4:45-6:15 p.m., 3201 Hart Hall
"Mayanism: The Resurgence of indigenous intellectualism in Guatemala in the work of Victor Montejo"
Silvia Soto
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: The concept of “transformation of violence” that Jakaltek Mayan scholar Victor Montejo introduces in his work refers to the ability of the Mayan people to rise above the violence that has persecuted them for over 500 years. These transformative processes have shaped the path to what Montejo also calls “Mayan intellectual renaissance” or the new awakening for the Mayan people of Guatemala. Mayan belief systems are guiding this renaissance and their indigenous cosmovision is nurturing this process of revitalization. The histories Montejo weaves in his work resonate with the long trajectory of works of Native writers (Warrior, Bird, Silko, Momaday, Ortiz) and other authors in the field of Native American Studies on such concepts as autonomy, language, oral traditions, and the re-reading of histories. Providing selected comparative association with other Native writers from the U.S., this paper focuses on the work of Montejo, specifically on the resurgence of Mayan intellectualism in Guatemala and the way his work expands on notions of indigenous plurality and meanings of indigenous mobilizations towards indigenous autonomy.
"Lady 9 Grass Transcending Time and Space a Ñuu Dzavui Reflective Perspective: A Revolutionary Potential?"
Rosalba Lopez-Ramirez
Department of Community Development
Abstract: Lady 9 Grass from Ñuu Ndya, presently Chalcatongo, Oaxaca was known as the “keeper of life-death-life” (Jensen E.R.G.N & Jimenez Perez Aurora, 2011, p.266) and the mediator between our world and the world of the ancestors. As a prominent figure in some events of the Nutall Codex, her significance provides us with important elements of the cosmology of Ñuu Dzavui people regarding life-death-life. Therefore, this paper will be centered on reflective personal accounts, events and conversations, some of which I have had with my mother who is originally from Ñuu Ndya, demonstrating how these cosmologies have transcended time and space providing “a counter-discourse to earlier understandings of colonialism and conquest” (Shorter Delgado, 2009) The preservation of Ñuu Ndya cosmologies demostrates a historical and present internal resistance of colonialism but in a capitalist neoglobal context, how are they been challanged and what is the potential for their survival, particularly within generational shifts?
"Diné Butchering in Adahooníłígíí and Leading the Way: Who Lives and How?"
Christine M. Willie (Navajo)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: At the symposium Why the Animal? Queer Animalities, Indigenous Naturecultures, & Critical Race Approaches to Animal Studies, Kim Tallbear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) challenges those in attendance to rethink the relationship constructions between humans and non humans. In “Opening Comments” she specifically highlights the power dynamics that humans have over animals with concerns to life and death. She explains: “I know this is becoming cliché, but I am going to repeat it anyway for there is no better way to say this more concisely: our particular co-constitutions of human and non human matter for who lives and dies in the world, and how.”
Through a comparative photographic analysis of animal butcherings presented in two Diné (Navajo) periodicals, Ádahooníłígíí: The Navajo Language Monthly and Leading the Way: The Wisdom of the Navajo People, this paper will show how relations between humans and animals are not a mere classification of human/non human but rather co-constitute a relationship between diné (people) and dine’ (animals). In addition to this linguistic connection and, by proxy, philosophical consideration of how humans and animals are relatable in life, this paper also explains how traditional Diné butchering practices further reconfigure the cliché presented by Tallbear, demonstrating “who lives and dies in the world, and how” is not what is at stake in this life/death scenario between Diné and dine’; rather, traditional butchering highlights who lives and how. Building from theoretical frameworks such as Diné traditional butchery and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie’s (Diné/Seminole/Muscogee) definitions of visual currencies and visual sovereignty, this paper revisits the photographic presentations of how animals are dismembered in order to address two distinct constructions of relationships between humans and animals: one constructed by scientific worldviews and the other in accordance with Diné ways of sensing the world.
Expanding Universalisms: The Sarayaku Kichwa in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Whitney Jane Larratt-Smith
Department of Anthropology
Abstract: On December 19, 2003, the Kichwa of Sarayaku, an indigenous group in the Ecuadorian Amazon, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights alleging that the Ecuadorian State had violated a number of their rights as guaranteed under the American Convention. The legal case Sarayaku v. Ecuador is now underway in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). Using Michel Foucault’s theory of power, I examine how human rights discourse functions as an apparatus of hegemonic Western liberal ideology, and explore the implications of this for indigenous groups seeking reparations through international legal institutions. I argue that specific representations of the Kichwa way of life are creating multiple worlds in the courtroom, forcing an expansion of the legal norms and accepted frameworks of understanding that shape the IACHR. Drawing from the works of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Gustavo Esteva and others, I demonstrate that the current regime of ‘universal’ human rights, to be genuinely inclusive of all peoples, must break free of its Eurocentric historical roots and expand its epistemological boundaries.
Silvia Soto
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: The concept of “transformation of violence” that Jakaltek Mayan scholar Victor Montejo introduces in his work refers to the ability of the Mayan people to rise above the violence that has persecuted them for over 500 years. These transformative processes have shaped the path to what Montejo also calls “Mayan intellectual renaissance” or the new awakening for the Mayan people of Guatemala. Mayan belief systems are guiding this renaissance and their indigenous cosmovision is nurturing this process of revitalization. The histories Montejo weaves in his work resonate with the long trajectory of works of Native writers (Warrior, Bird, Silko, Momaday, Ortiz) and other authors in the field of Native American Studies on such concepts as autonomy, language, oral traditions, and the re-reading of histories. Providing selected comparative association with other Native writers from the U.S., this paper focuses on the work of Montejo, specifically on the resurgence of Mayan intellectualism in Guatemala and the way his work expands on notions of indigenous plurality and meanings of indigenous mobilizations towards indigenous autonomy.
"Lady 9 Grass Transcending Time and Space a Ñuu Dzavui Reflective Perspective: A Revolutionary Potential?"
Rosalba Lopez-Ramirez
Department of Community Development
Abstract: Lady 9 Grass from Ñuu Ndya, presently Chalcatongo, Oaxaca was known as the “keeper of life-death-life” (Jensen E.R.G.N & Jimenez Perez Aurora, 2011, p.266) and the mediator between our world and the world of the ancestors. As a prominent figure in some events of the Nutall Codex, her significance provides us with important elements of the cosmology of Ñuu Dzavui people regarding life-death-life. Therefore, this paper will be centered on reflective personal accounts, events and conversations, some of which I have had with my mother who is originally from Ñuu Ndya, demonstrating how these cosmologies have transcended time and space providing “a counter-discourse to earlier understandings of colonialism and conquest” (Shorter Delgado, 2009) The preservation of Ñuu Ndya cosmologies demostrates a historical and present internal resistance of colonialism but in a capitalist neoglobal context, how are they been challanged and what is the potential for their survival, particularly within generational shifts?
"Diné Butchering in Adahooníłígíí and Leading the Way: Who Lives and How?"
Christine M. Willie (Navajo)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: At the symposium Why the Animal? Queer Animalities, Indigenous Naturecultures, & Critical Race Approaches to Animal Studies, Kim Tallbear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) challenges those in attendance to rethink the relationship constructions between humans and non humans. In “Opening Comments” she specifically highlights the power dynamics that humans have over animals with concerns to life and death. She explains: “I know this is becoming cliché, but I am going to repeat it anyway for there is no better way to say this more concisely: our particular co-constitutions of human and non human matter for who lives and dies in the world, and how.”
Through a comparative photographic analysis of animal butcherings presented in two Diné (Navajo) periodicals, Ádahooníłígíí: The Navajo Language Monthly and Leading the Way: The Wisdom of the Navajo People, this paper will show how relations between humans and animals are not a mere classification of human/non human but rather co-constitute a relationship between diné (people) and dine’ (animals). In addition to this linguistic connection and, by proxy, philosophical consideration of how humans and animals are relatable in life, this paper also explains how traditional Diné butchering practices further reconfigure the cliché presented by Tallbear, demonstrating “who lives and dies in the world, and how” is not what is at stake in this life/death scenario between Diné and dine’; rather, traditional butchering highlights who lives and how. Building from theoretical frameworks such as Diné traditional butchery and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie’s (Diné/Seminole/Muscogee) definitions of visual currencies and visual sovereignty, this paper revisits the photographic presentations of how animals are dismembered in order to address two distinct constructions of relationships between humans and animals: one constructed by scientific worldviews and the other in accordance with Diné ways of sensing the world.
Expanding Universalisms: The Sarayaku Kichwa in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Whitney Jane Larratt-Smith
Department of Anthropology
Abstract: On December 19, 2003, the Kichwa of Sarayaku, an indigenous group in the Ecuadorian Amazon, filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights alleging that the Ecuadorian State had violated a number of their rights as guaranteed under the American Convention. The legal case Sarayaku v. Ecuador is now underway in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). Using Michel Foucault’s theory of power, I examine how human rights discourse functions as an apparatus of hegemonic Western liberal ideology, and explore the implications of this for indigenous groups seeking reparations through international legal institutions. I argue that specific representations of the Kichwa way of life are creating multiple worlds in the courtroom, forcing an expansion of the legal norms and accepted frameworks of understanding that shape the IACHR. Drawing from the works of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Gustavo Esteva and others, I demonstrate that the current regime of ‘universal’ human rights, to be genuinely inclusive of all peoples, must break free of its Eurocentric historical roots and expand its epistemological boundaries.