The Spatiality of Boundary Work: Geopolitical Borders and Maya-Mam Collective Identification

• In Event: 529 - Regular Session. Transnational Communities, Borders, and Social Boundaries

Abstract

Many indigenous peoples in Latin America span state borders. These contemporary state borders are imposed over territories that initially belonged to the indigenous. However, little research has addressed how such indigenous peoples identify in relation to state borders. How does collective identification of peoples who span geopolitical borders align with and diverge from those borders? And what might these different alignments and divergences mean for the potential realization of indigenous cross-border nations? This article addresses this issue by analyzing how the Mam, an indigenous people divided by the Guatemala-Mexico border, identify collectively. In particular, we focus on how Mam collective identification in Guatemala aligns with and diverges from Guatemala’s political administrative boundaries and its border with Mexico. We expand upon existing sociological literature on “boundary work” as it relates to the construction of collective identities by demonstrating that the boundary work entailed by processes of indigenous identification takes place in relation to spatial, and not just symbolic, boundaries. We demonstrate that boundary work integrates the spatial with the symbolic; the two are co-constituting. Boundary work among the Mam entails defining boundaries that in some cases sustain state geopolitical borders (such as political-administrative divisions within Guatemala or even Guatemala’s border with Mexico) and conflict with them in others. We also show that Mam identity is fluid and flexible, and suggest that this character enhances the potential for a Mam cross-border nation building project to gain wider acceptance among the Mam as well as vis-à-vis state actors.

Authors

• Jeffrey Adrian Gardner, University of Georgia

• Patricia Richards, University of Georgia