Faces of Resistance
272 pages, 6 x 9
2 B&W figures - 1 map
Hardcover
Release Date:26 Jun 2018
ISBN:9780817319878
Faces of Resistance
Maya Heroes, Power, and Identity
Edited by S. Ashley Kistler
University of Alabama Press
Fosters a holistic understanding of the roles of Maya heroic figures as cornerstones of cultural identity and political resistance and power
In the sixteenth century, Q’eqchi’ Maya leader Aj Poop B’atz’ changed the course of Q’eqchi’ history by welcoming Spanish invaders to his community in peace to protect his people from almost certain violence. Today, he is revered as a powerful symbol of Q’eqchi’ identity. Aj Poop B’atz’ is only one of many indigenous heroes who has been recognized by Maya in Mexico and Guatemala throughout centuries of subjugation, oppression, and state-sponsored violence.
Faces of Resistance: Maya Heroes, Power, and Identity explores the importance of heroes through the analyses of heroic figures, some controversial and alternative, from the Maya area. Contributors examine stories of hero figures as a primary way through which Maya preserve public memory, fortify their identities, and legitimize their place in their country’s historical and political landscape. Leading anthropologists, linguists, historians, and others incorporate ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archival material into their chapters, resulting in a uniquely interdisciplinary book for scholars as well as students.
The essays offer the first critical survey of the broad significance of these figures and their stories and the ways that they have been appropriated by national governments to impose repressive political agendas. Related themes include the role of heroic figures in the Maya resurgence movement in Guatemala, contemporary Maya concepts of “hero,” and why some assert that all contemporary Maya are heroes.
In the sixteenth century, Q’eqchi’ Maya leader Aj Poop B’atz’ changed the course of Q’eqchi’ history by welcoming Spanish invaders to his community in peace to protect his people from almost certain violence. Today, he is revered as a powerful symbol of Q’eqchi’ identity. Aj Poop B’atz’ is only one of many indigenous heroes who has been recognized by Maya in Mexico and Guatemala throughout centuries of subjugation, oppression, and state-sponsored violence.
Faces of Resistance: Maya Heroes, Power, and Identity explores the importance of heroes through the analyses of heroic figures, some controversial and alternative, from the Maya area. Contributors examine stories of hero figures as a primary way through which Maya preserve public memory, fortify their identities, and legitimize their place in their country’s historical and political landscape. Leading anthropologists, linguists, historians, and others incorporate ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archival material into their chapters, resulting in a uniquely interdisciplinary book for scholars as well as students.
The essays offer the first critical survey of the broad significance of these figures and their stories and the ways that they have been appropriated by national governments to impose repressive political agendas. Related themes include the role of heroic figures in the Maya resurgence movement in Guatemala, contemporary Maya concepts of “hero,” and why some assert that all contemporary Maya are heroes.
The individual chapters of this volume would be excellent for undergraduate classroom use in a wide variety of contexts, including history, anthropology, and public health. Taken as a whole, they represent some of the finest work in the Anglophone academy especially on Guatemalan history from a Maya point of view.’
—Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute
‘Faces of Resistance adopts an original approach to explore the politics and history of indigenous activism and identity in the Maya area. It offers a significant contribution to the field, in particular the impact of little known or under-represented people from a range of historical and contemporary settings.’
—Arturo Arias, author of Taking Their Word: Literature and the Signs of Central America
The volume will be valuable for area specialists, especially those whose courses tackle coloniality and need accessible scholarship and detailed case studies for undergraduate audiences. This volume would work well in a topical course on critical indigeneity in settler-colonial states.’
—Journal of Anthropological Research
‘Faces of Resistance: Maya Heroes, Power, and Identity, edited by S. Ashley Kistler, provides a colorful kaleidoscope of the many different kinds of heroic transfigurations when we understand each contribution as an example for many other similar cases within their national or local contexts. It is a valuable contribution to the ongoing research debate on heroes in collective memory because previous studies are mainly based on literature, cinema/film, and other forms of popular culture (e. g., lucha libre in Mexico), while the authors here worked predominantly with ethnographic data based on interviews and participant observation.’
—Anthropos
S. Ashley Kistler is associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Rollins College. She serves as reviews editor for the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology and is the author of Maya Market Women: Power and Tradition in San Juan Chamelco, Guatemala.
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