Papel de la etnicidad en la sociedad yucateca, El: una continuación del colonialismo interno en el sur de México
Date
2013
Authors
Wick, Allison, author
Carlyon, Jonathan, advisor
Leal, Francisco, committee member
Yarrington, Doug, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
This paper intends to prove that the social inequality within Yucatecan society is just as present today as it was in the colonial time period. Differing from the colonial period, this inequality is not maintained by force or by law, but rather by a strong ideology embedded in the hearts and minds of both the colonizers and the colonized. Due to historical and cultural processes, a stigmatization developed toward the Mayan ethnic group, and an admiration toward the Ladino ethnic group. The result of said processes is the presence of an internal colonialism in the peninsula in which there exists a dominate class (of the ladino population) and an exploited class (of the Mayan population), a relationship supported by an ethnic differentiation ideology. As a consequence, there exists the phenomenon of changing one's ethnic category by changing one's cultural markers in an effort to enjoy the benefits of a higher status. The principle cultural markers examined in this study are: dress, language, and place of residence. The stigmatization of the Mayan ethnic category (which is linked with poverty and backwardness), has resulted in the refusal to speak the Mayan-Yucatec language, the rejection of the traditional dress and a migration from the countryside to urban areas. By leaving behind these cultural markers and adopting those of the dominate population, one changes ethnic categories. However, since ethnicity is a cultural formation, the Yucatecan population utilizes various strategies in relationship to ethnicity in order to play it to their best advantage. For example, the cultural marker of traditional dress of the Mayan woman, the hipil, has two very different meanings according to the context in which it is presented. In a touristic context, it is a symbol of pride and of cultural heritage of the peninsula, but in another context of daily life, the woman who wears it is usually immediately categorized as a poor Mayan who works as a domestic servant. The situation of the Yucatan Peninsula becomes even more apparent when compared to the very different situation of the Mayans of Guatemala. Differing greatly from Guatemala, where there exists an indigenous movement, the population of the Yucatan Peninsula does not want to identify as indigenous. In Guatemala, they utilize cultural markers which are distinctly Mayan-Guatemaltecos in order to identify themselves as members of the indigenous group. The Mayan-Yucatecos try to hide their cultural markers that could place them in a socially inferior group. The stigmatization and as a result, the marginalization, of the Mayans of the Yucatan Peninsula, is evident in the government programs (or lack of programs). The government's negligence towards this group of people is evident in the country's education system and in the high levels of poverty which correlates to the most heavily populated zones of Mayan speakers.
Description
Text in Spanish; title page and abstract in Spanish and English.