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Indigenous Peoples’ Day: New Universities for a Multicultural Mexico

Published on August 10, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, indigenous people / minorities, Latin- and Central America, Native American

IPS

– Seven intercultural universities in Mexico are going a long way towards preserving the historical and cultural roots of the country’s indigenous community, which comprises more than 10 percent of the country’s 106 million people. The universities are dedicated to promoting alternatives for the development and integration of Mexico’s 62 native ethnic groups. One is the new intercultural university in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas, where the Zapatista guerrillas staged an uprising in January 1994. >> continue

IPS

- Seven intercultural universities in Mexico are going a long way towards preserving the historical and cultural roots of the country's indigenous community, which comprises more than 10 percent of the country's 106 million people. The universities are dedicated to…

Islam Is Gaining a Foothold in Chiapas / Red Alert in Chiapas

Published on June 21, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, Latin- and Central America, Native American, politics, religion cosmology

Der Spiegel

Long a bastion of Catholicism, southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers. Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting by the hundreds. “In Islam, race plays no role,” Anastasio Gomez, a Tzotzil Mayan from Mexico, says joyously. His enthusiasm is understandable. After all, in his home state of Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest, the indigenous people are viewed as second class humans, and whites and Mestizos treat the Indian majority as if they weren’t there.

“They see themselves as restorers of Islam,” says the anthropologist Gaspar Morquecho, author of a study of the Muslims of Chiapas. “Their defiance of capitalism is similar in many respects to the critique of globalization espoused by many left-wingers.”

“In Islam, the Indians rediscover their original values,” claims Esteban Lopez, the Spanish secretary general of the Muslim community. “The Christians destroyed their culture.” >> continue

Disney-Film depicts indigenous people as involved in cannibalism

Published on March 2, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, Latin- and Central America, media, Native American, persons and theories, Us and Them

IPS

The producers of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” are eagerly gearing up to film the sequels. But the project, due to be released on Jul. 7, 2006, is already proving to be a problem, as the descendants of the Caribs, historians and others are objecting to scenes depicting these indigenous people as involved in cannibalism.

Brinsley Samaroo, head of the history department of the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), dismisses the claim of cannibalism as a “European myth”. He told IPS that it was nothing but “manufactured history” by the Europeans who came across the Caniba, a tribe found in North and South America. “The Caniba tribe was very hostile and resisting the Europeans very stoutly and in order to warn other Europeans about this, the early explorers spread the myth that the Caniba tribe eat people,” he said.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Historical and Archaeological Society has called on movie-goers to boycott the sequel unless the “grossly offensive” scenes depicting the Caribs as cannibals are removed from the script. >> continue

In the IPS-article, there’s also an link to a Brief history of cannibal controversies

SEE ALSO:
We do not eat people (Trinidad News)

UPDATE: More news on this controversy at warauduati, among others Boycott Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean and Racist Stereotypes in Pirates of the Caribbean

IPS

The producers of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" are eagerly gearing up to film the sequels. But the project, due to be released on Jul. 7, 2006, is already proving to be a problem, as…

UPDATED – The future lies behind: How languages reflect our conception of time

Published on February 27, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, language, Latin- and Central America, media, Native American

Laura Spinney, The Guardian

For the Aymara people living in the Andes, the past lies ahead and the future lies behind. The Aymara word for past is transcribed as nayra , which literally means eye, sight or front. The word for future is q”ipa , which translates as behind or the back. Over the years, rumours have surfaced of similar strangeness in other languages.

The researcher is Rafael Núñez, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego. With his collaborator, linguist Eve Sweetser, he will publish his findings later this year.

“This Aymara finding is big news,” says Vyvyan Evans, a theoretical cognitive linguist at the University of Sussex. “It is the first really well-documented example of the future and past being structured in a totally different way from lots of other languages, including English.” >> continue

UPDATE (28.2.05):
Anthropologist Kerim Friedman writes “I can’t understand the fuss being made over the Aymara people living in the Andes who supposedly have a unique spacial conception of time. My guess is that this is simply another example of reporters mangling academic research in order to make the story more exciting.” >> continue

Laura Spinney, The Guardian

Mexico: Pride in Indigenous Heritage – Literally a Thing of the Past

Published on September 18, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, Latin- and Central America, Native American

IPS News Service

Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology and History (MNAH), one of the ten most important institutions of its kind in the world, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with cocktail receptions and new exhibitions. Sadly, however, there is little to celebrate for the impoverished descendants of the peoples whose cultures are proudly preserved in the museum’s halls.

The director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Sergio Raúl Arroyo, said that the MNAH has succeeded “in crafting an extraordinary bridge between the past and present, allowing us to reshape our idea of what cultural diversity means.” But in Mexico today, cultural diversity is not marked by respect, but rather by the discrimination of some groups against others, according to historian Lorenzo Meyer.

“It’s really paradoxical,” U.S. anthropologist Teo Martens told IPS. “The museum showcases the greatness of Mexican indigenous cultures, and on the street outside you see the miserable conditions they live in.” >> continue

IPS News Service

Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and History (MNAH), one of the ten most important institutions of its kind in the world, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with cocktail receptions and new exhibitions. Sadly, however, there is little to…