The aim of this doctoral thesis is
to contribute to a better understanding of the issue of ethnic identity
of the Zapotecs in the Sierra Norte of the Mexican State of Oaxaca, and
to contribute to an indigenous criticism aiming at decolonizing
cultural memories and social realities in México and the Americas. In
discussing the reality of a specific indigenous people today, we are
confronted with important questions, not only: ¿Who are the Zapotecs in
the Sierra Norte of the Mexican State of Oaxaca, what are their
characteristics?, but also How do they represent themselves and
construct their cultural identity in their own terms? How do the
processes of identity formation take place within a context of imposed
and stigmatized ‘alterity’? How are forms of ethnic representation
created and recreated in a situation of coloniality and social
inequality? How is ethnic identity constructed in a framework of
modernity and globalization: which role do cultural memory and worldview
play in this?LEI Universiteit LeidenAdelaar W.F.H., Cammarota A., Geurds A., Hofman C.L., Schüren U., Wiesebron M.L.Mesoamerican and Andean Archaeolog
