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This work describes the profound changes to Yucatán's society and economy following the 1982 debt crisis that prostrated Mexico's economy. The editors have assembled contributions from seasoned "Yucatecologists"-historians, geographers, cultural students, and an economist-to chart the accelerated change in Yucatán from a monocrop economy to a full beneficiary and victim of rampant globalization.

This study examines the politics of postcolonial state-building through the lens of disease and public health policy in order to trace how indigenous groups on the periphery of power and geography helped shape the political practices and institutions of m

Mayan People Within and Beyond Boundaries explores the Maya of Yucatan, the Maya of academic institutions and the Maya of the tourist industry. It examines the interplay between the local and the external, academic categories of the Maya, and seeks to transcend the paradoxical and incongruent relationship between the social spaces that breathe life into the categories. The notion of ""shared social experience"" is introduced to embody a focus on reflexivity that goes beyond the subjective position of the author and helps demystify the coexisting subjectivities characteristic of ethnographic fi

Yucatan has been called "a world apart"-cut off from the rest of Mexico by geography and culture. Yet, despite its peripheral location, the region experienced substantial change in the decades after independence. As elsewhere in Mexico, apostles of modernization introduced policies intended to remold Yucatan in the image of the advanced nations of the day. Indeed, modernizing change began in the late colonial era and continued throughout the 19th century as traditional patterns of land tenure were altered and efforts were made to divest the Catholic Church of its wealth and political and intellectual influence. Some changes, however, produced fierce resistance from both elites and humbler Yucatecans and modernizers were frequently forced to retreat or at least reach accommodation with their foes. Covering topics from the early 19th century to the late 20th century, the essays in this collection illuminate both the processes of change and the negative reactions that they frequently elicited. The diversity of disciplines covered by this volume-history, anthropology, sociology, economics-illuminates at least three overriding challenges for study of the peninsula today. One is politics after the decline of the Institutional Revolutionary Party: What are the important institutions, practices, and discourses of politics in a post-postrevolutionary era? A second trend is the scholarly demystification of the Maya: Anthropologists have shown the difficulties of applying monolithic terms like Maya in a society where ethnic relations are often situational and ethnic boundaries are fluid. And a third consideration: researchers are only now beginning to grapple with the region's transition to a post-henequen economy based on tourism, migration, and the assembly plants known as maquiladoras. Challenges from agribusiness and industry will no doubt continue to

"In Elusive Unity, Armstrong-Fumero examines early twentieth-century peasant politics and twenty-first-century indigenous politics in the rural Oriente region of Yucatan The rural inhabitants of this region have had some of their most important dealings with their nation's government as self-identified "peasants" and "Maya." Using ethnography, oral history, and archival research, Armstrong-Fumero shows how the same body of narrative tropes has defined the local experience of twentieth-century agrarianism and twenty-first-century multiculturalism. Through these recycled narratives, contemporary multicultural politics have also inherited some ambiguities that were built into its agrarian predecessor. Specifically, local experiences of peasant and indigenous politics are shaped by tensions between the vernacular language of identity and the intense factionalism that often defines the social organization of rural communities. This significant contribution will be of interest to historians, anthropologists, and political scientists studying Latin America and the Maya"--

This article discusses the development of social categories and
ethnicity in the peninsula of Yucatán, Mexico, since the Conquest in the
sixteenth century. Based on the Yucatec case, it demonstrates that
ethnicity is not a ubiquitous form of social organisation, but rather a
historical process related to specific techniques of social distinction. It
argues that the starting point for the analysis of ethnicity should not be
ethnic collectives, but instead the ways in which individuals use ethnic
categories in social interaction.

The Mexican state of Yucatán, with its strategically important location near the United States, Central America and the Caribbean, is one of the most dynamic regions in the OECD. Yucatán is also a land of contrasts. It is a lagging but growing region, offering a high quality of life and vast natural resources, yet suffering from problems of sustainability. Its tourism attractions are located in rural areas that do not benefit from them. It has both state and Peninsula medical services, but its health services coverage is uneven. Yucatan is a centre for higher education in the Peninsula, yet it

In the early 1930s, the cultural policy of Mexico in relation to the rural population was finally adopted and the main instruments for the consolidation of the post-revolutionary state were determined. The first priority in post-revolutionary Mexico was to carry out a large-scale education reform among the rural Indigenous population. The article considers the key points of the rural schools project in Mexico in the 1930s and the characteristics of its practical implementation in the state of Yucatan. The study of the issue was made possible due to the wide involvement of the archival materials that constitute the fund of the "Department of Rural Schools" of the Historical Archives in the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico, in particular, the methodological works written for missionary teachers, the reports of school inspectors and rural schools directors. The analysis of the office documents from the Mexican Ministry of Public Education demonstrated a discrepancy between the expectations of the education reform as part of the strategy for the integration of the indigenous population, and its practical results. The study of the educational policies of the post-revolutionary Mexican government in the state of Yucatan made it possible to conclude on the passive resistance of the rural population to the new socio-cultural elements in the country, as well as to understand the specifics of the interaction between the different levels of government in the region in the field of education policy.

Under neoliberalism, at least in Mexico, education has been recast as a service that is to be sold for money, and not as a right of all Mexicans. The economy itself is now seen as a services economy, where everything is expected to make money. Here we reflect on some of the implications of current education reforms on our work at the Autonomous University of Yucatan.

Introduction: Predatory and Sticky Tourism Geographies -- Beach Enclosures: Manufacturing a Caribbean Paradise -- Wild Hotspots: Contested Natures on the Maya Coast -- Colonial Enclaves: Site-Specific Indigeneity for Luxury Tourism -- City-Village: Domestic Maquila in the Tourist Offstage -- Conclusion: Tourism Fixation and Disciplinary Retoolings.