title: Maya or Mestizo?: Nationalism, Modernity, and its Discontents (Teaching Culture: UTP Ethnographies for the Classroom)
author:  Ronald Loewe 
description: Pointing to the now familiar processes of strategic essentialism, revitalization of traditions, witchcraft, nostalgia, and resistance that often occur when modernity and indigeneity mix and meet, <i>Maya or Mestizo?</i> exposes the effects of the global economy on the localthe transformation of ritual to theater and the changing meaning of symbols.... Its accessible style and attention to the Mayas' irreverent humor will appeal to undergraduates. Linking parody with national patrimony, the Eagle Witch with commerce, and performance with the presentation of indigenous culture, it will also attract scholars of Latin America, Folklore, Anthropology, and Performance Studies. (Beverly Stoeltje, Indiana University)<br /><br />Rarely do ethnographers take such a comprehensive and informed look at the places they work as Loewe has in this book. Based on more than 20 years of anthropological research, Mayan language studies, and an active engagement with local cultural and economic processes, this ethnography offers a panoramic view of Yucatn life, history, and politicsall through the very intimate lens of Maxcan, a small community at the literal, and figurative, intersection of the global economy. (Walter Little, SUNY Albany)<br /><br />Rich. Insightful. Witty. A real pleasure to read and so well proportioned. A great introduction to life on the Yucatn peninsula today. (Paul R. Sullivan, author of <i>Unfinished Conversations: Mayas and Foreigners between Two Wars</i> and <i>Xuxub Must Die: Lost Histories of a Murder on the Yucatan</i>)
zlib_text: ILLICH
  
  DESCHOOLING SOCIETY
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### **Introduction**
  
  
  
  I owe my interest in public education to Everett Reimer. Until we first met in
  Puerto Rico in 1958, I had never questioned the value of extending obligatory
  schooling to all people. Together we have come to realize that for most men
  the right to learn is curtailed by the obligation to attend school. The essays
  given at CIDOC and gathered in this book grew out of memoranda which I
  submitted to him, and which we discussed during 1970, the thirteenth year of
  our dialogue. The last chapter contains my afterthoughts on a conversation
  with Erich Fromm on Bachofen's Mutterrecht.
  
  
  
  Since 1967 Reimer and I have met regularly at the Center for Intercultural
  Documentation (CIDOC) in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Valentine Borremans, the director
  of the Center, also joined our dialogue, and constantly urged me to test our
  thinking against the realities of Latin America and Africa. This book reflects
  her conviction that the ethos, not just the instit