Title
Words and Things in Yucatán: Poststructuralism and the Everyday Life of Mayan Multiculturalism
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2011
Publication Title
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Abstract
This article draws on ethnographic examples to examine how rural Maya-speakers in the Mexican state of Yucatán ground the experience of identity politics in quotidian engagements with pre-Hispanic objects and utterances in the Maya language. My argument is intended as a revision of models of critical scholarship that have been influenced by poststructuralism and that place an overwhelming emphasis on discourse as a modality through which politically viable identities are created and performed. Specific examples show how vernacular multiculturalism is shaped by the agency of forms of language use and physical objects that have been a part of local life-worlds long before the popularization of Mayan identity politics. This offers some potentials for collaborative work that have not been fully explored in poststructural critiques of representation.
Volume
17
Issue
1
First Page
63
Last Page
81
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9655.2010.01669.x
ISSN
13590987
Rights
© Royal Anthropological Institute 2011
Recommended Citation
Armstrong-Fumero, Fernando, "Words and Things in Yucatán: Poststructuralism and the Everyday Life of Mayan Multiculturalism" (2011). Anthropology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/ant_facpubs/8
Comments
Archived as published. Open access article