Curatorial Work by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts
International Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Perf... more EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts
International Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Performance
Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank, London
25 October – 10 November 2013
Alive to the power of performance, contemporary indigenous artists merge the familiar with the unexpected, the traditional with the experimental, creating new forms and objects along the way. They provoke dialogues about resources, social justice and stereotypes, and show the triumphs and failures of our times.
EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts [brought] to London the work of more than 40 artists from the Americas, Australia, the Pacific and South Africa. Uniquely comprised of both live performance and the traces it leaves behind in images, digital media, sounds, texts and crafted objects, this interactive exhibition [offered] fresh ways of grasping what sustainable can mean.
Chief Curator: Prof. Helen Gilbert
Assistant Curator: Dani Phillipson
Film Curator: Charlotte Gleghorn
Designers: Lucy Algar, Dani Phillipson
Digital Designer: Jamie Griffiths
Curatorial Assistants: Sergio Huarcaya, Genner Llanes-Ortiz, Dylan Robinson
Lectures & Talks by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Este es el video con el que participé, de manera virtual, en la Jornada de Estudio Internacional ... more Este es el video con el que participé, de manera virtual, en la Jornada de Estudio Internacional (Journée d'étude internationale) FABRIQ'AM (ANR, LESC & MONDESAM) http://fabriqam.hypotheses.org/
La jornada llevó por nombre "Del Hip Hop al WhatsApp: Formas Novedosas de Comunicación entre los pueblos amerindios" y se llevó a cabo el 31 de marzo de 2016, en las instalaciones de l'Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) en París, Francia.
Maya activists in the Yucatan peninsula have keenly adopted new Information and Communication Tec... more Maya activists in the Yucatan peninsula have keenly adopted new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote their language, their forms of knowledge and, crucially, their criticisms of Mayan culture’s commoditization for tourists’ consumption. A great example of this was the organization in 2013 of the First Independent Mayan Festival Cha’ anil Kaaj which will be the focus of this talk.
In recent years, psychedelic or Amazonian cumbia has powerfully caught the attention and imaginat... more In recent years, psychedelic or Amazonian cumbia has powerfully caught the attention and imagination of global trendsetters – from dance clubs and local bands in New York and London to the latest Pedro Almodóvar film. In this brief talk, Maya scholar Genner Llanes-Ortiz revisits its humble origins in the Peruvian Amazon and explores its relationship with Indigeneity and modernization. The history of this cumbia sub-genre aptly illustrates the ways in which people from multiple locations contribute to the formation of ‘global cultures’. At the end of the talk, there will be a live performance of Amazonian and other types of cumbia by Juan Carlos Arenas’ band, Los Musicos.
This event is part of the free exhibition, EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts, running at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1 9PH, from 25 October to 10 November 2013. The exhibition, which has an interactive component, presents unique installations of digital media, live performance, sound art, film and performance artifacts from indigenous cultures around the world.
Over the last decade, Maya activists in Yucatan (Mexico) and Belize have renewed, repackaged and ... more Over the last decade, Maya activists in Yucatan (Mexico) and Belize have renewed, repackaged and reinvented traditional performance practices, by linking their localised concerns and demands to broader struggles. This presentation (consisting of three short documentaries and a talk) reflects on these practices and the languages these activists speak by looking at their bodies, use of colour, music, art as well as politics.
Different cultural traditions are understood to be part of the larger Maya civilisation. In Mexic... more Different cultural traditions are understood to be part of the larger Maya civilisation. In Mexico, Yucatec Maya communities have their own particular understanding of time and their own prophetic traditions. In spite of all the Western fascination with 2012, Maya and non-Maya experts have established by now that the world will not end when the 13th Bak’tun closes on the 21st of December. In this lecture, I will explain how Western anxieties, Christian millenarianism, and tourism economic interests have combined to create this frenzy around the end of the Maya calendar. I will also explain how the ancient and the contemporary Maya, at least those represented by the Yucatec tradition, came to understand time. Finally, I will talk about the “prophesies” that are actual elements of Yucatec Maya oral literature, and what these stories and sayings tell us about their current concerns and demands.
Book Chapters by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Recasting Commodity and Spectacle in the Indigenous Americas; ed. Charlotte Gleghorn and Helen Gilbert, Nov 20, 2014
Since 2004, new identity performance strategies have been deployed among different Maya groups an... more Since 2004, new identity performance strategies have been deployed among different Maya groups and villages in southern Belize where they meet annually to celebrate Maya Day. This festival condenses different forms of representing the dynamic and strong identities that the Maya people (often ignored and relegated) maintain as part of Belizean society. Maya Day is organised by Tumul K’in Center of Learning, an autonomous intercultural education project based in the Maya village of Blue Creek. The school provides secondary level education to Maya and non-Maya teenagers from different villages of the southern district of Toledo and beyond. The Maya Day festival includes traditional dances, marimba and harp music, old and new songs and musical genres, and rituals. However, one of the main attractions that the festival offers to Maya and non-Maya attendants is the different competitions where Maya villagers engage in the performing of everyday tasks, such as wood splitting, corn shelling and grinding, and conch blowing. Public competitions of this kind are not common, but express widely accepted notions of Mayaness, such as physical strength and resilience, resourcefulness in the face of adversity, extended and nuclear family cooperation, among others. In this article I explore and discuss why these competitions have become so important for the Maya actors involved in the organisation of Maya Day, and what happens when daily, embodied practices become spectacle. I call attention also to the significance of this festival in relation to the demands that Maya peoples express for political recognition and social inclusion.
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2014) Everyday work as spectacle: celebrating Maya embodied culture in Belize. In: Recasting commodity and spectacle in the indigenous Americas. School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, pp. 151-166. ISBN 978-1-908857-08-8
Resistant Strategies; ed. Diana Taylor, 2015
During the last decade, Maya peoples in the Yucatán and Belize have been articulating new resista... more During the last decade, Maya peoples in the Yucatán and Belize have been articulating new resistance strategies to oppression and marginalisation through fiestas and festivals. Although all of these groups of activists self-ascribe as Maya, they speak different languages and have distinct historical and cultural traditions. Their collective celebrations – and the ideas, messages and values that performance genres reproduce within them – need also to be understood with attention to distinct political contexts and histories of oppression and marginalisation. [...]
In this contribution I will show that while the Maya of the Yucatán resist the neoliberal assault on their epistemologies and spiritualities by zealously protecting their local grains, Maya bodies and their practices in Belize can also be seen as grains of similar resistance to invisibilisation and marginalisation.
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This contribution to the digital book "Resistant Strategies" includes three short ethnographic documentaries: Fiesta of maize in Yucatán; Feria of native seeds in Quintana Roo; and Maya Day in Belize.
Joan J. Pujadas, Gunther Dietz (eds.). Etnicidad en Latinoamérica: movimientos sociales, cuestión indígena y diásporas migratorias, Sep 2005
En esta presentación mi objetivo es el de compartir una reflexión teórica sobre la construcción d... more En esta presentación mi objetivo es el de compartir una reflexión teórica sobre la construcción de la ‘interculturalidad’ en América Latina como proyecto político y epistémico de los movimientos y pueblos indígenas. Esta reflexión se basa en particular en el seguimiento dado al surgimiento de las primeras Universidades Indígenas (UI) en distintas regiones y países del subcontinente. Para esta reflexión, en particular, tomaré como casos de referencia dos iniciativas que están siendo aterrizadas en la actualidad. Estas son: la Universidad Intercultural de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas, “Amawtay Wasi” (UINPI-AW) de Ecuador, y la Universidad Campesina Indígena en Red (UCI-Red) de México. Ambas UI se toman como representativas de otros muchos proyectos que bajo la bandera de ‘universidad indígena’ están poniéndose en marcha por parte de organizaciones y movimientos indígenas, ONGs y los propios Estados en países como Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Venezuela, Colombia, Perú, Bolvia, Chile, Argentina y Brasil.
Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 11, Tomo II, 2003
"Al hablar de organizaciones indígenas en este espacio nos referimos a un fenómeno relativamente ... more "Al hablar de organizaciones indígenas en este espacio nos referimos a un fenómeno relativamente reciente y “moderno” que data de unas tres décadas atrás, en el que comunidades, ejidos o diversas asociaciones integradas por indígenas utilizan formas occidentales de organización tales como uniones de ejidos, frentes, cooperativas, asociaciones civiles, comités, sociedades de solidaridad social etc., en defensa de sus tierras y de sus recursos naturales, en busca de mejores condiciones de producción y de comercialización, en demanda en fin de reivindicaciones étnicas y políticas.
Generalmente, a partir del contacto con “los otros”: agentes externos integrantes de asociaciones civiles por los derechos humanos, activistas de izquierda, agentes de pastoral de una iglesia comprometida con los pobres, o bien en escuelas o espacios en los que han salido a formarse o a trabajar jóvenes indígenas que se convierten en dirigentes al regresar a sus comunidades; se han asimilado e interiorizado prácticas, valores y formas de organización de la cultura occidental, ajenas a la propia, para afirmar una identidad étnica que se cimienta en un pasado común prehispánico y en la cultura indígena compartida.
Forma de citar: Rosales González, Margarita y Genner Llanes-Ortiz (2003). La defensa y la transformación de un legado: organizaciones indígenas en la Península de Yucatán. En: Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 11, Tomo II;
Universidad Autónoma de Campeche: Campeche, Camp.; pp. 548-563."
Journal Articles by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Jun p'éel chan ts'íibil ichil ka'a p'éel t'aano'ob yóok'lal ba'ax u k'áat u ya'al, yetel bix u pá... more Jun p'éel chan ts'íibil ichil ka'a p'éel t'aano'ob yóok'lal ba'ax u k'áat u ya'al, yetel bix u páajtal u meyaj yetel le ka'anal t'aano' "cha'anil" u tia'al u muuk'kansik máasewáal t'aano'ob. // Un brevísimo artículo en lengua maya yucateca y español que aborda el significado y el potencial de uso del concepto maya "cha'anil" para el fortalecimiento de las lenguas indígenas en México.
Llanes Ortiz, Genner (2015). Yaan Muuk' Ich Cha'anil / El potencial de Cha'anil. Un concepto maya para la revitalización lingüística. Ichan Tecolotl / La Casa del Tecolote; año 26, número 301. Pp. 28-30. México DF.
The defence of Maya kernels of development involves strategic explorations of both traditional kn... more The defence of Maya kernels of development involves strategic explorations of both traditional knowledge and new forms of artistic expression. In this article I describe the fiestas y ferias de semillas movement and offer an interpretation that stresses its importance not just as a site of Indigenous resistance, but as a strategic opportunity for the construction of alternatives to development. Here, Maya understandings of welfare and prosperity are historically and politically reconfigured within a Pan-Yucatec Maya cultural perspective, at the same time leaning on and leading to what I call Cosmayapolitan ways of locating communities and social actors in the global situation.
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2015). "Seeds of Maya Development: The “Fiestas y Ferias de Semillas” Movement in Yucatan”. Alternautas. (Re)Searching Development: The Abya Yala Chapter. Vol. 2, Issue 2 (December 2015). Pp. 10-20.
"(ES) En el presente artículo sugiero que si bien la "interculturalidad" se ha convertido en un t... more "(ES) En el presente artículo sugiero que si bien la "interculturalidad" se ha convertido en un término de moda entre los movimientos sociales y las instituciones gubernamentales, su contenido real es sujeto de constantes disputas y negociaciones debido a su propia naturaleza transformativa y cuestionadora. La reflexión se basa en el fallido intento de creación de una universidad intercultural en el estado de Yucatán. Con información recopilada de fuentes diversas (entrevistas, observación participante y notas periodísticas) se presenta aquí un ejercicio de análisis de la compleja interfaz entre los distintos actores sociales, sus definiciones propias acerca de la interculturalidad y los contextos históricos y políticos desde los que actúan. Una de las ideas principales que se proponen es que para evaluar la interculturalización de este tipo de proyectos se debe prestar atención tanto al proceso de construcción y negociación de éste como a su resultado.
(EN) In the present work I would like to advance the idea that while "interculturality" has become a buzzword within the social movements and governmental fields, its actual boundaries are constantly contested given its transformative and questioning nature. This reflection draws on the failed attempt at creating the Intercultural University of Yucatan. With information collected from different sources (interviews, participant observation and events reported on newspapers) I undertake the analysis of the complex interface between different social actors, their own ideas about interculturality and the historical and political contexts where their actions take place. My contention in this paper is that, in order to assess interculturalization of specific projects, attention should be equally paid to both the process of construction and negotiation and to the final outcomes of those projects.
(FR) Dans cet article, j'advance que, bien que « interculturalité » soit devenu un terme à la mode au sein des mouvements sociaux et des institutions gouvernementales, son contenu réel est cependant l'objet de nombreuses disputes et negotiátions, ceci à cause de sa nature transformative et interrogatrice. Le point de départ de cet exposé est la tentative manquée de création d'une université interculturelle dans l'état de Yucatán. Grâce à l'information obtenue de différentes sources (entrevues, observation participante et notes journalistiques), est présenté ici un exercice d'analyse de l'interface complexe entre les differentes acteurs sociaux, leurs propres définitons au sujet de l'interculturalité et les contextes historiques et politiques d'où ils tirent leur origine. Une des idées principales proposées ici est que, pour évaluer l'interculturalisation de ces types de projets, il est indispensable de prêter attention autant à leur processus d'élaboration et de négotiation qu'au résultat même."
Documentaries by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Este corto documental fue realizado en colaboración con el Comité en Defensa de las Semillas Nati... more Este corto documental fue realizado en colaboración con el Comité en Defensa de las Semillas Nativas de Poniente de Bacalar "Múuch' Kanan I'inaj" y Educación, Cultura y Ecología A.C. Presenta algunos aspectos de la práctica política y cultural de una de las ferias de semillas más antiguas en la Península.
En 2012, se cumplieron 10 años del inicio de las ferias de intercambio en la zona Poniente de Bacalar. El evento consistió de una ceremonia espiritual de bendición de semillas y varias presentaciones culturales (entre ellas, música, bailes, teatro y poesía en lengua maya) así como un fuerte llamado para declarar el recientemente declarado municipio de Bacalar como territorio libre de transgénicos; llamado que hasta la fecha sigue sin respuesta por parte de las autoridades.
Agradezco a los compañeros del Comité "Múuch' Kanan I'inaj", sus familias, así como a los integrantes de EDUCE A.C. el apoyo para realizar este documental y su autorización para distribuirlo.
En Español y Maya Yucateco con subtítulos en Español.
"Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This sho... more "Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This short video shows different aspects of the fiesta of maize celebrated in 2012 in Kambul, Yucatán. Among the forms of performance it documents are: ritual, theatre and dance.
"Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This sho... more "Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This short video shows different aspects of the feria of native seeds celebrated in 2012 in Buena Fe, Quintana Roo. Among the forms of performance it documents are: ritual, song, storytelling, poetry, and dance.
"Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This sho... more "Published together with "Grains of resistance..." in Taylor (ed.) Resistant Strategies. This short video shows different aspects of the Maya Day festival celebrated in 2012 in Blue Creek, Toledo District, Belize. Among the forms of performance it documents are: ritual, competitions, stilt dance and marimba playing.
Theses by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
“Interculturality” has become a key concept in the conceptualising and struggling for new relatio... more “Interculturality” has become a key concept in the conceptualising and struggling for new relationships between dominant and subordinated identities and knowledges in Latin America. My research is based on a collaborative effort to document and examine how “interculturality” is realised as a “dialogue between equal actors and knowledges” in the creation of Indigenous and Intercultural Universities. It follows a multi-level analysis that begins by interrogating the diverse ways in which different education projects formulate and negotiate their “interculturality” in the Latin American region. It pays particular attention to the political dimensions of “dialogue” by examining the diverse engagements between social actors, discourses and agendas. Secondly, it focuses on the specific design and development of the Peasant and Indigenous University Network (UCI-Red for its Spanish acronym) as a case study. UCI-Red promotes and supports endogenous and sustainable development processes in different micro-regions of the Peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico. This is a collective project where Mexican Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) have become engaged and allied with Yucatec Mayan peasants. “Interculturality” has become one of the main principles of their definition of sustainable development and it has been assimilated into their practice of development promotion. After examining the intellectual trajectories and the perspectives on “culture”, “identity” and “learning” of the organisations involved in UCI-Red, I argue that a deeper understanding of cultural difference that goes beyond discursive and objectifying definitions of identity and knowledge is needed. Indigenous knowledge is a notion that involves not only concepts and principles but most importantly embodied forms of knowing, social and symbolic practices, and a particular ideal of personhood. Hybrid forms of learning can and must be constructed in continuity with these overlooked epistemologies if education projects want to commit to a true “dialogue between knowledges”.
En décadas recientes han surgido diferentes “culturalismos” como intentos para abordar, manejar o... more En décadas recientes han surgido diferentes “culturalismos” como intentos para abordar, manejar o defender la diversidad cultural. Sin embargo estos enfoques muestran una limitación básica: ésta es que pueden ser utilizados también para alcanzar objetivos que se contraponen a los intereses de los pueblos o comunidades subordinadas que intentan defender. El siguiente trabajo argumenta que, para una mejor comprensión de las luchas por el derecho a la diferencia, se hacen necesarias tanto una revisión de la definición de “cultura”, como la incorporación de la noción de “diferencia colonial”. Para ilustrar esta idea, la tesis utiliza ejemplos provistos por la experiencia del Movimiento Indígena Ecuatoriano, uno de los más exitosos en América Latina. En especial, analiza las construcciones político-epistemológicas empleadas por el movimiento, así como uno de sus proyectos más ambiciosos, la creación de Amawtay Wasi, la Universidad Intercultural de los Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas.
Llanes Ortiz, Genner de Jesús (2001). Diagnóstico y Planeación para el Desarrollo Sustentable en ... more Llanes Ortiz, Genner de Jesús (2001). Diagnóstico y Planeación para el Desarrollo Sustentable en Los Chenes, Campeche.
Tesis para optar al título de Licenciado en Ciencias Antropológicas. Jo'-Mérida, Yucatán: Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.
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RESUMEN: Este trabajo parte de la pregunta: ¿cómo construir, con información de diverso tipo y origen, una imagen integral para diseñar o construir propuestas concretas de solución orientadas hacia el Desarrollo Sustentable? El desarrollo de la tesis tuvo como contexto general, mi participación en el Proyecto Peninsular de Desarrollo Participativo (PPDP) como investigador de campo y encargado de la sistematización de los diagnósticos comunitarios que llevó a cabo un grupo de promotores mayas e integrantes de la organización no gubernamental Educación, Cultura y Ecología A.C. (EDUCE) en la región de Los Chenes, Campeche. Esta circunstancia cristalizó en la investigación de cuya metodología y resultados da cuenta el presente trabajo. En ésta se intenta construir una visión holística y aportar los elementos necesarios para entender la pobreza y el deterioro ambiental en una región de la Península de Yucatán; al tiempo que se propone contribuir a la construcción de un nuevo paradigma para entender y habitar el planeta en una forma sustentable.
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Curatorial Work by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
International Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Performance
Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank, London
25 October – 10 November 2013
Alive to the power of performance, contemporary indigenous artists merge the familiar with the unexpected, the traditional with the experimental, creating new forms and objects along the way. They provoke dialogues about resources, social justice and stereotypes, and show the triumphs and failures of our times.
EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts [brought] to London the work of more than 40 artists from the Americas, Australia, the Pacific and South Africa. Uniquely comprised of both live performance and the traces it leaves behind in images, digital media, sounds, texts and crafted objects, this interactive exhibition [offered] fresh ways of grasping what sustainable can mean.
Chief Curator: Prof. Helen Gilbert
Assistant Curator: Dani Phillipson
Film Curator: Charlotte Gleghorn
Designers: Lucy Algar, Dani Phillipson
Digital Designer: Jamie Griffiths
Curatorial Assistants: Sergio Huarcaya, Genner Llanes-Ortiz, Dylan Robinson
Lectures & Talks by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
La jornada llevó por nombre "Del Hip Hop al WhatsApp: Formas Novedosas de Comunicación entre los pueblos amerindios" y se llevó a cabo el 31 de marzo de 2016, en las instalaciones de l'Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) en París, Francia.
This event is part of the free exhibition, EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts, running at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1 9PH, from 25 October to 10 November 2013. The exhibition, which has an interactive component, presents unique installations of digital media, live performance, sound art, film and performance artifacts from indigenous cultures around the world.
Book Chapters by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2014) Everyday work as spectacle: celebrating Maya embodied culture in Belize. In: Recasting commodity and spectacle in the indigenous Americas. School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, pp. 151-166. ISBN 978-1-908857-08-8
In this contribution I will show that while the Maya of the Yucatán resist the neoliberal assault on their epistemologies and spiritualities by zealously protecting their local grains, Maya bodies and their practices in Belize can also be seen as grains of similar resistance to invisibilisation and marginalisation.
--------------------------
This contribution to the digital book "Resistant Strategies" includes three short ethnographic documentaries: Fiesta of maize in Yucatán; Feria of native seeds in Quintana Roo; and Maya Day in Belize.
Generalmente, a partir del contacto con “los otros”: agentes externos integrantes de asociaciones civiles por los derechos humanos, activistas de izquierda, agentes de pastoral de una iglesia comprometida con los pobres, o bien en escuelas o espacios en los que han salido a formarse o a trabajar jóvenes indígenas que se convierten en dirigentes al regresar a sus comunidades; se han asimilado e interiorizado prácticas, valores y formas de organización de la cultura occidental, ajenas a la propia, para afirmar una identidad étnica que se cimienta en un pasado común prehispánico y en la cultura indígena compartida.
Forma de citar: Rosales González, Margarita y Genner Llanes-Ortiz (2003). La defensa y la transformación de un legado: organizaciones indígenas en la Península de Yucatán. En: Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 11, Tomo II;
Universidad Autónoma de Campeche: Campeche, Camp.; pp. 548-563."
Journal Articles by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Llanes Ortiz, Genner (2015). Yaan Muuk' Ich Cha'anil / El potencial de Cha'anil. Un concepto maya para la revitalización lingüística. Ichan Tecolotl / La Casa del Tecolote; año 26, número 301. Pp. 28-30. México DF.
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2015). "Seeds of Maya Development: The “Fiestas y Ferias de Semillas” Movement in Yucatan”. Alternautas. (Re)Searching Development: The Abya Yala Chapter. Vol. 2, Issue 2 (December 2015). Pp. 10-20.
(EN) In the present work I would like to advance the idea that while "interculturality" has become a buzzword within the social movements and governmental fields, its actual boundaries are constantly contested given its transformative and questioning nature. This reflection draws on the failed attempt at creating the Intercultural University of Yucatan. With information collected from different sources (interviews, participant observation and events reported on newspapers) I undertake the analysis of the complex interface between different social actors, their own ideas about interculturality and the historical and political contexts where their actions take place. My contention in this paper is that, in order to assess interculturalization of specific projects, attention should be equally paid to both the process of construction and negotiation and to the final outcomes of those projects.
(FR) Dans cet article, j'advance que, bien que « interculturalité » soit devenu un terme à la mode au sein des mouvements sociaux et des institutions gouvernementales, son contenu réel est cependant l'objet de nombreuses disputes et negotiátions, ceci à cause de sa nature transformative et interrogatrice. Le point de départ de cet exposé est la tentative manquée de création d'une université interculturelle dans l'état de Yucatán. Grâce à l'information obtenue de différentes sources (entrevues, observation participante et notes journalistiques), est présenté ici un exercice d'analyse de l'interface complexe entre les differentes acteurs sociaux, leurs propres définitons au sujet de l'interculturalité et les contextes historiques et politiques d'où ils tirent leur origine. Une des idées principales proposées ici est que, pour évaluer l'interculturalisation de ces types de projets, il est indispensable de prêter attention autant à leur processus d'élaboration et de négotiation qu'au résultat même."
Documentaries by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
En 2012, se cumplieron 10 años del inicio de las ferias de intercambio en la zona Poniente de Bacalar. El evento consistió de una ceremonia espiritual de bendición de semillas y varias presentaciones culturales (entre ellas, música, bailes, teatro y poesía en lengua maya) así como un fuerte llamado para declarar el recientemente declarado municipio de Bacalar como territorio libre de transgénicos; llamado que hasta la fecha sigue sin respuesta por parte de las autoridades.
Agradezco a los compañeros del Comité "Múuch' Kanan I'inaj", sus familias, así como a los integrantes de EDUCE A.C. el apoyo para realizar este documental y su autorización para distribuirlo.
En Español y Maya Yucateco con subtítulos en Español.
Theses by Genner Llanes-Ortiz
Tesis para optar al título de Licenciado en Ciencias Antropológicas. Jo'-Mérida, Yucatán: Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.
------------------------
RESUMEN: Este trabajo parte de la pregunta: ¿cómo construir, con información de diverso tipo y origen, una imagen integral para diseñar o construir propuestas concretas de solución orientadas hacia el Desarrollo Sustentable? El desarrollo de la tesis tuvo como contexto general, mi participación en el Proyecto Peninsular de Desarrollo Participativo (PPDP) como investigador de campo y encargado de la sistematización de los diagnósticos comunitarios que llevó a cabo un grupo de promotores mayas e integrantes de la organización no gubernamental Educación, Cultura y Ecología A.C. (EDUCE) en la región de Los Chenes, Campeche. Esta circunstancia cristalizó en la investigación de cuya metodología y resultados da cuenta el presente trabajo. En ésta se intenta construir una visión holística y aportar los elementos necesarios para entender la pobreza y el deterioro ambiental en una región de la Península de Yucatán; al tiempo que se propone contribuir a la construcción de un nuevo paradigma para entender y habitar el planeta en una forma sustentable.
International Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Performance
Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank, London
25 October – 10 November 2013
Alive to the power of performance, contemporary indigenous artists merge the familiar with the unexpected, the traditional with the experimental, creating new forms and objects along the way. They provoke dialogues about resources, social justice and stereotypes, and show the triumphs and failures of our times.
EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts [brought] to London the work of more than 40 artists from the Americas, Australia, the Pacific and South Africa. Uniquely comprised of both live performance and the traces it leaves behind in images, digital media, sounds, texts and crafted objects, this interactive exhibition [offered] fresh ways of grasping what sustainable can mean.
Chief Curator: Prof. Helen Gilbert
Assistant Curator: Dani Phillipson
Film Curator: Charlotte Gleghorn
Designers: Lucy Algar, Dani Phillipson
Digital Designer: Jamie Griffiths
Curatorial Assistants: Sergio Huarcaya, Genner Llanes-Ortiz, Dylan Robinson
La jornada llevó por nombre "Del Hip Hop al WhatsApp: Formas Novedosas de Comunicación entre los pueblos amerindios" y se llevó a cabo el 31 de marzo de 2016, en las instalaciones de l'Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) en París, Francia.
This event is part of the free exhibition, EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts, running at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1 9PH, from 25 October to 10 November 2013. The exhibition, which has an interactive component, presents unique installations of digital media, live performance, sound art, film and performance artifacts from indigenous cultures around the world.
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2014) Everyday work as spectacle: celebrating Maya embodied culture in Belize. In: Recasting commodity and spectacle in the indigenous Americas. School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, pp. 151-166. ISBN 978-1-908857-08-8
In this contribution I will show that while the Maya of the Yucatán resist the neoliberal assault on their epistemologies and spiritualities by zealously protecting their local grains, Maya bodies and their practices in Belize can also be seen as grains of similar resistance to invisibilisation and marginalisation.
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This contribution to the digital book "Resistant Strategies" includes three short ethnographic documentaries: Fiesta of maize in Yucatán; Feria of native seeds in Quintana Roo; and Maya Day in Belize.
Generalmente, a partir del contacto con “los otros”: agentes externos integrantes de asociaciones civiles por los derechos humanos, activistas de izquierda, agentes de pastoral de una iglesia comprometida con los pobres, o bien en escuelas o espacios en los que han salido a formarse o a trabajar jóvenes indígenas que se convierten en dirigentes al regresar a sus comunidades; se han asimilado e interiorizado prácticas, valores y formas de organización de la cultura occidental, ajenas a la propia, para afirmar una identidad étnica que se cimienta en un pasado común prehispánico y en la cultura indígena compartida.
Forma de citar: Rosales González, Margarita y Genner Llanes-Ortiz (2003). La defensa y la transformación de un legado: organizaciones indígenas en la Península de Yucatán. En: Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 11, Tomo II;
Universidad Autónoma de Campeche: Campeche, Camp.; pp. 548-563."
Llanes Ortiz, Genner (2015). Yaan Muuk' Ich Cha'anil / El potencial de Cha'anil. Un concepto maya para la revitalización lingüística. Ichan Tecolotl / La Casa del Tecolote; año 26, número 301. Pp. 28-30. México DF.
Llanes-Ortiz, Genner (2015). "Seeds of Maya Development: The “Fiestas y Ferias de Semillas” Movement in Yucatan”. Alternautas. (Re)Searching Development: The Abya Yala Chapter. Vol. 2, Issue 2 (December 2015). Pp. 10-20.
(EN) In the present work I would like to advance the idea that while "interculturality" has become a buzzword within the social movements and governmental fields, its actual boundaries are constantly contested given its transformative and questioning nature. This reflection draws on the failed attempt at creating the Intercultural University of Yucatan. With information collected from different sources (interviews, participant observation and events reported on newspapers) I undertake the analysis of the complex interface between different social actors, their own ideas about interculturality and the historical and political contexts where their actions take place. My contention in this paper is that, in order to assess interculturalization of specific projects, attention should be equally paid to both the process of construction and negotiation and to the final outcomes of those projects.
(FR) Dans cet article, j'advance que, bien que « interculturalité » soit devenu un terme à la mode au sein des mouvements sociaux et des institutions gouvernementales, son contenu réel est cependant l'objet de nombreuses disputes et negotiátions, ceci à cause de sa nature transformative et interrogatrice. Le point de départ de cet exposé est la tentative manquée de création d'une université interculturelle dans l'état de Yucatán. Grâce à l'information obtenue de différentes sources (entrevues, observation participante et notes journalistiques), est présenté ici un exercice d'analyse de l'interface complexe entre les differentes acteurs sociaux, leurs propres définitons au sujet de l'interculturalité et les contextes historiques et politiques d'où ils tirent leur origine. Une des idées principales proposées ici est que, pour évaluer l'interculturalisation de ces types de projets, il est indispensable de prêter attention autant à leur processus d'élaboration et de négotiation qu'au résultat même."
En 2012, se cumplieron 10 años del inicio de las ferias de intercambio en la zona Poniente de Bacalar. El evento consistió de una ceremonia espiritual de bendición de semillas y varias presentaciones culturales (entre ellas, música, bailes, teatro y poesía en lengua maya) así como un fuerte llamado para declarar el recientemente declarado municipio de Bacalar como territorio libre de transgénicos; llamado que hasta la fecha sigue sin respuesta por parte de las autoridades.
Agradezco a los compañeros del Comité "Múuch' Kanan I'inaj", sus familias, así como a los integrantes de EDUCE A.C. el apoyo para realizar este documental y su autorización para distribuirlo.
En Español y Maya Yucateco con subtítulos en Español.
Tesis para optar al título de Licenciado en Ciencias Antropológicas. Jo'-Mérida, Yucatán: Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.
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RESUMEN: Este trabajo parte de la pregunta: ¿cómo construir, con información de diverso tipo y origen, una imagen integral para diseñar o construir propuestas concretas de solución orientadas hacia el Desarrollo Sustentable? El desarrollo de la tesis tuvo como contexto general, mi participación en el Proyecto Peninsular de Desarrollo Participativo (PPDP) como investigador de campo y encargado de la sistematización de los diagnósticos comunitarios que llevó a cabo un grupo de promotores mayas e integrantes de la organización no gubernamental Educación, Cultura y Ecología A.C. (EDUCE) en la región de Los Chenes, Campeche. Esta circunstancia cristalizó en la investigación de cuya metodología y resultados da cuenta el presente trabajo. En ésta se intenta construir una visión holística y aportar los elementos necesarios para entender la pobreza y el deterioro ambiental en una región de la Península de Yucatán; al tiempo que se propone contribuir a la construcción de un nuevo paradigma para entender y habitar el planeta en una forma sustentable.
En este breve ensayo me gustaría reflexionar sobre los retos que la construcción de la interculturalidad plantea a los movimientos indígenas
de América Latina, basándome en parte en lo que ha sido mi propia experiencia como antropólogo indígena, y en lo aprendido durante mi segunda etapa de formación académica en el Reino Unido con el apoyo de la Fundación Ford y de CONACYT.
(EN) The increasingly prominent role and influence of the Indigenous peoples in Latin American and international arenas are calling more and more emphatically for the creation of fairer political and social relationships. These demands are somehow coming together to give way to a new kind of humanist project, one that focuses on the respect and revaluation of diversity. This political and cultural project of the Indigenous peoples and their organisations in Latin America is usually called "interculturality". This term has different connotations, depending on what social actors use it and where. Yet, generally speaking, the notion of "interculturality" aspires to convey the idea that in order to fulfil the rights and aspirations of distinctive peoples and cultures (some of them, dominated, marginalised or repressed by others), a new relationship framework needs to be created. This must be one where the recognition and satisfaction of the demands of the subaltern and excluded Other(s) can be accomplished – through dialogue, on an equal footing, between those who are different –, and where the principles of mutual understanding and inclusion prevail.
In this brief paper I would like to reflect on the challenges that the construction of "interculturality" poses to Indigenous movements in Latin America. For this I will draw from my own experiences as an Indigenous scholar and what I have learnt in my second cycle of academic training in the United Kingdom in which I have had the support of the Ford Foundation and Mexico's CONACYT.
Follow this link to access the article: http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/home/the-maya-a-4000-year-old-civilization-in-the-americas
Cómo citar: Llanes Ortiz, Genner (2015). Reverdecer la raíz: Artes Indígenas del siglo XXI. La Jornada del Campo, no. 88. Sábado 17 de enero de 2015, p. 5.
URL: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2015/01/17/cam-lenguas.html
This report draws on the experience of IDRC’s involvement in 13 large conferences as co-convener and/or initiator. It finds that IDRC has a number of weaknesses that need to be addressed and strengths that could be leveraged in engaging in large conferences [...].
The final section of the report presents suggestions for how the findings and a policy entrepreneurship framework might apply to the key administrative functions as they relate to IDRC’s engagement with large conferences. It identifies the need for more conscious planning across the Centre in the early stages of engagement with a large conference to maximize efficiencies and to make it easier for the Centre to monitor the real costs and associated outcomes of large conferences.
Semillas” Movement in Yucatan - Genner Llanes Ortíz
‘Underdeveloped Economists’: The Study of Economic
Development in Latin America in the 1950s – Stella Krepp
"Vivir Bien": A Discourse and Its Risks for Public Policies. The
Case of Child Labor and Exploitation in Indigenous
Communities of Bolivia – Ruben Dario Chambi
The Production of Meaning, Economy and Politics.
Intercultural Relations, Conflicts, Appropriations,
Articulations and Transformations – Daniel Mato
From the Political-Economic Drought to Collective and
Sustainable Water Management - Gustavo García López
Taking Matters into Their Own Hands: The MST and the
Workers’ Party in Brazil – Bruce Gilbert
Strategic Ethnicity, Nation, and (Neo)colonialism in Latin
America – Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
Race, Power, Indigenous Resistance and the Struggle for the
Establishment of Intercultural Education – Martina Tonet
Book Review: Climate change and colonialism in the Green
Economy – Sebastian Kratzer
While I find great merit in the amount of information collected by this researcher in the field, I still feel very uncomfortable with the conflicting claims of having used an auto-ethnographic approach in the study of muxeidades and the naturalistic and essentializing presentation that he uses to deploy his analysis. In my dictamination I point out to three basic shortcomings in this work: its contradictory methodology, its essentializing discourse and its potentially conflictive ethics.
Thus, while the author of this thesis claims to have obtained his information via a profound involvement "in all possible meanings of the expression" (his words) with the muxes, and while he apologizes for using this confusing "postmodern approximation" to 'muxeidades', he shies away from (and plainly avoids) describing, disclosing, or highlighting his deep inter-personal entanglements in the construction of this rather naturalistic picture of the muxes of Juchitán, Oaxaca.
This refusal to be frank about who were the people he relied the most in the characterization of 'muxeidades' and why he decided to give more credit to certain opinions and not others (clearly, those of the few muxe scholars that have written about their own views of Juchitán's so-called third gender) configures one of the main limitations of this work.
Naturalistic descriptions, romanticization of early sexual encounters and grand blanket statements about the muxes represent a second important shortcoming.
Methodological plus narrative deficiencies equal potentially considerable ethical problems, particularly in relation to the politics of representation in anthropology. This is because the naturalistic tone of the thesis creates a highly authoritative voice for the researcher which belies the supposedly "postmodern" approach taken in the investigation. Even more perplexing, the researcher intentionally (and unexplicably) confuses his voice with the voices of his research participants, which again contradicts trends in postmodern auto-ethnographic writing.
Out of all this a fixed and essentializing picture of the muxes emerges which does not allow room for (and frankly brashly dismisses) the work of (and even the existence of) upper or middle class muxes, non-muxe Zapotec intellectuals and other anthropologists.
In spite of all these irregularities, I believe that the information presented and analyzed by Laaksonen is still of great value for the study of Indigenous expressions of gender diversity. I hope that future anthropologists would be able to recognize and rectify the methodological, discoursive and ethical faults that this work presents and continue to expand the space for meaningful conversations about sexual dissent, Indigenous politics and decolonial forms of knowledge.
idea of direct collaboration between speakers and researchers, the PRMDLC runs collaborative workshops to encourage a high level of participation. The
PRMDLC starts from the recovery of peoples’ own language and culture, producing oral and image-based culturally appropriate materials, recreating
them in prestigious media such as a TV screen, where Indigenous children rarely see their languages. Therefore the basic goal of the PRMDLC is to establish a (re)vitalising corpus; among others, a collection of printed, audiovisual and multimedia materials in Indigenous languages, produced and consumed by speakers themselves, while at the same time aiming to impact a broader audience