Human Rights in the Maya Region

“The notion of ‘universal human rights’ has had a checkered career over the past sixty years. Touted by some as one of the most effective tools for the empowerment and liberation of women and the poor in the so-called third world, it is denounced by others as a self-serving cultural imposition on the part of the Western world. Human Rights in the Maya Region takes us well beyond these extreme positions. By focusing on an exemplary case—the diverse experiences of the Mayan peoples of Chiapas and Guatemala—and never belittling the existing power asymmetries or the complexities of cultural translation, this coherent and well-grounded volume enlightens us on the multiple ways in which local groups make effective use of rights discourses on the basis of their distinct conceptions of persons and the world. At a more general level, the volume offers a nuanced and compelling explanation of the conjunctures of culture, rights, and power that are at play whenever ‘rights’ are deployed anywhere in the world. The volume will be of great value to those interested in human rights, indigenous peoples, social movements, traditional law, and the cultural-political dynamics of globalization.”—Arturo Escobar, author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes

“This is an important book. It brings together in one place state-of-the-art pieces by the scholars and scholar-activists who have made—and are making—the Maya area, especially Chiapas and Guatemala, one of the leading regions in the world for the theory and practice of indigenous human rights advocacy.”—Jan Rus III, coeditor of Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias: The Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas and the Zapatista Rebellion