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Mayan People Within and Beyond Boundaries explores the Maya of Yucatan, the Maya of academic institutions and the Maya of the tourist industry. It examines the interplay between the local and the external, academic categories of the Maya, and seeks to transcend the paradoxical and incongruent relationship between the social spaces that breathe life into the categories. The notion of "shared social experience" is introduced to embody a focus on reflexivity that goes beyond the subjective position of the author and helps demystify the coexisting subjectivities characteristic of ethnographic fieldwork. It provides a basis for overcoming the exclusive focus on "author," " text," and "discourse" in contemporary postmodernist ethnography, while still conveying important ethnographic information.
List of contents
List of Figures List of Maps List of Illustrations List of National Geographic Plates List of Tables Preface 1. 1. The People of Oxkutzcab, Yucatan 2. Social Categories in Yucatan 3. External Constructions of the Maya 4. Maya and Mestizo : Two Different Worlds 5. Learning to be Indian : New Ethnic and Cultural Identities in Oxkutzcab 6. Voices In and About Popular Religion: The Competing Constructions of Participants and Authorities 7. Shared Social Experience and Co-developing Reflexivities 8. Conclusion Bibliography Index
About the author
Peter Hervik has a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and has taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Currently he is researching the Danish response to emerging multiculturalism. Hervik is the Editor of Folk-theJournal of the Danish Ethnographic Society.
Summary
This work explores the Maya of Yucatan, of academic institutions and the Maya tourist industry. It examines the interplay between the local and the external, academic categories of the Maya, and seeks to transcend the relationship between the social spaces that breathe life into the categories.
