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Abstract
The 1994 rebellion of the Neo-Zapatistas in Chiapas came as a surprise to many foreign countries. It is, however, only the most spectacular event in a series of events that have their roots in social and ethnic tensions in the southernmost state of Mexico.
The perspective of this book focuses on the local oral history of one Tzotzil Maya community – San Andrés Larraínzar and the expulsion of the several non-indigenous families from this community in 1974. As such it provides important information about the general situation in the area, making the more recent events better understandable.
The research is based on several years of ethnographic work in the community of San Andrés Larraínzar. During this time the author collected narratives about the event under investigation of both Tzotzil Maya and Ladinos, who used to live (or still do live) in the community. These accounts were cross-examined by the way of archival work in local, regional and national archives.
The book consists of three parts: part one analyzes a narration of a Tzotzil Maya man with respect to its’ formal structure of pauses, intonation, style, exploring furthermore the discursive practices of framing, conversational inferences used to create a particular linguistic event. Part two describes some central aspects such as ethnicity, class in general and more specifically as they relate to the community and the event under study. This leads to an ethnographic description of the community. Part three finally brings the different narrations together describing the formation of histories through linguistic mechanisms. Here the authors draws on examples from the different narrations collected to show how each group reports a partial version of the story creating such very different historical events.
For a book review in English, see American Ethnologist 2000
Book review
(forthcoming, in Spanish)
Book cover