Description
Book SynopsisAn anthropological examination of the globalized discourse of human rights and the local production of cultural identities and forms of resistance in indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico.
Trade Review"This excellent study belongs to the tiny percentage of works emerging out of the 1994 Zapatista rebellion that are actually based on extensive experience and engagement within the indigenous communities of Chiapas . . . This book offers insight for anyone interested in understanding the complexity of the Zapatista struggle for autonomy and getting beyond simplistic assumptions about indigenous and
campesino identities and interests. It is also a valuable and thought-provoking work for scholars examining the concepts of human rights and citizenship in the era of neoliberal globalization, and for anyone concerned with the ethics and epistemology of ethnographic research." -- Richard Stahler-Sholk *
The Americas *
"Her book provides an illustration of the ways in which people mix ideologies and conceptions of collective and individual rights to address political and economic disadvantages in the distinct context of their communities." --
The Law and Politics Book Review"Based upon decade of experience in Chiapas, Mexico, as an activist and anthropological researcher, Speed provides a stimulating, highly readable overview of the challenges of promoting universal human rights in a local context of protracted civil war and indigenous struggle." -- P. R Sullivan *
Choice *
"Shannon Speed takes a clear position as an activist anthropologist, providing valuable insights into how political commitments and participation can complement high quality research. Her work breaks important terrain in legal anthropology." -- Lynn Stephen * author of
Zapatista Lives! and
Transborder Lives *
"Working at the intersections between transnational rights discourses and political, legal, and ethnic movements in Mexico, Shannon Speed elegantly interweaves theoretical analysis, empirical description, historical contextualization, and personal engagement to offer a finely grained ethnography of contemporary events in Chiapas. This work will be a major and enduring contribution." -- Mark Goodale * George Mason University *
Table of ContentsContents List of Figures and Maps Preface: Activist Research in Chiapas xxx Acknowledgments xxx Acronyms and Abbreviations xxx 1 Introduction: Human Rights and Chiapas in the Neoliberal Era 1 2 Global Discourses on the Local Terrain: Grounding Human Rights in Chiapas 000 Chapter Three: "Neither Rights nor Humans": the Vicissitudes of Local Appropriation 000 Chapter Four: Dialogisms, or, On Being and Becoming Indigenous in Nicol s Ruiz 000 Chapter Five: Gendered Intersections: Collective and Individual Rights in Indigenous Women's Experience 000 Chapter Six: Assuming our own Own Defense: Rights, Resistance, and the Law in the Red de Defensores Comunitarios 000 Chapter Seven: "Improving the Paths of Resistance": the Juntas Buen Gobierno and Rights in their Exercise 000 Chapter Eight: Rights in Rebellion: Rethinking Resistance in the Neoliberal Global Order 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000
