Constructing the Maya: Ethnicity, State Formation, and Material Culture in Yucatán, Chiapas, and Guatemala

By Paul Eiss

This special issue of Ethnohistory is a significant contribution to the history and anthropology of the Maya in both Mexico and Guatemala. Utilizing a comparative analytic framework, these essays explore the ethnic dimensions--indigeneity, indigenismo, mestizaje, racial subjugation--of state formation as well as state practice in indigenous regions. The contributors emphasize how the material aspects of state formation--roads and infrastructure; model villages; restored ruins; portrait photography; highland marketplaces; modern improvements; traditional cultural performances, artifacts, and dress--become theaters for the construction and reconstruction of ethnic and political entities and relationships. Taken as a whole, the collection challenges a tendency toward the segmentation of the discussion of the Maya into distinct disciplines (anthropology and history), national historiographies (Mexican and Guatemalan), and, within Mexico, distinct regional historiographies (Yucat n and Chiapas).

Contributors: David Carey Jr., Paul K. Eiss, Ben Fallaw, Stephen E. Lewis, Walter E. Little, John M. Watanabe

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822366916
• ISBN13: 9780822366911
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"