Alexander, Rani T. 2018 Legacies of Resistance in Postcolonial Yucatán. Paper presented at the 2018 Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, January 3-6, 2018, New Orleans. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Of Friends and Foes: The Caste War and Ethnicity in Yucatan
Journal of Latin American Anthropology, 2004
Todas las situaciones coloniales y postcoloniales crean sistemas de dominación basadas en el antagonismo entre colonizadores y colonizados. En consecuencia se ha generalmente interpretado a las rebeliones rurales en las sociedades latinoamericanas durante la época colonial y en el siglo XIX como guerras étnicas o raciales en contra de la dominación de los conquistadores españoles y de sus descendientes. Esto ha sido también el caso con la Guerra de Castas de Yucatán (1847-1901) que fue las más importante de numerosas rebeliones que estremecieron las áreas rurales de México durante el siglo XIX. Sin embargo, un análisis cuidadoso de la evidencia pone en duda tal interpretación. Mientras las élites hispano-hablantes presentaron a este levantamiento como un conflicto racial los rebeldes lo consideraron como un asunto de las clases bajas visto que indígenas lucharon en ambos bandos. Ni los colonizadores ni los colonizados representaron comunidades homogéneas o solidarias. Por esto para entender mejor los conflictos sociales en sociedades coloniales y postcoloniales es de suma importancia no confundir categorias étnicas (o raciales) y comunidades étnicas. Además, partiendo del análisis del sistema de desigualdad social en el Yucatán del siglo XIX el artículo muestra que diferentes concepciones de diferenciación social pueden coexistir en una sociedad. palabras claves: México, Yucatán, mayas, etnicidad, guerra de castas.
Postcolonial Social Transformations in Yucatán: wealth, social mobility, and inequality
Paper presented at the 2018 Conference of the American Society for Ethnohistory, October 11-13, 2018, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2018
In this paper I explore the social transformations of Yucatec-speaking communities (cah) located southwest of Valladolid, Yucatán, in the postcolonial period (1821-present). Among these communities is Ebtún, known for its long-running corpus of Maya-language land title documents that reveal autonomous leadership and stable landholding over the longue durée. What practices underpinned the social reproduction of community organization in the nineteenth century, and how did they differ from those of the sixteenth century and the twentieth century? Using nineteenth century censuses from the Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán, I analyze variation in household wealth, social mobility, and inequality that emerged in the wake of Yucatán's 1847 Caste War. My results indicate that the politics of leadership and landholding in the late nineteenth century were historically contingent on sixteenth-century organization, and the practices of social reproduction were altered again after the Mexican Revolution and Agrarian Reform of the twentieth century.
The social transformations produced by rapid industrialization and expansion of henequen production in the late nineteenth century in western Yucatan were not what happened in Maya-speaking communities further to the east. In this paper, I examine the archaeology of haciendas and rural farming settlements situated southwest of Valladolid, Yucatan. Analysis of the distribution and architectural characteristics of haciendas and ranchos in this area reveals that small-scale cattle raising was a key entrepreneurial strategy that enhanced social mobility and aided economic recovery in the region. Acasillamiento and debt peonage were practiced on only a few large haciendas, most dating to the early 20th century. Using documentary census data, I measure variation in inequality among households in rural settlements using GINI coefficients for the 1880s and 1900s. The trajectory of globalization in this region offers an important comparison to the pattern observed further west, near Mérida.
Zborover_2014_Dissertation_Decolonizing_Historical_Archaeology_in_Southern_Oaxaca_Mexico
The cultural area roughly corresponding to the modern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, was a dynamic cultural arena which saw the rise and development of multiple complex societies and their respective historiographic traditions. This dissertation focuses on the development and application of integrative approaches to the archaeological, documentary, and oral records from the Chontal highlands in southern Oaxaca, with a particular emphasis on the Chontal community of Santa María Zapotitlán. Following a critique and reconfiguration of the methodological and theoretical tenets of 'historical archaeology', I propose to acknowledge and incorporate Mesoamerican indigenous literate societies within a more inclusive paradigm. Based on data collected in the 'Chontalpa Historical Archaeology Project', I draw my data from a rich documentary corpus of indigenous 'territorialnarratives', archaeological surveys and excavations, visual and archaeometric analysis of artifacts, ethnoarchaeology, and a systematic collection of oral traditions. By subjecting these epistemically independent sources to corroborative, complementary, and contrastive modes of inquiry, I explore low-level spatial and temporal correlates followed by high-level correlates of interregional interaction, colonialism, factionalism, and resistance. These integrative correlates are examined through five diachronic case-studies: 1) Monte Albán's imperialism in the Formative period and interregional interactions in the Classic period; 2) Mixtec, Zapotec, and Pochutec conquests and domination of the Chontalpa in the Early-Late Postclassic; 3) The Aztec incursion and multipolity/inter-ethnic factionalism in the Late-Terminal Postclassic; 4) Chontal and Spanish interregional competition, colonialism, and resistance in the Colonial Period; and 5) The Chontal historical image, from the Colonial through the Modern Period.
Crossing Over: Caciques, Indigenous Politics, and the Vecino World in Caste War Yucatán
In this article I delve into the life story of one particular cacique (indigenous leader), Angelino Uicab of the town of Teya, during a particularly significant period in the history of Yucatán: the Caste War. Focusing on the 1840s and 1850s I use the Uicab case to show how “ordinary,” nonrebel caciques engaged in political alliance making on the ground. While traditional renditions of the Caste War represent it as a race war, I show how, for Uicab, strategic rather than racial concerns remained pivotal in shaping political alliance making at the local level. In doing this, I emphasize that we need to look at nonindigenous, or vecino, politics and the way in which it influenced indigenous and cacique politics. Finally, I show that the rhetoric that represented the Caste War as a race war was partly produced by local government officials as they sought to camouflage their exploitation of indigenous labor.
Heritage
This paper examines the relationship between the past, present, and future of Maya heritage and archaeology. We trace some of the background of Maya archaeology and Maya heritage studies in order to understand the state of the field today. We examine and demonstrate how an integrated and collaborative community heritage project, based in Tihosuco, Quintana Roo, Mexico, has developed and changed over time in reaction to perceptions about heritage and identity within the local community. We also describe the many sub-programs of the Tihosuco Heritage and Community Development Project, showcasing our methods and outcomes, with the aim of presenting this as a model to be used by other anthropologists interested in collaborative heritage practice.
Hidden Transcripts, Contested Landscapes, and Long-Term Indigenous History in Oaxaca, Mexico
In, Decolonizing Indigenous Histories: Exploring Prehistoric/ Colonial Transitions in Archaeology, edited by Maxine Oland, Siobhan M. Hart, and Liam Frink, pp. 230-263. University of Arizona Press, Tucson., 2012
The Archaeology of Colonial Maya Livelihoods at Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico
PhD dissertation, 2019
Farmers rarely feature prominently in accounts of Spanish colonialism. When they do, it is often because they assisted in staging rebellions. However, in Yucatán, Mexico, and elsewhere, the vast majority of the population consisted of farmers, who lived in places with long histories. The everyday decisions that they made about how to support the well-being of their households and communities influenced colonial trajectories. This dissertation tracks common farmers’ livelihood strategies at Tahcabo, Yucatán, throughout the Colonial period as a way of understanding how they negotiated colonial impositions and restrictions. The research presented in this dissertation included interviews with current farmers, site survey, and excavation within residential and garden areas. Interviews provided information about the factors that farmers consider as they make agricultural decisions, and in particular how they use and understand dry sinkholes called rejolladas—landscape features often employed as gardens when located within settlements. The results of excavation within the rejolladas of central Tahcabo demonstrated some consistency in their specialized use through time. Excavations also took place at Colonial period residential areas located near the edges of town, where non-elite or recently arrived farmers lived. Colonial policies enacted violence on rural livelihoods, resulting in food insecurity and inadequate resource access. In particular, they worked to narrow and constrict farming households’ activity portfolios, and encouraged dependence on field agriculture. After forcing many farmers from settlements across the countryside to relocate into designated towns, friars demanded that extended family households break apart into nuclear house lots. Nonetheless, excavation results show that, during the early Colonial period, town residents continued to live in extended family groups and pursued diversified livelihood activities, which included extended hunting and fishing trips. Nuclear family house lots were evident by the middle Colonial period. Heavy demands for commodities imposed as quotas for each adult family member led to activity intensification. Farmers responded to colonial violence through both mobility and place-making—strategies which remained in tension throughout the Colonial period. In short, this project provides new insights into the daily lives and livelihood decisions of ordinary families attempting to survive colonialism in Yucatán, Mexico.