Lake Atitlán, Guatemala Ethnographic Field School

Lake Atitlán, Guatemala Ethnographic Field School – 2008

Readings

TEXTS

Pre-departure Readings: Two of them deal with Guatemalan Maya communities we will be visiting.

1. John P. Hawkins and W.P. Adams, Roads to Change in Maya Guatemala. Norman OK: U. of Oklahoma Press, 2005. (This book consists of papers from an ethnographic field school that took place in two communities not far from Lake Atitlán. Lots of good ideas about Maya culture and possible research topics. ) (Recommended reading.)

2. Daniel Wilkinson, Silence on the Mountain: Studies of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 2002. ISBN: 0618221395. (Moving, very well written book, almost like a novel, that discusses the history and consequences of Guatemala’s 30 year civil war which has left an indelible imprint on the current generation of Guatemalans. (Required reading)

3. Edward F. Fischer & Carol Hendrickson, Tecpán Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003. (A good update on current issues as it intersects with a local, Indian community, not far from Lake Atitlán, and is a town we will visit.) (Required)

Readings for Guatemala: (These you need to bring with you.)

4. Kathleen M. DeWalt and Billie R. DeWalt, Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2002. (inexpensive, basic details of how to do fieldwork.)

5. Michael Angrosino, Doing Cultural Anthropology: Projects in Ethnographic Data Collection, 2ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2007.

6. Andrew Gardner and David M. Hoffman. Dispatches from the Field: Neophyte Ethnographers in a Changing World. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. 2006. (Short stories of fieldwork by PhD candidates.)

7. Erve Chambers, Native Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2000. (Inexpensive, basic, short, but very good text on tourism.) (Required)

Not required but recommended:

8. Robert Carlson, War for the Heart and Soul of a Highland Mayan Town. Austin, TX: U. of Texas Press, 1997. (This is about Santiago Atitlán, once of the main communities in the area.)

9. Walter Little, Maya in the Marketplace, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004. (tourism, globalization and identity, market vendors in Antigua.)

10. The seven volumes of papers from previous years (available on site or from the website.) There are many, many books and articles on Guatemalan Maya communities. We will have a pretty good selection of them in Panajachel for you to loan out when you get there. Also, there is a good bookstore in Panajachel where you can buy some of the best known ethnographies. They take VISA/MCard, too.

11. Patricia Foxen, In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities. Nashville, University of Tennessee Press, 2007.