Beyond Alterity: Destabilizing the Indigenous Other in Mexico

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Description

The concept of “indigenous” has been entwined with notions of exoticism and alterity during Mexico’s history. In Beyond Alterity, authors from across disciplines question the persistent association between indigenous people and radical difference, and demonstrate that alterity is regularly the product of specific political contexts.

Although previous studies have on a regular basis focused on the most visible ­aspects of differences—cosmovision, language, customs, resistance—the contributors to this volume show that emphasizing difference prevents researchers from seeing the entire social phenomena where alterity isn’t obvious. Those phenomena are equally or even more constitutive of social life and include property relations (especially individual or private ones), participation in national projects, and the usage of national languages.

The category of “indigenous” has commonly been used as if it were an objective term referring to an already given social subject. Beyond Alterity shows how this usage overlooks the truth that the social markers of differentiation (language, race or ethnic group, phenotype) are historical and subsequently unstable. In opposition to any reification of geographical, cultural, or social boundaries, this volume shows that people who (self-)identify as indigenous share a multitude of practices with the remainder of society and that the association between indigenous identification and alterity is the product of a specific political history.

Beyond Alterity is very important reading for anyone interested in understanding indigenous identity, race, and Mexican history and politics.

 

Contributors

 

Ariadna Acevedo-Rodrigo

Laura Cházaro

Michael T. Ducey

Paul K. Eiss

José Luis Escalona-Victoria

Vivette García Deister

Peter Guardino

Emilio Kourí

Paula López Caballero

Elsie Rockwell

Diana Lynn Schwartz

Gabriela Torres-Mazuera

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