Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Colonialism, Rights-Based Thinking, and the Evolution of Yucatec Maya Relationships with Their Homeland Since European Contact

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Indigenous Geographies in the Yucatan

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Geography ((BRIEFSGEOGRAPHY))

  • 151 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, I start with a brief discussion on the historical trajectory of the Western concept of rights (and its shift in interpretations and meanings from tyrannical to democratic societies) and explain how our current understanding of Indigenous rights stems from colonial histories and legacies. Then, I provide a geographical and climatic profile of the Yucatan, as well as a brief history of the Yucatec Maya from their first encounters with the Spanish to colonial times, and post-independence Mexico until today, which gives the reader an insight into the evolution of relationships between the Maya and settler governments on traditional Maya territories. This background information is necessary to contextualize my research project on the Maya environmental ethos currently lived and practised in Xuilub.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alfred T, Corntassel J (2005) Being indigenous: resurgences against contemporary colonialism. Govern Opposit 40(4):597–614

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anaya SJ (2004) Indigenous peoples in international law. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson EN (2005) Political ecology in a Yucatec Maya community. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson EN, Medina Tzuc F (2005) Animals and the Maya in Southeast Mexico. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • Antochiw W (1999) Mitos y leyendas de los cenotes de Yucatan. In: del estado de Yucatan G (ed) Cenotes y Grutas de Yucatan, pp 16–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrera-Bassols N, Toledo VM (2005) Ethnoecology of the Yucatec Maya: symbolism, knowledge and management of natural resources. J Lat Am Geogr 4(1):9–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benitez F (1985) Lazaro Cardenas y la revolucion Mexicana, III: El Cardenismo. Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico

    Google Scholar 

  • Blunt A, McEwan C (eds) (2003) Postcolonial geographies. Continuum International Publishing Group, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown DF (2007) The spatial and temporal dimensions of rural landscape: the Yucatec Maya k’ax. Can Geogr 51(1):91–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown DF (2013) Tourists as colonizers in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Can Geograph 57(2):186–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clenninden I (1993) Ambivalent conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517–1570. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Curry S (2004) Indigenous sovereignty and the democratic project. Ashgate, Farnham

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtis JH, Hodell DA, Brenner M (1996) Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution. Quat Res 46(1):37–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlin BH (1990) Climate and prehistory on the Yucatan peninsula. Clim Chang 5(3):245–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diemont SA, Bohn JL, Rayome DD, Kelsen SJ, Cheng K (2011) Comparisons of Maya forest management, restoration, and conservation. For Ecol Manag 261(10):1696–1705

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dumond DE (1985) The talking crosses of Yucatan: a new look at their history. Ethnohistory 32(4):291–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farriss NM (1984) Maya society under colonial rule: the collective enterprise of survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Faust B, Bilsborrow R (2000) Maya culture, population, and the environment on the Yucatan Peninsula (research report). Int Inst Appl Syst Anal 14:73–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabbert W (2004) Becoming Maya: ethnicity and social inequality in Yucatán since 1500. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Frapolli E, Ayala-Orozco B, Bonilla-Moheno M, Espadas-Manrique C, Ramos-Fernández G (2007) Biodiversity conservation, traditional agriculture and ecotourism: land cover/land use change projections for a natural protected area in the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Landsc Urban Plan 83(2–3):137–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomez Hernández A (2005) La asamblea ejidal: diferenciación social y estrategias de poder en una localidad tojolabal (Master’s thesis). Centro de Estudios Superiores de México y Centroamérica, Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, México

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez-Pompa A, Allen MF, Fedick SL, Jimenez-Osornio JJ (2003) The Lowland Maya area: three millennia at the human-wildland interface. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard Jackson R (1999) Race, caste and status: Indians in colonial Spanish America. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt L (1996) The French revolution and human rights: a brief documentary history. Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, Boston/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • INEGI Mexico (2010) La Población Hablante de Lengua Indígena en Yucatán. Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática, Aguascalientes

    Google Scholar 

  • Keal P (2003) European conquest and the rights of indigenous peoples: the moral backwardness of international society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kicza JE, Horn R (2016) Resilient cultures: America’s native peoples confront European colonialization 1500–1800. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kirk CR (1982) Haciendas en Yucatan. Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Mexico

    Google Scholar 

  • Louis RP (2007) Can you hear us now? Voices from the margin: using indigenous methodologies in geographic research. Geogr Res 45(2):130–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacSwiney MC, Vilchis P, Clarke FM, Racey PA (2007) The importance of cenotes in conserving bat assemblages in the Yucatan, Mexico. Biol Conserv 136(4):499–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markiewicz D (1993) The Mexican revolution and the limits of agrarian reform, 1915–1946. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Balleste A, Martorell C, Caballero J (2008) The effect of Maya traditional harvesting on the leaf production, and demographic parameters of sabal palm in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. For Ecol Manag 256(6):1320–1324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medin T (1997) Ideología y praxis política de Lázaro Cárdenas. Siglo XXI, México

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro PG, Melo Zurita MDL (2011) The role of cenotes in the social history of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Environ Hist 17(4):583–612

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patch RW (1976) La formación de estancias y haciendas en Yucatán durante la colonia. Boletín de la Escuela de Ciencias Antropológicas de la Universidad de Yucatán 19:21–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Patch RW (1994) Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan: 1648–1812. Stanford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Preus A (2005) Did the ancient Greeks have a concept of human rights? Int J Decis Ethics I.2:43–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramírez-Barajas PJ, Torrescano-Valle N, Tecpa-Jiménez A, Vázquez-Rodríguez J (2001) Importancia y uso del entorno natural en una comunidad indígena maya (Petcacab, Quintana Roo, México). Revista Especializada en Ciencias Químico-Biológicas 4:61–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed NA (2001) The caste war of Yucatan. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Remmers GGA, De Koeijer H (1992) The T’OLCHE’, a Maya system of communally managed forest belts: the causes and consequences of its disappearance. Agrofor Syst 18(2):149–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rivero PP (1999) La comunidad domestica de la hacienda henequenera de Yucatan, Mexico. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 15(1):1–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau JJ (1999) Oxford’s world classics: discourse on the origin of inequality. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugeley T (1996) Yucatan’s Maya peasantry and the origins of the caste war. University of Texas Press, Austin

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DA, Herlihy PH, Kelly JH, Viera AR (2009) The certification and privatization of indigenous lands in Mexico. J Lat Am Geogr 8(2):175–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sosa PB (1988) Haciendas y ganado en el noroeste de Yucatan. Hist Mex 37(4):613–639

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoner Chamberlain R (1966) The conquest and colonization of the Yucatan, 1517–1550. Octagon Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweetwood RV, Terry RE, Beach T, Dahlin BH, Hixson D (2009) The Maya footprint: soil resources of Chunchucmil, Yucatán, México. Soil Sci Soc Am J 73(4):1209–1220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toledo VM, Ortiz-Espejel B, Cortés L, Moguel P, Ordoñez MDJ (2003) The multiple use of tropical forests by indigenous peoples in Mexico: a case of adaptive management. Conserv Ecol 7(3):9

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuhiwai Smith L (1999) Imperialism, history, writing, and theory. In: Decolonizing methodologies. Zed Press, New York and London, pp 19–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren KB, Jackson JE (2003) Indigenous movements, self-representation, and the state in Latin America. University of Texas Press, Austin

    Google Scholar 

  • Watanabe JM (1990) From saints to shibboleths: image, structure, and identity in Maya religious syncretism. Am Ethnol 17(1):131–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EM (1980) Physical geography of the Yucatan Peninsula. In: Moseley EH, Terry ED (eds) Yucatan: a world apart. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, pp 5–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Wootton D (2003) Divine right and democracy: an anthropology of political writing in Stuart England. Hacket Publishing Company, Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Yashar DJ (1998) Contesting citizenship: indigenous movements and democracy in Latin America. Comp Polit 31(1):23–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yashar DJ (1999) Democracy, indigenous movements, and postliberal challenge in Latin America. World Polit 52(1):76–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yashar DJ (2005) Contesting citizenship in Latin America: the rise of indigenous movements. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Miguel Sioui

Authors
  1. Miguel Sioui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sioui, M. (2020). Colonialism, Rights-Based Thinking, and the Evolution of Yucatec Maya Relationships with Their Homeland Since European Contact. In: Indigenous Geographies in the Yucatan. SpringerBriefs in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60399-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60399-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-60398-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-60399-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation