha J. Macri, Damien B. Marken, Matthew Restall, Timoteo Rodriguez, Mathew C. Samson, Edward Schortman, Rebecca Storey

The Mayan Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the language family associated with the Classic Mayan civilization (AD 200–900), a family whose individual languages are still spoken today by at least six million indigenous Maya in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. This unique resource is an ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Mayan languages and linguistics. Written by a team of experts in the field, The Mayan Languages presents in-depth accounts of the linguistic features that characterize the thirty-one languages of the family, their historical evolution, and the social context in which they are spoken. The Mayan Languages: provides detailed grammatical sketches of approximately a third of the Mayan languages, representing most of the branches of the family; includes a section on the historical development of the family, as well as an entirely new sketch of the grammar of "Classic Maya" as represented in the hieroglyphic script; provides detailed state-of-the-art discussions of the principal advances in grammatical analysis of Mayan languages; includes ample discussion of the use of the languages in social, conversational, and poetic contexts. Consisting of topical chapters on the history, sociolinguistics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse structure, and acquisition of the Mayan languages, this book will be a resource for researchers and other readers with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology, language acquisition, and linguistic typology.

These essays investigate the links between agency and race with regard to constructions of masculinity and femininity among radical groups resisting varied forms of political and economic domination. ********************************************************* * Building on the work of anthropologists, historians, sociologists, literary critics, and feminist philosophers of science, the essays in Women Out of Place: the Gender of Agency and Race of Nationality investigate the links between agency and race for what they reveal about constructions of masculinity and femininity and patterns of domesticity among groups seeking to resist varied forms of political and economic domination through a subnational ideology of racial and cultural redemption.