There is no such thing as a ‘true’ Indian
24 april 2008
More and more mayors in Guatemala have Indian roots. Researcher Elisabet Rasch studied the importance of this development, and discovered that creating a multicultural democracy involves much more than simply electing Indian mayors and presidents. The difficulties stem from the wide range of different interpretations of identity: there is no such thing as a ‘true’ Indian. Rasch will receive her doctorate from Utrecht University on 9 May.
Indigenous movements portray the Indian population as unchanging and authentic, in order to demand various political and cultural rights. They refer to international treaties and national legislation that also use rigid definitions of ‘indigenousness’. Yet is it possible to determine who is and who is not an Indian? And can it then be determined how a multicultural democracy should be structured?
Rasch studied how various indigenous identities and cultures are defined and interpreted at the local level, what goes on behind the treaties, the laws, the pretty speeches and the shiny folders. She demonstrates how local authorities and politicians interpret marks of indigenousness in different and sometimes contradictory ways, such as wearing certain clothes, speaking an indigenous language or participating in Indian spiritual ceremonies. For some people, these elements of the indigenous culture are all but sacred, while for others they represent underdevelopment and backwardness. Nevertheless, all those people consider themselves to be indigenous, and they all have their own ideas about how an indigenous multicultural democracy should be organised. This causes conflicts between mayors, traditional Indian authorities (such as councils of elders) and community judges, and in one of the villages where Rasch conducted field research even led to the abolition of one of the traditional authorities.
On 29 December 1996, after 36 years of civil war, a peace treaty was signed between the Guatemalan government and the armed opposition. Since these peace agreements, Guatemala has been transformed from a homogenous nation state into a society that calls itself ‘multicultural’. Two actors continue to play an important role in this process. On the one hand there are an increasing number of indigenous mayors who choose whether or not to allow their Mayan identity to influence their governing practice. At the same time, the indigenous Maya Movement tries to contribute to the building of a multicultural democracy. The Maya Movement’s mission is the social and political integration of the indigenous population in Guatemalan society, based on Mayan identity. It focuses on active political participation being part of their universal and ethnic civil rights.
For further information please contact:
Elisabet Rasch (University of Utrecht) t: +31 30 253 1064 e.d.rasch@uu.nl
The doctoral thesis will be defended on 9 May 2008
Supervisor: Prof. D.A.N.M. Kruijt, associate supervisor: Dr C.G. Koonings
