Development from Within: Agroecology and the Quest for Utziil K'asleem in the Maya-Achí Territory of Guatemala

Einbinder, Nathan; Morales, Helda

doi:10.1353/lag.2020.0074

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…At present, development strategies are often sensitive to Mayan culture and support economic autonomy and endogenous development, but still struggle to overcome local factionalism (Porcuna-Ferrer et al 2020). Despite many challenges, some initiatives have remarkable success in engaging different religious factions within the community and reconciling different worldviews (Einbinder and Morales 2020). Alliance building requires generating the right settings for people to weave their different voices into a coherent development narrative.…”

Section: Final Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution

Etten

2022

Agric Hum Values

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The Green Revolution still exerts an important influence on agricultural policy as a technology-centred development strategy. A main policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution was first expounded in Transforming Traditional Agriculture (TTA), a book published in 1964 by Nobel Prize-winning economist Ted Schultz. He famously argued that traditional farmers were ‘poor but efficient’. As farmers responded to economic incentives, technology-driven strategies would transform traditional agriculture into an engine of economic growth. Schultz relied on published ethnographic data and his own calculations to construct this policy narrative. My reanalysis of TTA focuses on its main case study, Panajachel, a village in Guatemala. I follow a narrative approach, evaluating whether Schultz’s story relates a plausible account of agricultural development in Panajachel and its region. I show how Schultz deliberately tried to hide that Mayan farmers in Panajachel were not challenged in technological terms and were able to reach relatively high economic returns. His interpretation of the Guatemalan rural economy ignored ethnic tensions dominating market exchange, a main barrier for agricultural development. I evaluate Schultz’s narrative further by tracing the subsequent evolution of Panajachel and its wider region. High-input strategies had to address ethnic barriers and change agents became embroiled in violent conflict along ethnic lines. Assessing the adequacy of Schultz’s contribution, from a narrative approach, shows how he ‘got the story wrong’ and that the Green Revolution policy narrative has an excessively narrow intellectual basis. New narratives should reserve a much more important place for institutional change in agricultural development.

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Section: Final Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution

Etten

2022

Agric Hum Values

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Well‐being in the context of Indigenous heritage management: A Hach Winik perspective from Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico

Hernandez,

Valenzuela Gómez

2024

Economic Anthropology

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In this article, we examine what local well‐being means in the contexts of collaborative heritage management and national development in Mexico. Driven by the request of Lacandon Mayas (including the second author) who live in Puerto Bello Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico, in 2018, we engaged in archeological consolidation and heritage management to promote local tourism and sustainable economic development. This collaboration raised a series of ethical and practical questions of how to engage with the Eurocentric project of development. Addressing these issues has become critical, as the Mexican president's signature infrastructure project, Tren Maya (Maya Train), is designed to promote nationwide development via increased cultural heritage tourism in Chiapas and southern Mexico. Through critical reflection on experiences with Metzabok community members, we address Eurocentrism and colonialism by enacting a Lacandon (i.e., Hach Winik) buen vivir. This form of well‐being is relational and communal and creates a common good that includes more‐than‐humans. Via this critical perspective, we argue that a decolonial project can use the tools of development as an initial step in creating Indigenous well‐being.

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Agroecology from the ground up: a critical analysis of sustainable soil management in the highlands of Guatemala

et al. 2022

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Development from Within: Agroecology and the Quest for Utziil K'asleem in the Maya-Achí Territory of Guatemala

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution

Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution

Well‐being in the context of Indigenous heritage management: A Hach Winik perspective from Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico

Agroecology from the ground up: a critical analysis of sustainable soil management in the highlands of Guatemala

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