Ethnography Analysis for: Pluralizing Ethnography
By:Yuxing Wang
Pluralizing Ethnography, edited by John
M. Watanabe and Edward F. Fischer, was published in 2004 by the SAR Press. This
Ethnography focuses on the comparison and representation in Maya cultures,
histories and identities, through a wide time span of 500 years[2]. The
volume consists of ten essays, with a total page count of three hundred and
seventy pages. This ethnography had challenged the generic works of ethnography
pieces as being overly insular and homogenizing. In fact, this Ethnography is
the master piece of nine anthropologists, five working in Mexico and four working
in highland Guatemala, and an addition of a non-Mesoamerican discussant, at an
advanced seminar sponsored by the School of American Research in Oct 2000[1].
This seminar was named “Culture Theory
and Cross-Cultural Comparison: Maya Culture and History in a Multicultural
World”. This Seminar assessed the contrasting historical circumstances and
emerging cultural futures of Maya people in Mexico and Guatemala[1].
This ethnography consists of researches and comments from contemporary Maya
cultural activists with an enduring sense of Mayan-ness from a historical
consciousness of five hundred years of cultural resilience. The participants
are focused on the history of Maya people and Maya anthropology by examine
different aspects of the Mayans, this include their language, religion,
political attitudes and activism, ethnographic traditions, and the relationship
between economic change, migration, and cultural identity. The participants
also focus extensively on the differences of the Maya people located between
Mexico and Guatemala. They put emphasizes on culture recovers and intermediate
linkages between the personal and the political, the local and the global among
the Mayan populations. These controlled comparison across national boundaries
and histories, result in showing the articulation between locally constructed
meanings and global transformations for the Mayan people[2].
The ethnography consists of ten essays
from the participants of the seminar. The similarity between the essays is that
they all cover a broad content under the researched topics with specific events
and dates ranging through the five hundred year span for the Maya race as
supporting evidences and examples. They concentrate on the continuities and
discontinuities of cultural and linguistic studies and identity. They mark and
highlight on the development and evolvements through the pre-colonial period to
contemporary times[3]. They also compare histories and predict emerging
cultural futures between Mayans located in different nations whose experiences differ
because of their residing communities, despite of their common ethnic
identities. Many Mayans, as mentioned in the ethnography, have struggles to
correctly identify them to a particular culture. This is due to the vast amount
of cultures presenting in the Mayan regions through history. Many of the Mayan
lines have introduced to other races. Thus, many of the Mayans identify themselves
to the local communities which they live rather than the general Mayan race.
However, this ethnography was not intended to dig through the Maya society in
trying to find a pure Mayan blood line, but rather to investigate the
integrations and evolvements of the Mayan and other races. The ethnography
focus on how the Mayans adapt and accommodate the changes, such as political
changes and uprises through the course of history, and how they identify themselves
within the massive concentration of different cultures.
This non-fiction ethnography was
difficult for me to read since I had a very limited knowledge base about the
Mayan culture. I had to do many researches on particular terms and events
mentioned in the essays. Through the whole of Chapter two, which is about the
history of the Mayans, the author used many of the names of the different races
and political events without really describing them in details. Thus it was
very difficult for me to understand. I think the intended audiences of this
ethnography are higher level students, or people who specialize in Mayan
studies with a moderate knowledge of the Mayan culture. The descriptions and
comments of each event were described in moderate details. There weren’t many
arguments from the book. I think the authors are trying to document things
rather than providing personal opinions or ideas. The tones of the authors are generally
neutral in an attempt to avoid biasness or misjudgments. However they do tend
to get boring after a while of reading because the essay just generally describes
the events and their affects. Since this is a non-fiction work, I felt like I
was reading a text book. There were no plots, no ups and downs and no climax. Therefore
it was a rather boring reading. However, it may be intriguing to people who are
of the Mayan descent or has a great interest in the Mayas. The book has a lot
of information and a great reference data base.
I would definitely recommend this book to
people who specialize in the Maya culture, or has a great interest in learning
it. I think it covers almost all of the major events that have happened to the
Mayas. The book is well constructed, many of the essays has an outline before
the body of the essays to clarify the points that are going to be mentioned in
the essay. The book is none biased, and provides a great deal of information
and also a great data base. The index in the back of the book helps the reader to
easily and quickly find a specific event or topic that they are interested.
There is also a well-organized reference section with many book sources
relating to the Maya culture.
In conclusion, this ethnography is a
detailed reading of the changes and accommodations of the Maya culture through
the past five hundred years. This book covers a vast amount of information of
the Maya, and is the concentrated masterpiece of ten bright minds. The amount
of information provided by the book impressed me the most, I feel that each of
the essays provide the best works of the authors. The points made by the authors
are precise and direct. Since the authors all had to include and highlight only
the most important information they want to include in their essays. There weren’t
extra information that I thought was useless. Everything is pretty much short
and sweet, and this is what I liked about the essays.
References:
[1] Watanabe, John M. and Edward F.Fishcher. Pluralizing Ethnography. United State of
America. School of American Research
Press. SAR Press (2004). Print.
[2] Edward F.
Fischer. Pluralizing Ethnography.
Professor of Anthropology, Director, Center for Latin American Studies. Web.
Jun 15, 2012. <http://www.tedfischer.org/pluralizing-ethnography/
>
[3] University
of Alberta Library. Pluralizing
Ethnography Summery. University
of Alberta Rutherford-Humanities & Social Science. Web. Jun 15,2012.<http://web.sirsitest.library.ualberta.ca/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/57/123/X?user_id=WUAARCHIVE&_search_ui=ilink>
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