Race-Class-Gender Ideology in Guatemala: Modern and Anti-Modern Forms Carol A. Smith, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), 723-749. Stable URL: bhtp:sflinks,jstor-org/sici?sici~0010-4175%281995 10%2937%3A4%3C123%3 ARUIGMA%3E2.0.CO*3B2-Y Comparative Studies in Society and History is currently published by Cambridge University Press. ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at htp:sseww jstor org/aboutiterms.html. 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For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact suppom@jstor org. hup:thrwwjstor.orgy Sat Jul 9 20:13:59 2005Race-Class-Gender Ideology in Guatemala: Modern and Anti-Modern Forms CAROL A, SMITH University of California, Davis More often than not, women bear the burden of displaying the identifying symbols oftheir ethnic identity tothe outside world, whether these be items of dress, aspects of language, or distinctive behavior. Men of the same ethnic group, especially when filling lower-order pasitions ia the local division of labor, usually appear indistinguishable from men of a different ethnicity but in similar class positions. ‘Thus in Guatemala, for example, one eezdily identi- fies a Maya Indian woman by her distinctive and colorful dress, her tendency to speak only the local dialect of a Mays language, and her madest demeanor ‘when in public settings, especially those involving non-Maya. Mast Maya ‘men, in contrast, are pot so easily distinguished from non-Maya (that is, Ladino?) men of equivalent class in Guatemala 9 1am especially graf co Charles R Hale, Sua Joseph, snd G. Willey Skinaer, who siscusted With me eany of We sues nso I wacked om hese arguments ater shold hhesotcky ta have sue allespues. Since did noc slvas ake hot goes ace they ean oe blamed for my views. Dferene versions of ths essay hate beg dalwere tq teva derett sudieces ‘anthropological, feminist, end Latin Ariecans) atthe Univers of Calames aus, Stnlacd Univesiy, dhe Univer of Texas, Avsun andthe Umersty of Wisco Madison. Fold ike o hank embers of ti audiences for une comment, gust, atd halenges. I wocle also lke to thank Noss Englans, Dane Neon and Abigal Adem for Suggesting chat hisoieioe my alseoslon of contempt Maj Cetera as cappeats, however, that When anette ricer is Wat at ce nat the batom ofthe Losal staus hefatehjmas nthe eae he Heide fewr ef Nev York men ates fly a8 women Re aeled with apectl ethene maker. Why he shad ne s0 wil Be apeaent he aeuivent unfolds ? The measing of Lai in Guatemala very sefie tothe nation of Guatemala, People who ane curertly claniiod Latimer te any prope who a non-Eunopean oe oe Maya, eu the cent et peaale categorized a= Lacinas Kas charge aver time (ace Gaul 1998) mare fll ‘expla the mearing ofthe tc Ladin as I deserie the tonca pamcuats of Gustenal Tn several dozen Maya conmunsties where women wll weave the bulk f the clothing, sme men continue wea ethically ditinetive clothing even ise communities, however Scune et amen wee general ruts cating ndsingushaole fom that of rr naw Mayen, spay when aay fom heir community. Viewally ll Naya women, cw cos, minal comouty Aistinctve crest asa moral comment 2en wen they do not weave a harass (358 Ory 1998, 1952), Fors sophisteates scat of cleric and gender specifi cules pattems ‘in ancher indigenous a of Lata Aetca, se Gl 1993) and ten Caen (1990) naar 7Ssi4aienl62 STA0 + [0.6 1995 Soc fe Coparne Say of Soci 28 Hisny msPBA CAROL A, SMITH In this essay, I attempt Co explain why women, rather than men, carry the ‘emblems of the stigmatized position of a lower-oeder ethnic group in places that the West hes colonized by examining the gender politics of this behavior in Guatemala, where the pattern is especially pronounced. [ also attempt 9 show how ideologies of descent and rules of marriage operate in such sys- ‘ems, in ways that both parockialize women and conflate belief& shout race, class, and culture. For this purpose [ conteast the subordinate Mays belief system abaut identity with the dominant non- Maya or Ladino belief system ‘hich differs on some propositions about race, class, and gender, but shares ‘others, Finally, I consider haw these 1wo different belief systems, as they were first articulated into a race-class-gencer ideology’ and then reformulated with in a revolutionary context, affect the construction of ethnic and national iden ‘ty, In addressing this latter question, I offer some suggestions for why ethnic nationalists are more resistant than others to liberating at modemist ideolo- ‘ies, whether revolutionary a¢ feminist 1 eg more questions than I can fully address by raising so many questions simmultancously, but there is a certain logic to this method. Ultimately T want t0 argue that race, class, and gender are conjoined systems of belief about ‘identity and inequality in much of the contemporary world and that they are Tinked by certain assumptions about descent and inheritance and by certain social practices that enact these beliefs. If this is so, ic will be useful to trace ‘out the ways in which vatious beltefs and practices conceming social identity (that is, race, class, gender, ethnicity, nation, and individual subject) interact with and constrain one anathes in two interactive cultural systems, ane part of the dominant national ideology, the other, not. As this wording implies, Ida ‘not want to separate out and juxtapose one form of social identity, such as race, to another, such as gender. Instead, 1 want to consider several different ways in which Social categories are linked to social practices in the general realm of identity construction. ‘The particular cultural mateix trom which I work is that of modernity, Which T assume to be linked to Furopean colonial expansion and capitalism Tn my view the hierarchies of race, class, and gener associated with capital- ‘+ Tncughaot this ess Tan by race te cman af social engi CEuepa, AEA ative America) and colo (or sereral pence) ats etbodded ia Nort American and Las ‘Ameresa acl am et couse Nattally, [tepals te ea tat ace i 8 selene Inolopea etezon. 2 When feats os jolned by hyper asia raoeclss gender droog his esay, Lam ighlghng the fact at the clement in he sees are dicoravsy jomed. For expe =e clans and gender ier iealogy oF 3068 peace ie connie sje of operesOn Sonich he soul ecrctuston af each lemert powell fete the nur of oer semen “The social conseuaion of ac (te darived fram phesaype, which s taken g be he maker af 2 brcayical or descent cate) i affected ty the clas and gender ofthe pets te 068] omrcton fclass s lao acted by race fr phenorype) nd pert: and the soo eoncrue ‘ow of gent fectad by ace or ghotaype) and cles. Thee linked fry of social sence ‘nu expecily prominent in modern when the nal fy me fell emmeseg lately [Srrancet cornunties WRIch tery he weit ef Sota postonRACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 725, ism are not necessary or even logical outcomes of capitalism but are based on the cultural baggage that came along with the way in which the matecial world of capitalism was historically constructed: for example, with particular kinds of racialized, gendered, free and unfree labor, as they were constituted by Westem categories and institutions. With the expansion of Western culture through capitalism, the systems of race, class, and gender were no longer separate, competitive forms of oppression but came to be linked and mutually reinforcing in practice and through Western cultural precepts about race-class- sender hierarchies. I begin by trying to make the case for the general social and ideological links between race, class, and gender, first in Wester culture genecally and then in modem nation-states of the West, as others have constructed the case. L conclude by attempting to reformulate the meaning of mademity for race- class-gender systems in social relations that involve colonialism, nationalism, and ethnicity, as well as ideologies of modem liberation. [illustrate my argurnent with the case of contemporary Guatemala, an interesting historical tix of madem and anti-modem elements,* sonte congruent with eack other, ‘ost deeply contradictory. Guatemala makes an interesting and complex case because i was colonized by the West io the sixteenth century (during which a premacem symbolics of blood became dominant among the colonists), it Separated in the late ninetcenth century into two competing national potentials (hispanicized Ladinos and culturally tesitant Maya}; and it has been pulled since then in three different directions: the creation of a modem authoritarian state ruled by elite white men, the creation of a modecn revolutionary state representing the mixed blood of the proletariat, and an anti-modem multe cultural state comprising the diverse Maya communities IDEOLOGICAL LINKS AMONG RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN THE WEST. ‘Throughout Western history, people who assumed powerful positions in class society defended their class privileges in terms of their blood—a descent ideology that was implicitly cacialist. Michel Foucault (1980) describes the ‘premodern system a5 a “symbolics of blood” upan which an emerging bour _gtoisie erected the more directly biologist, racist system of modernity. As he the “‘blood relation” renvained a significant ideological precept? © ake the ste of “anmedem’ From a recent ale by Joel Kat (1950), who depicts pessate as antneapitalit rer tap non capitalist of peceptai, (use ewer at oeer "ater than st-espsln in onder to exes te ide ha pests atc eating ssunpeies of te ‘odern nation tte a well a eat 7 By the te cceoogreal proce, {eae eseaally whi rkete Williams eneas, tha is “mules and stindaed, fen expessed in piciples, resins, of ovate, which declare the word tobe ofa certain egmeostion std fo wack me cela way eeceis Secure selagie| when they ae inked to policealypeivleges erections of hurtan experiences whch ignore oF cose itlevanlforton tat etree loge of tee rles and sardards (13986),726 CAROL A. SMITH in “modem mechanisms of power, its manifestations, and its rituals” (1980:148). In “blood regimes,” the value of descent lines are predominant, and blood constitutes ane of the fundamental signifiers of position in a soci ery. Systems of mavital and political alliance are linked and based on blood status ("blue blood”); the political legitimacy of the sovereign is based on blood lines; and society is differentiated into orders and castes-on the basis of blood descent (Foucault 1980:147-8). Later (hat is, under capitalism), “the symbolie funetion” of blood comes 10 predominate: Beginning in the second falf of che nineteenth century, ce thematic of blood was sometimes called on to lend is entire historical weight taward revitalizing the ype of political power that was exercised (ia a new disciplinary form. Ractsm took shape at his point (racism in 6 modern, “biologizing," statist form)... Nazism wes doubt less the rost cunning and the most naive... combination of the fantasies of blood and the parosysms of a disciplinary power (Foucavle 1980:149). ‘Other scholars have described the significance of Westem “blood regimes” for women's reproductive and sexual roles. lack Goody (1976:41-65), for example, deseribed how monogamous European marriage systems, organized as heir producing devices, instiutionalized class distinctions in the West. ‘Only the certified wife (the rank of whose blood lines were equivalent co those of her husband) produced a legitimate heir, the offspring of (lower-class) concubines would remain distinct and propertyless. Goody developed a con- teast between Eurasia and Aftica, noting that in Africa, where polyzyny prevailed (and all wives were of equivalent marital status), the blood lines of the upper classes were not so clearly distinguished. Goody only implicitly notes te difference in sexual standards becween men and women ofthe upper classes in regimes of blood. But from his descriptions itis clear that social ‘expectations concerning the sexual behavior of an upper-class woman were very different feom thase concerning the upper-class man Gerda Lemer (1986) theorizes the linkage between sexual standards and race-cfass-gener hierarchies. She argues that the Western casterlike system of stratification that arose with che Western patriarchal state cequiced that women’s bodies and social freedoms be controlled because women had been construed as the biological “repositories” of descent systems (blood regimes) that ideologically and materially bolstered Western class systems. Thus, dif ferences in blood explained differences between genders as well as those between races and classes because blood differences could only be maintained thcough the control of women's sexuality and ultimately their social freedoms In this way, class and race oppression based itself upon the contral over women’s sexuality and sacially constructed differences putin biological terms to such an extent that race, class, and gender were seen to be linked. LLemer then goes on to explain how Western regimes of blood required the sexual purty and ideological complicity of upper-class women. Elite women could retain their status and reproduce themselves (in both class and biolos-RACE-CLASS-OENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 727 {cal terms) anly through their sexual conduct: They hac to remain virgin until marriage, monogamous after marriage, and socislly protected throughout their lives from even the suspicion of improper sexual behavior. Only by controlling elite women's sexuality could the upper classes (bath men and women) proclaim that theie progeny were of pure or legitimate blood. Those elite women who violated the rules of sexual conduct could lose their class status to become, like lower-class women, the concubines, prostitutes, and sexual playthings of elites; they could even become mates for the lower classes. Elite men faced no such restrictions on their sexual behavior—they had access to many women of many ranks throughout theit lives, some of whoa became their legal wives, others of whorn became their irregular con- ceubines. tn this way, Lerner argues, the ideological foundations for class reproduction in the West were as ouch rooted in the contcol and oppression of women as in biologism (or racism} ‘Verena Stolcke (1981), the best source on the intersection of marriage with race and class in historical Latin America, suggests how the Western “symbol ies of blood” shifted under capitalism to create an even more virulent form of racism (see also Hobsbawm 1975), together with a grester cancern with the sexual conduct of upper-class women. Stoleke argues thet the ideology of capitalism attacked! atone level the aristocratic ideas in Europe that pure blood lines should define and limit political and economic rights. Bourgeois society espoused the ideology that all men are created equal and that the best of them will win out in fair market competition; yet, the rising bourgeoisie wanted to raintain their holdings or family property over time. In order to eationalize existing and continuing class inequalities and to reproduce a class system over time, bourgeais society explained the maintenance of classes over generations witha notion ofthe survival af he fitest.? Fitness, of course, was assumed to be based on inherited qualities and required even greater concert with elim- © teen Siveblat (1988) assures us fa the veptadoctive {gender} Kee of cass and ice tamination she Wes, whic requlred onto over women's sexist ane repredction,f900 8 funciaeal prerequisite of clas seiety everywhere. Her wn work onthe Ena 9H?) descr am alternative sekualrepoduetve system ate ated with char saifcetion atthe ee ack Goody, i 3 lege sunter of plication (Se especialy 1976, ust be teed wk sowing thar this akige 16 nor univers) i al socal sjstems wih les stanteatom. Developing + fneastPotwoen Afar and Eurasian ste fsaifiation, Goody show that African cons ‘jens re bose en ently diferent cles and Belts concerning pope mgs, nhartsnee, ‘ul conduct, and te ike 2 Hanshaw, m acne he eiculy the Bourgeoisie he i jostiying ts awn succes by the rules of “endosm opportans, the cis saus end the aueutof (advil pest makes > Hence the growing impornes ofthe alkematve themes of logieal ls sugernty, which pervade so mich of te ninctcenh century Wetanscnauing, Sipenonty wae the result of tial Selecion, geretialyransmated. The bowrgease was, ne decent species, hn at eet the tember fs superior te, a higher sate of human evolution, distinc’ fom the Lower orders tht reminod inthe hiirical oe cll equvatnt af childhooe oe st mas adolescence tsaa7-3}28 CAROL A. SMITH inating the non-fi (that i, those thought to have inferior bload) from competi tion in the marker.1® Stolcke, who terms this new ideology “scientific natural- ism,” explains its paradoxical development in the following way: ‘The age of the French and American revolutions not only proclaimed the ideas of freedom, equality, and tolerance, bur alsa saw the bith of racai classifications and hierarchies. The crucial issue was how to ecarele feedam and equality af all ren ‘with perceived inequalities, Racial elasiications from the zt callapsed phenatyp cal, cultural, rd social tats and were applied not only tothe “savages” abcoad but also to diferences at home. Ifthe seedeterminicg individual sered to prove incapable of rxaking the most of the opportunities society appeared c offer him, it ‘rust be due c some estentialinherene nairal Gefect which was hereditary The tesul ‘was a sociopolitical and exltural elim grounded i theories of biological clas super rity (Stolcke nd. 2) ‘Stolcke gors on to argue that scientific naturalism Cound its fullest expression in Nazi Germany as well as inthe white-uled colonies of the West. It resulted in systematic forms of racism (aften apartheid, sometimes genocide) and ineveased concer for women’s purity as reproducers of the biologically fit She makes clear, however, that the ideology af scientific naturalism was not an imperialist mutant but, rather, was basic to social life under Western capitalism, remaining 2 “diffuse social sentiment” today (1981:38), THE DMPACT OF NATIONALISM AND COLONIALISM ON RACE/CLASS/GENDER IDEOLOGY The European assumptions that conflate race, class, and culture diffused throughout the world not simply as a cultural accompaniment to capitalist but also as elements in the widespread idealogical construction of madera nations—a political and cultural effect af capitalism's European origins."* Thus, in the third world and! in Europe, national sovercignty was proclaimed everywhere and came 10 be justified by certain identical ideological claims which logically integrated notions af territoriality, biological purity, cultural homogeneity, and status stratification, indicating how earlier notions of nation, as blood group remain tied to the formation af the state as a political unit (see B. Williams 1990, 1993). Partha Chatterjee (1986) suggests how this might have happened in non-Western cultural contexts in his study of Indian nation lism, Indian nationalists such as Bankinchandra, Gandhi, and Nehma were all anti-colonialists united mainly in an attempt to create an autonomous national sate and culture. They were doomed to fail in this enterprise because they 1© Given te ink berween capi st imperialism, the nti of Fi aes ee alot oF sense ta oth Lawes and upper clases ne center of the Yay unecual apts worl economy, ‘ich came no beng pr the prediction of bic carmen ies wih he aba of can ses, New Wid Incans, ahd otber nonohite srs al ever the er "Tae lita al clases thin aration sce the env tasic cule, i nat boat. #809 | idelyachnowladged a bes dem a neteenh-enury invention sich a belie was nota a ‘gpl of ealy achat ster made vp of 8 misnc of iferen peoples (eee, for example, ‘Anderson (1585, Geller (15831),RACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 729 were forced ta derive the cultural meaning of what they were auempting «0 construct (a single and homogeneous state, nation, and culture) frarn Western ourse about them. He summarizes this argument in later article: [Undian} watonalism located its own subjectivity in the spicitual domain of exleure, Where it considered iself super fo the West and ence uadaminated and sover- ign... . [The] formation of 2 hegemonic “national culture" was necessarily built Upon the privileging of 29 “essential tation” [in which “women” and "hame’ were ot fa be “modernized” a: Westernized], which in urn was defined by 2 system of exclusions (of women, ethnic minorutes, lower classes)... (This) went hand in hand wich a set of dichotomies that spsteratcaly excluded from the new life ofthe ration the vast masses of people (for example, women, minorities, lower classes] ‘whom the domirant elite would represent and lead... Inthe confrontation between colocualst and gatonalst discourses, the dichowoies of spieital/matril, home! ‘world, ferinine/masculine, while enabling the production of a nationalist discourse dlferent {tom tet of colonialism, nonetheless temain tapped within its framework of fatse esseaislisms (Chatterjee 1989:631~2), As Chatterjee sees it then, the adoption of Western nationalist discourse by Indian eationalists led to 2 homogenized and essentialized cultural. self- representation—a “derivative discourse” on the Indian state, nation, and culture—necessarily cauched in Western terms, Thus, Indian nationalists, even as they struggled against a colonial discourse on gender, hegan to see the telation of gender to the nation ina Westem way. They also began to exclude their ethnic minorities and lower classes from their conception ofthe nation in, a Western way. In this fashion anti-colonial precepts cane ta embedy Western precepts about the nation—and about the links between the nation, race, class, and culture. In this way, too, gender played a pivotal cole in esseetializ= ing the spiric of the nation ‘Chatierjee’s argument suggests that in madem nationalist ideologies, whether Furopeas or ean-European, the female will always come ta stand for the spirit of the nation and the site of its reproduction because the female is (always?) the “essentialized” hamebodied Other. In my view, however, West- em beliefs about inheritance (ia its material, biological, and cultural senses)? provide the key ideolagical clement linking race, class, culture, and nation to gender. In Western ideology, a person's race, class, and culture are thought to be more clearly inherited fram women than from men hecause itis assumed that women's uncontrolled sexual lusts will make paternity muddy or uncer- tain, Europeans insttutionalized these concerns about patrilineal inheritance with patticular kinds of sexual controls and marital arrangements. As Goody "ris eotewonhy thatthe Wester term nheiane ans aot only “(the 2 nonin propery.” but also“) gence character tram ‘rom parent afspnng” an") he egustion ofa possession, conden, ce ual Com past some fat eo ey be inher Property pussing at she owner's death co the ber oxthone erie ig second legacy (Radon, Haire Webster's New Callesate Disionary (New York Ransom Hose, (982),730. CAROL A. SMITH (1976) points out, they created separate roles for wives and concubines, controlling the sexuality of each (andthe progeny ofeach) in different ways. AAs colonialist, moreover, Europeans linked different marriage and mating pattems to wornen of different classes, races, and national origins in such a way as to maintain separate hierarchies for different races, classes, and cul tures (See also Martiner-Alier 1974; toler 1991). Women thus became the key icons around which a modern nation or culture would be built in cultura, biological, and material terms. And reproductive contcal over wornen— control of their sexuality —hecarne the instrumental means by which ecanom- ic, political, and cultural dorninance ofthe elie in a new nation was assured. While obtaining such reproductive control aver women is not a necessary or universal pattern (0 sttuting a modern nation sate, ics ceainly predomi- anc in those nation-states thot were former European colonies. In this way the formation of different and unequal forms of marriage and concubinage be- came. a pervasive feature of modemity HE COLONIAL CONSTRUCTION OF A GUATEMALAN ‘SYMBOLICS OF BLOOD" Different colonial powers of the West created the political and cultural cond tions by which new nations would interpret race, class, and gender in distinc tive ways." As mentioned earlier, Staleke is the best source on the intersec~ tion of marriage and Kinship with cace and class in historical Latin America. "4 Ina recent article, Stolcke (1991) suggested, in a summary of her work, how the Spanish conquest of indigenous and African slave women and the institu- tionalization af different and unequal Kinds of marciage patterns berween people of different social origins (African, American, European) affected race-class-gender ideology in the Hispanic parts of the New World: ‘When social positon is acted t inherent, natural cit, and therefore hereditary qualities, the elite's contol of the procreative capacity oftheir women is esseatial for them to preserve teir social preeminence. As a nineteenth century Spanish jutist argued, only waren can bring bastards ico the family. By insccutionalizing the metaphysical nation af blood as the carrier af family pestige and asthe idealagical instrument to guarantee the cial hierarchy, the state, in allance with fares that Were pure f blood, subjected their women (9 renewed contra of thee sexuality while theic Sons took thelr pleasure witk thase women who lacked social status without having to zssime any responsibilty for it (Stoleke 1991-28). TF nm, Soler Fas datrioed the pater inationliad during the eietcem and ewer ‘ennues in eolciat Southest Asia (1992). These pater bes 4 genera esembance (0 those fratutualized much eter i Latin Aric, TH Steleke's est major work was wet. 09 Cs under Mariner (1974, ices then br deus an che lconnip bawecn race, lass, ond gender othe Amerias Have bees taken upby ‘hers, ox promesty Arrom (1993) and Seed (V9K8), whe tes clonal and pose-cloaal ‘Meues. See tsa Laver <1989) an ealnit Latin Americ snd G, A. Smad am he pater ldueughou the Areicas ie the pos call pene.RACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 731 ‘The mestza and mulatto popelation multiplied asa result ofthe ubiquitous cane binage between white men and Indisn or black women . and inspired deep distust because they. placed in doubt or actively threatened the emerging racial hier acy... For the elites and for thase who sought to get close ro them, leitimate birth from a legitimate marred couple thus acquired new importance a8 dre only proaf af parity of load. Mepitimate birth, on the ather hand, was a sige af “infamy, stain and Aefect” stemming from the mistue of races. The only guarantee of racial put, hence social prestige, was marrage between facia! [and class] equals (Stoleke 1991:26-27}, fo this way, a “dual marital strategy"? was produced throughout colonial Latin America, wherein men of European descent established legal monoga- mous martiages with women of their own race and class, whose offspring became their legitimate heirs, while engaging in irregular liaisons, frequently by force, with non-European women, rately recognizing those offspring. At the same time elite men felt the need co safeguard vigorously the purity of women they considered theirs from men other than their legitimate spouses, especially from men of lower-ranking social origins Severo Martinez Pelaez (1973), the foremost Guatemalan historian of the colonial period, recapitulates the importance of these assumptions in under- standing the positions of the white (Spanish) elite in Guatemala (Wwhaea he ems creates) and Ladinos (who are people of non-legitimate lineage in the ‘yes of creoles}, His understanding about the linkage between race, lineage, and class is exceptionally keen; his understanding of gender only implicit. [ quote hint at lenath bere because his exposition of Guatemalan ideology has clarity and specificity concerning race, class, and gender: ‘The (male} Spaniard 2s well as che hispanic creale—caried out very diferent acis when he capulsted with a Spanish woman and when he copulated with an Tndian ‘one. . (He 100k the Spanish woman, oc had w take her, tothe Church and there, in ‘ceremony to which the asembled atributed anscendental meaning, he commited bimself to ive with her in everlasting union, to prosect and edvcate his ctildren, and to make them, and eventually her oo, hers to his goods, Trese children received certain ‘material goods as wel as @ certain capacity o conserve and expand thers, They entered group [to which] ther parents ana other families belonged which also had something to conserve, inherit, end expand, They became part af the dominant class, “The Indian woman was not simply Cerlized by the Spaniard or the exeoe Wither sie was raped, deceived, brived, seduced, ot persuades . the fundamental condition of the teletionship that cceured hetween Spanish men and Indian women ‘vas, aftr all the superiority of the colonizer over the native—oot only the pretention of superiority bt effective superiority interns of economic and social advantage, {The importan point is zat] the Indian woman was act the wife ofthe Spaniard or the ‘ecole who occasionally or regularly possessed her. She was rather his ledlan conet bine (his barragana inthe judicial lexicon of te era) which inthis content meant his ‘extramarital servant supplying the commodity of sex. TR. Smith (1984, 1992) defies sad deserien a dulamatriage satay a8 ote hich upper-class mex pial muinain be eginate and “outsde” wives or concubines. Smit has worked mainly ofthe pattem tthe Caribe but sts at esate feo corn fo at,732 CAROL A. SMITH No law, no moral code obligated the colonial gentleman to his Indian concubine, noe to the children he procreated with ter. Inheritance of blond equaled inheritance of power. The protection of wealth within a small European nucleus of heits of the conquest demanded that the oucleus remain closed and is racial “character” pro tected —a racial character to whick was atibuted fegm the beginning 4 false sigoifi= ‘cance a5 a source of distinction in every sense... .(Slocial opinion Was not bothered hy concubine rlatoas and spurious ehildcen—cammon happenings ia cotonal life — as Jong as the man’s conduet efit ciarly understood tha these were eseapades that ‘dd not deesten the strocere noe the patrimony ofthe legitimate {ereale] family. The colonial aristocracy, the creole class... remained closed to the people of mixed blood and tothe Indians ducing the respectable lapse of thee centuries, Let us understand, then, that the ital mestizaie (he exeation of mixed-blood offspring) was an act realized in the contest of and as 2 consequence of the sacial Ineniorily and disadvantage of 2 woman. foe the dominated class facing 4 man fram, the dominane class. It was the resule of a biological union based on profound human distnion and inequality —of forieation a8 an act af veiled domination of, in many ‘cases, simple and open rape. The children ofthese unians, the original mestizos, were what they were —-woskers sethout pelimony --.—36 4 consequence af their parents belonging to two antagonistic classes. Nether could give cea place without bring ing harm to ther class ar themselves. ‘The secondacy mestizaje, the multiplication of mestizas combining among, ther selves and with various other groups— Including of course the Spaniards and ereoles themselves—could not he anything other than the protongation and compilation of wat resulted fort the intial mestizaje, From the multiplication of beings who were bom outside the wealthy dominant class and cutside the serile Indian group ws 4 ‘rolfertion of inviduals in search of middle-level and inferir vacant postions ard Sccupations. Individuals without inherited property. oc autharty, of Taian servants, had to make themselves useful inorder ta survive. The need for free workers acted a6 3 ‘mold into which the kuman steam of mestizns was poured [thus was torn the Gus temalan Ladino] (Martner 1975.355-60, my wanslaton). In the post-colonial, nationalist context of Latin Americ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, according to Stoleke, “scientific racism came to replace the metaphysics of purity of blood" (1991:28) but the kinship, mari tal, and sexual patterns insttutionalized in the colonial period remained essen- tially the same (for documentation of this, see Arrom I98S; Stepan 1991). The ‘major shift that occurred in the post-colonial period throughout Latin America is thatthe ruling class tended to become more mestizo and less white. Color distinctions among mestizos remained important, however, and exttemely gendered (see C. A. Smith n.d.) In post-colonial Guatemala, for example, some Ladinos rose 10 positions of ‘wealth and prominence, while others remained the disenfranchised workers 0 whom Martinez alludes. Upwardly mobile Ladinos, however, took on the beliefs and kinship practices of the white creoles, who remained Guatemala’s true ruling class—and the producérs of the hegemonic national and race class-gender ideology (Martinez. 1973; Casaus Arzi 1992). After Iodepen- dence, lower-class Ladino women were more likely to be preyed upon by ‘upper-class males than Indian women, leading to what Martinez terms secRACE-CLASS-GENDER IDFOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 733, ondary mestizaje. Ontmayr (1991) documents that the marital practices of upwardly mobile Ladinos began to resemble those of the ereole ete in the nineteenth century. '# And MeCreery (1986) observes that virally ro pras- tutes in late-nineteenth-century Guatemala were: Indian; most were lower class Ladino women. Io this litle-studied period, Maya beliefs concerning race, elass, and gender alsa reformulated themselves; and sexual (reproduc- tive) contact between self-identified Maya and Ladinos seems to have dimin- ished considerably. Few anthropologists have followed up on Stoleke's pioneering work on historical Latin. American race-class-gender relations and theit impact on contemporary marciage and kinship systems, though she has heen extremely influential in the Caribbean literaure (see, for example, R. T. Smith 1984, 1992). I find her arguments for contemporary Guatemala generally persue: sive, though incomplete. As formulated, her arguments do not treat the con- temporary or nationalist periods, nor do they consider the impact of coloniz ing ideologies on colonized peoples, stich a8 the Maya. In addition, she pays relatively litle attention to the strategies of oppressed women and their com- plicity or resistance to & masculinist elite ideology. Despite the advantage of those in power to impose. on others their new institutions, beliefs, and sent iments through persuasion or faree, we would be perpetuating elite delusions of omnipotence to confuse their race-class-gender metaphars and evaluations With those of society as a whole. The problem, then, isto discover or suggest if and how colonial elite race-class-gender ideology has been accepted, re~ sisted, or reformulated by the oppressed races, classes, and genders, explore this notion further by examining Guatemalan race-class-gender ideologies in the contemporary period, concentrating on the beliefs and behaviors of Maya Wworven, who are the triply oppressed in terms of race, class, and gender. [ begin, however, with the dominant ideology held by the elites and Ladinos of modern Guatemala, RACE/CLASS IDEOLOGY AMONG MONERN GUATEMALAN ELITES Class in Guatemala is inextricably bound up with constructions of rece and blood in ways that we might suspect fromm the above." Guatemalan elites sill consider themselves white in race (though few are without some non-white 6 According to Ontaye (L991), who teat mivige nd tity in niceteecthceany Qu lemala, the te of mariage Tor Cading women fre sbtanialy Between 1HS0 and 1950, DOrtrayr, Rowevee, makes 90 dstieions by els, 30 he Is realy dacurenting the upwars ‘mobility a sme Caioas in sala sd elas let Ae ding econo and pote ores ‘ose was independence tow Spun, the bacone mt closely Iceied wa Spam ersien fd overaully assume rio eeole cultural puters. Tak s oe tue of Laver cess Lads, ewevet, tose maical ang fter culaal pate remained deen res Mat ofan es. SMa ‘Atom (0585] makes tis agumene inch enreckaly for nnetent-cenury Mexico City TY 'See, foe example, Bretell 1979; St 1990: Knight 1990. Thare Rac been + Long and risiading debace on the mater (eseribd ix Breall (979) among, anbopologs, whch is fly now being rest734 CAROL A, SMITH admixture) and European in culture (Casaus Arzd 1992}, They attempt to maintain both their racial purity and their legitimacy as the main power hholdets in Guaternala by maintaining theis cultural and marriage ties to the Whiter and more dominant parts of the world, namely, Europe and the United States. Tis makes it viewally impossible for them to create 2 unified Gua- tomalan nation. On what basis—other than a racist ideology—can a white, basically non-Guatemalan elite claim to have the right to rule all of Gua- temala, which is more than half Mayan’ And if persuasive, does not tis racist ideology impugn even the rights of white Guatemalans, who ate assumed to be less racially pure than the white forcigners they emulate? This problem has forced Guatemala’s white ant-colonial nationalists to do a lot of soul search- ing and hand weinging, even though i¢has caused surprisingly few of them to challenge the underlying assuraptions about theic awn right co rule over Gua- temala, The assumption that ereoles (those of European descent) should rule in Guatemala has rarely been challenged, even to the present day.48 Although those of more clearly mixed descent have been “invited into history” by changes in ethaic and racial labels which 00 longec distinguish between Ladinos and exeoles (both groups now being labeled Ladinos), Guatemalans of predominantly European ancestry clearly remain Guatemala’s ruling class and continue to make distinctions between themselves and those of mixed ancestry (Casaus Arai 1992; Gould 1994) There is litle question that Guatemala's middle» and lower-class Ladinos, whose class and race position is considered intermediate between that of ‘Guatemala’s elites and Maya Indians, support the elite ideology, even though they ate exploited by it The class position of mast Ladinos is that of salaried workers and petty bureaucrats, which in the context af an economy that is not fully capitalist puts thers in the middle, rather than lower, class rungs of the system. Lower positions ate reserved for {ndian peasants and artisans who bear the burden of absolute, rather than relative, class exploitation, Because Ladino race and class position is thought to be intermediate between that of Indians and creoles, the two systems, race and class, bolstec each other in the actual material organization of Guatemaln’s economy. The Ladino proletariat is happy to accept a system that basically exploits them, not only because salaried work is better paid and mare secute than non-oroletarian forms of {abor but because it allows thera co identify with creoles vis-2-vis Guaternala’s Maya Indians and, thus, to more easily exploit Guaterala’s Maya majority, who are less fully proletarianized (C. A. Stuith 1990). {As in much of Latia America, cace is largely defined through culture rather than thcough descent (For an especially good depiction of this complexity, see Stutzman 1981). A person who is publically recognized as Ladino can be "8 tndhi cea, Guster 6 mare conscvtve ey Maxico hough see Knight 1990), on Gast ee Mane Peles (1979), C&S (158),RACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 735 virally any biological mixture—from all Mayan to all Furopean—bux must acquiesce to the dominant national culture, sever Kinship ties with indigenous ‘community members, and speak Spanish. In fact, state policy in Guatemala since independence fcom Spain has promoted the cultacal assimilationof Maya, accepting assimilated individuals s Ladino citizens with ie full politcal rights ‘that unassimilated Maya do not have. At he same time, however, lighter and more Enropeanized Ladinas are more highly evaluated by ather Ladinos ‘specially as mariage partners, than darker, more Mayen, individuals. Color, ‘education, and connections fo Europe and or North America areas important a3 class in positioning different Ladinos opposite the creole power elite SEX AND MARRIAGE AMONG GUATEMALA’S LADINGS Ladino sexual and marital pattems in Guatemala, which I consider modem. if somewhat more traditional than most, are similar to those found throughout Latin America. Class position has a much mace dramatic impact on the sexual and marital options available ta Ladino women than ta Ladino men. There are three statuses for women descended frorn the white elite, based on their sextal activity: virgins, legitimate wives, and prostitutes. (Women whose sexual activities vialate the elite sexual standard are labeled prostitutes, which effec tively declasses thera) These statuses reinforce the. class-race-gender system as follows. Legitimate wives in Guatemala mostly come from the same race ‘and class background as the men they marry. Legitimacy in marital status, following upon virginity, is especially important to upper-class white women, Laurel Bossen describes the sexual status of elite women in the mid-1970s in the following terms: “The... woman who produces chien without a contzat of paternal recognition (egal marriage) from a man of ker class jeopardizes her membership in the cass. She mus be able socially to “prove” the paternity of chien in order to maint class frsilege. Social proae generally consists ofthe absence af any evidence a ins nuation ff independent interaction wath males atker then a woman's kin a husband, She must ‘ac above suspicion. Hence, virginty for unmamed women and the appearance of absolute sexval monogamy for married women are means by wlich legally macried parents of middle or upper socjoecoromic status ensue the right of thelr children to inset cir class status and privileges (assen 1984-2945) Even though birth conteol and abortion are now widely available to these women, mast have internalized what we would consider a Victorian notion of their sexuality. A (venty-one-year-old unmarried wornan, member of the cre ole elite, described sexual differences between men and women to Bassen as follows: chink sex is more important for a man, Men want to demonstrate their hombria manliness), A oman can reserve herself, She must deny sexuality, If she di ot do 0, she Would be ike the prostitutes. In my environment, there ar sont gils who are freer far lave, but late, Hs theawn in tele face (Bassen 1984:292),736 CAROL A. SMITE ‘This woman, like most members ofthe elite, thus reduces women of her class into the three groups described abave: unmartied virgins (like herself}, leg imate wives (whose sexual-reproductive activity is reserved for their hus- ‘bands), and prostitutes (who can no longer reproduce elite status). ‘The reduction of elite women to race and class reproducers is reflected in ‘heir high birth rates within legal marriage, together with theie low emplay- ‘ment and divorce rates (Bossen 1984:288-95). Elite women with children rarely work outside of the home, Indeed, until recently Guatemala's Civil Code allowed men ( restrict their wife's employment: “The husband can oppose the wife's dedication 1 activites outside the home, as long.as the supplies whstis necessary far the support ofthe steve, . Once procreation Sars ‘with the hth ofthe first, the woman must understand that her eussion is i the home. and except for very special circumstances ste must not negieet her children under the pretext of personal necessities er the desi 1 a her husband (Cdigo Civil eo. Ley 106, Amicuto 114, cifed in Bossen 1984:274), Some women interviewed by Bossen resisted this restriction in various ways, but few questioned male authority in this domain. Mast reasoned that men forbade women to work autside the home out of (appropriate) sexual jealousy fr co protect the reputation of the family—both the man as breadwinner and. the woman as sexually circumspect. Upper-class women’s views about work and marriage help explain the contradictory position of lower class Ladina women on both of thase topics. Lower-class Ladino women would also prefer legal (civil) marriage but rarely attain it, Roughly (wo-thirds of the lower class Ladino women interviewed by Bossen (half in an urban squatter setdement, half in a rucal plantation area) ‘were not legally married, and most had had moce than one sexual partner. Because these women worked, mastly outside the home, they were sexually suspect. Those few women who were legally married were mostly wedded «0 ‘men who had stable employment; these men could (and did) “derwand 2 high degree of control over their wives’ activities, typically seen in a curtailment ‘of sexual ireedoms and social relationships outside the family" (Bassen 1984:167). Even so, married women were not immune to being abandoned by their hushands. As Bossen saw it, lower-class Ladino women faced strong, ‘competition from other women for een who had stable jobs or good incomes: While alcoholism and mate peer groups may be contributing factors, wives generally petceive their cel competition tobe other women. prosticutes in cown who are intr tested in a worker's paycheck and local women... wha may Rope fo establish & permanent suppartrelalonsip. An insecure fei eluent ta jeapartize her position by diteely atacking her husband when he wrongs her (which) would challenge his aubonty ox drive hie even more surely tothe comfans af 2 new parser. tasted, Women who feel severely thyeatened ace prone t9 attack the competition. While such, aacks may begin with verbal abuse, they may well culminate in physical violeoce ‘Bossen (984:154).RACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 737 ‘Where possible, lawerclass Ladino women would exchange a poor pro- vider for a better one—for example, substituting the role of wife to 2 poor man for the role of concubine toa richer man. This Was not a major sacsifice, fox, in severely reduced economic circumstances, there is not a great deal of separation between legitimate wives (who can legally make certain property Previous sexual experience or marital > The Maya ate of mmamage s about 0:0 95 percenn sommeunis no veraging about an aids, ope of et ahesteaes of cory incaetage inte Work (Aa an Kast 1975), See Cany and Garcia Catt (1989) for adiewsin of male eign pater innRACE-CLASS-GENDER [DEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 739 failure did not jeopardize the chances of remarriage for either women or men. ‘There were no prostitutes or concubines within Maya communities, and inity was not highly prized. Maya men would occasionally have more than fone wife but made no distinctions among their wives—all wives (whose status of wife was achieved simply by taking up domestic relations with a Maya man} could make equal economic claims for themselves and their children. “[Maya] women also formfed] sexual and exchange relationships with more than one man simultaneously, although with greater discretion” (Bossen 1984:122), Bocsen provides an example: [A Maya woman} Maria Lazaro, roughly 60 years old, is marred to Bttain [of the Same community] who i chout the same age. Bosh have been married twice previ- ously. Bfain's fest wife ran away with another man after she had fad two ehildren with Bain, [Such a woman would be socially recognized as the “legitimate wite" of her second mate, once the relationship was securely established, as lng as he was a rmemoer of the Same community] His second wife bore mare children and died, Teaving him with young dependen’s. Maria Lazaro had also been widowee, first, and then separated ftom her Second husband, She was it her mid-S0s and Living with her father when Efrain came ta ask for her She had never had any chilcen and at any rate was beyond childbearing age when Fain came to sk for her He offically petitioned her father, although iis understood thatthe father cannot corumand a grown daughter, conly/a young one (Bossen 1984:137}, Maria Lazaro was married to her thind husband by Maya custom (a smal ride pice was pid for her, despite the fact that she had earlier been widowed, had ‘married a second time, was abandoned by her second husband, and was now well past the age of bearing children Maya women, unlike other Guatemalan women, were celatively autono- mous subjects (Socially and economically) within theit communities. They ‘inherited their own land, usually had their owa sources of income, and were ‘elatvely fee to move about (within the commuoity). Maya womeo, more- over, could seek divorce, mediation, ac redtess feom the community if eis- teeated by their ushands and were more or less guaranteed a relatively secure place in the community, with oc without theit original husbands, if they followed the Tocal rules of cultural and sexual conduct. The rules of sexual conduct did not requite them to abstain from social contact with men other than kin in the community, to be virgins at martiage, orto rsk abandonment by kin and community if discovered in sexual relations with men in the community other than their husbands—ualike the demands made of legit ‘Amenca fost areas the cumer of worsen migrans fer ausrips hat of men because hey are roace eal employed in bam ae her me. 1 Evidence fom more temas and teianal Maya communes such 3g Cangas, Manic) rake tis clear (ee, fr example, aller 1971, 1878 and Resenheum 1925). But ih ceain ‘May ares Guatemala, where conte with te Catnote Charen snd with Laci sexu 2nd ‘mata ears as teen elstvely song, thee greater concer for feral vig (ae Ehlers 1956, 193,740 CAROL A. SMITH. mate wives in the rest of Guatemalan society. Instead, Maya women were mainly required to wear the emblems of their community identity, matry local ‘men, and beat and nurture children of the community. There was one other requirement, a product of colonialism: Maya women were expected to avoid contact with men outside the community, especially Ladings, and were expected to conduct themselves modestly, which is not the perceived behavior of Ladina women.2® WhiJe a Maya worsan raped by ‘a Ladino would not be cepudiated by her community (nar would the child of such a union), 2 woman wha voluntarily left her coramunity for a mating ‘arrangement with a Ladino (usually in the process adopting Ladino identity) ‘would not be welcomed back inta her community. In Totonicapain, the Maya community where [lived in the 1970s, women who changed to Ladino dress (which was interpreted as a public announcement that they were seek- ing 4 relationship with a Ladino man) were called whores and rarely mar- tied within the community. Those women who took up employment as domestics in Ladino households—where they were aften sexually ahused— were able to contract marriages with Maya men ftom their comnmunity but appeared to contract less advantageous marriages than women Who did not take up such employment. In this sense, Maya women appeared to be stamped as community property, if not individual male property, in a sexual sense. ‘AS [ see it, then, Maya women exchanged the freedom to abandon their communities (socially, culturally, sexually, and reproductively) for a certain personal security within their communities—a security that no other Gua. temalan women had. By following the rules of cultural and sexual conduct, the Maya woman, at least traditionally, could expect community support against abandonment or mistreatment by her husband. Because of her eco- nomic autonomy and value, a Maya woman who was abandoned or who wished to repudiate her marriage could eeturn home, remarry.or live indepen dently with her children, It should be noted that Maya women were no more likely ta be abandoned than Maya men, for mast Maya men also eschewed Ladino norms of sexual and social conduet (that is, machismo and promis- ‘uity}, i?not other patriarchal rights. In order to find legitimate spouses within their communities, Maya men were expected to he as hard working, respons- 2 Foc discussions ofthe code of cond fr bata Mays and Ladino women tat sappot hs argument, sce Rigoberta Menchi's autabigsiphy Mhnges-Deray 1983), Laurel Bose (1988), -Rovenkati 995) am nots ute any ote! es ae =pplies to Mabs women whe mary Mah tmen af ther commsites In preclomal times, elite Maya sid marry sors commu {carnal ta iss common (0 ll Miya certs, Waren Sore caries fave changed thie dress a8 2 poup w thot majr tepeeussens & who losing comAny ianciy Ehlers 1990). The highly plitezed eatue of ti abeing ef nan ston wercen ‘Doloncapie, whore [ worked, rey tefl paca sexuel orem lesions nat comntsRACE-CLASS-GENDER (DFOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 741 ible, and non-promiscuous as Maya women.” Maya men were given much wider sexual latitude than Maya women, however. Given that raale sexual and cultural behavior outside of their community was not as closely circumscribed as female sexual and cultural behavior, were hot Maya women still oppressed when compared to Maya men? And did not theic conduct reproduce, though in 2 different form, the dominant race-class- ‘ender ideology of Guatemala—making both Maya and Ladino women icons ff cace and class identity? As a feminist I would have to say yes ta both ‘questions, but I would also have to say, as those few other students of Maya women have also said, that Maya women were freer than any ather Gua temalan women in this regard. Their actions, moreover, challenged certain elements in the dominant ideology. By exchanging what was assumed ¢o be theic essential position in reproducing Maya culture at a community level foc basic protections by the community, protections that oo other Guatemalan women had, Maya women put certain conditions om the sexual and marital conduct of Maya men. We should not be sueprised, then, that Maya women basically supported the limits placed on them which produced the caramunity solidarity that confined but protected them. Maya women were, in fact, mostly proud to produce and wear the symbolic emblems oftheir stigmatized status as Maya and as women. GENDER, RACE, AND ETHNIC NATIONALISM. IN REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS Let us now look at the implications of traditional Maya beliefs about cace, class, and gender for reproducing ethnic nationalism in Guatemala and for creating certain contradictions within it. The daminant race-class-gender ide- ‘ology is based an the expectation that everyone plays by the same rules, that is, that everyone competitively strives for individual position in society by accepting the same norms, by assimilating to national culture and helief systems, and by making the most advantageous marriages possible. Thus, since independence in 1821, the dominant classes in Guatemala have at- tempted ta draw Maya into the Guatemalan (Ladino) nation by getting them to take on Ladino norms of language, dress, and sexual conduet—not in order to accept them as equals but to deal with them as part of the overall race-class- ender hierarchy rather than as a separate cultural system, ‘The existence of distinct beliefs about race, class, and gender within Maya This pater may be changing someutat for the Mays who a part of te pa Maya rajoealst avemen: At the Sune tie Maja raloralss me atempang 19 ehllange Ladin fetal iscourse, ty may be appopacing certain stumpcons abou the world (ee CA, Sth 1951), as mocha: about appropnate matalne sod feriice beta hs becomes & lee pacer im seteeding Years, Paha Chateyeesaegument aut “ceived modern di ‘Causes (1985) ene rer poet742 CAROL A. sMaTHE communities clearly conflicted with this expectation. Traditional Maya neither accepted aor rejected their position in the national race and class hierarchy: ‘They operated by a different set of principles. Rather than competing in the rational hierarchical system, they atempted to cemain separate from it in economic and ideological terms. By retaining a elatively autonomous econorn ic existence (refusing proletarianization), Maya communities managed to re~ ‘main separate from the national class system (see C. A. Smith 1990), And by Keeping thei women out of the oational marriage pool, Maya communities tmaintained their separatist (anti-assimiationit) cultucal and political stance against the Ladino nation. “The particular form that Maya resistance took (9 the national race-class- ‘gender hierarchies required the Maya to remain divided as separate comanu- nities rather than united as a (potentially) revolutionary of ethaic-nationalist force. Mast Maya, both consciously and unconsciously, refused to stand as a separate nation within Guatemala: They stood as separate nations or commu nites, united only by the same basic principles that divided them.as a political force. Gender polities in Maya communities played 2 key role in defining, separatist Maya ethnic-national politics. To substantiate this claim, let me briefly describe wo distinct moments—one in 1979 and one in 1989—in Maya resistance (a incorporation in a revolutionary national cace-class-gender system, These moments depict changing Maya stances toward the revolution ary ideology which shared many cultural precepts with the nationally domi- nant (Ladino) ideology on matters conceming race and gender. The main point on which the revolutionary ideology differed on gender was its belief that all Guatemalan women, Ladino and Maya alike, should be free to deploy their sexuality as they wished.2 Between 1978 and 1979, for 2 variety of reasons that cannot be fully explored here, significant numbers of Maya men and women joined a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement intended © topple Guatemala’s ‘corrupt, repressive military-state regime that Ladinos had always exclusively controlled.2* By that time, the cevolutionary movement was perceived to be ‘of, and for, the Maya, even though it was clearly led by Ladino commanders. ‘Those Maya who became active participants in the evolutionary movement were subjected by the Ladino leadership to an intense barrage of revolutionary rhetoric designed 10 break down the parachial bases (or their grievances against the state and unite them {with lower-class Ladino cadre) into a national liberation movement against the state in which they would be unified by the 2 Oc he pate beter diane and revoltionacy Wesley conceming etic the nocesty of sinisting Maya ct fhe Ladino raion, see CA. Smut <1°50, 1991, 1992) On the revolaanary posi, cacerniog “the warns question,” sce Women's Peraional Re sowpee Exchange (1983) on Guaceal, 9° Te moa useful dicisions of Maya paticiption inthe revolutionary struggle, from ey _scrpective can be found n Burgos Deseny (Rigobera Mench) 1384), Chrmaes 1988), Mina ‘rane, Srth (1960), and Wisor 951)RACE-CLASS-GENDER [DEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 743 sriewances of all oppressed, that is, all workers, whether Indian or Ladino, presumably also whether women or men. The revolutionary language was Spanish; the revolutionary dress was calitary (for both men and worten); and a primary revolutionary goal was (0 end the divided, exploited, and assumed ‘marginal existence of Maya communities. The presence of large numbers of ‘Maya in this revolutionary movement forced the revolutionary leadership (0 at least consider certain separate Maya issucs and thus a numberof revolutionary position papets on what was termed “the Indian question” were produced, Symptomatic of deeper problems in the Ladino-led revolutionary project, none of these papers was able co address adequately the issue of Maya autono- my in the revolationary project (C. A. Smith 1992), By 1984, many Maya had left the revolutionary fold (see C. A. Smith 1990; Wilson 1991; Jonas 1991}, having become quite disillusioned about the revolutionary agenda, In discussions with these dissidents in 1988 and 1989, [ found to my ‘considerable surprise that race and sexuality had become key issues fo them, leading many Maya to renounce the vanguardist politics of Ladino revolution- aries and (0 support more traditional forms of Maya resistance. Most of the Maya I interviewed complained about Ladino dominance of revolutionary thetoric and goals and were disturbed by Ladino insistence on a unified, as onposed to a particularized (community-based), political agenda for the Maya. Almost all of them pointed out that Ladino revolutionaries had 90 understanding of or respect for Maya traditions and women’s dress codes. Many hinted at their dismay about revolutionary sexual beliefs and conduct that requiced Maya women to deal with unacceptable sexual practices. The people who complained were women a often as men Had [heard these stores of revolutionary disillusionment among Maya cadre in 1979, { probably would have concluded thatthe Maya were simply unable 10 accept the universalizing modemist message basic to a revolutionary move iment, [would have agreed with Ladino revolutionaries that the Maya, for both economic and cultural easons, remained too parochial forrevolution. By 1989, however (partly because of discussions J was having with Maya cultural ‘ationalsts) {saw Maya complaints about revolutionary unity in @ somewhat different light. The demands of revolutionary unity would, in a sense, destroy the structural props of Maya ethnic identity —the main revolutionary goal of most Maya and one for which they had been willing to fight and die The experience of Guatemalan (Marxist-Leninist) tevolutionaries among, the Maya suggests some of the limits to revolutionary recruitment among, Community-based peasants. Revolution requires that loca (parochial) commu- nities he destroyed for the purpose of meeting the higher goal of creating a 2 Ths adonal for of resistance have now heen descibed by «small group of Mays ‘eulectuals wo cal fot ecogrtion that “Guster fea euler aan” Case CA, Si TH91} There inellectuals appear fe he unaae of the gender poites that proud the ml alta esttonalem744 CAROL A. suerTHE larger “imagined community” (ef Anderson 1983) oF some other utopian set of social relationships. In the practice of revaluconary strugale, roost Maya found that they were unwilling to substiewte a utopian comunity for cele ral community bases, which were rooted in 2 particular pattem of sexual and gender conduct I may be worth noting that few women i tsditional agrarian societies have been atracted othe revolutionary promise of sexual autonomy This suggests that they recognize, as traditional Maya women did, that sexual autonomy without family or community support is more of a burden than a liberation (see M. Wolf 1985; Molynea 1985). “The evidence also seems clear about the relation hetween ethnic identity and traditional Maya beliefs about race, class, and gender. The strongest ‘material prop to commurity-specfic forms of ethnie testy among Gua- temala's Maya Todians as community endogamy or in-mariage and the kind of sexual conduct that suppaced and reproduced i, It now seems clesr to me that the complex set of beliefs and social eelations that underwrote Maya practices concerning race and gender was that which preserved community specifie ethnic identity in Guatemala, The retention of non capitalist social relations within these communities was also important, «0 be sure—as most of my other writings have emphasized. But I row doubt that the economic autonomy of Maya communities could have been pre- served without the support of the Maya marital and sexual practices de- scribed hete, especially insofar asthe panicular economic system of Maya communities (artisanal production) required 2 willing household labor force that was nor luced aviay by the promise of better jobs or higher status out- side the community. The only people who did leave Maya communities in sigoificane numbers before the (980% were unmarried youths (Demerest and Paul 1981), Being properly married within a Maya community meant that ‘one's Maya identity was relatively fixed. Many traditional Maya beliefs and practices concerning community, class, and gender appear to be tcansiorm- ing rapidly in the post-revolutonacy period, but they are not going in the directions desired or expected by eanservative Ladino elites of Ladino reve- lutionaries.2" T cannot claim chat a complex of beliefs and practices similar to that de- scribed for the Maya operates in most other eases of ethnic resistance 10 homogenizing nationalist appeals. Not all elie groups are as anxious asthe 2 The sgnican changes tit are occuring i the port ewlionry pera have me a da oth he development ofa pun-Maya moveeen in Guatemala, by llc wane sass of Feit fra forer commuriittased One indication of ts change relevant to the hess freer hae ihat Maya women wii are prt of ts movement pics wear Maya cot from many aiferere communis (hs poeaining their pan Atayarism) While Maya wemen si are pin of the movement can sects with Ladinos (hua asi’ only ea gtOuD te) they Ae sil ck mote sonal sanctiotd han aya ren for way Ladinos AS could be expected, both ten ar women oe pare cf te par Maye mavemch ake MUEM MST ety fo mary otsideof tsi community of birth than adionst Maya,RACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY (N GUATEMALA 745, Maya to retain muliple, locally based, ethnic communities. Yet, there appear (e be some aspects of ethnic resistance important in this case that are more generally significant. Most obvious is that ethnic groups typically construct themselves around ideologies of common descent, which politically motivates, and mobilizes people in cerms of rules of marriage and sexual conduct. With- ‘out defining a line across which marriage or sexual (reproductive) relations are forbidden, itis very difficult to make an imagined ethnic community appear real to people. Feminists have often observed that feminist mabiliza- tion is very difficult in cases where ethnic mobilization is already a strong, social force. The intertwined sets af relationships described above may help explain why, MODERN AND ANTI-MODERN RACE-CLASS-GENDER (DEOLOGLES ‘To deal with some ofthe more dificult isses of nationalism, as well as with the diference between moder and non-modern ideologies, let me refer to an apparently very different case that Claudia Kaonz (1987) examined. Koonz depicts the race-class-gender ideology of Nazi Germany as ” because it rested upan the total rejection of modemnizing frcedorns—of sexu- ality ofthe individual, of social mobility, af stcang clements in civil sociery stich as organizations for workers and for feminists—that characterized the Weimar republic and erected in their place folk notions of family, traditional sender roles, security, and commitment (o ideals of community. Ie was an, imagined community.” to be sure, that was completely subservient to the demands of a miliaris state; but Its founding premise was reconstructing Germany as a “nanutal (racially pure) community. Control aver women was key to constructing what the Nazis deemed a racially pure German commu- nity. Concentrating on middle-class women in Navi Germany, Koonz doct- iments their complicity in their own and other women's subjugation as well 35, an the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi state Yet modemicy was not erected anywhere in the world on Weirat-li freedoms for womten. As | aigued shove, most mademn class systems and riot forms of medem nationalism, whether an-colonal or not, rest upon a Westem folk ideology of descent or biological inheritance. Thats, they rest pon biological explanations for the social relations created by humans, bal- stering the kinds of racist ideologies and racism that found expression among, the Nazis. All of us who want to immortalize and perpetuate ourselves «rough descerdants of aur own blood buy into this ideology to some extent Iis, as Verena Stolcke observes, a “oaturalized” belie and ches natural in Wester society Jn this way, kinship cemented in blood relations —wbich can include ever-larger communities up to the nation—appears to us (0 be a natutal part of the tuman condition, Although the modemist impulse of capitalism works against it, human beings have resisted the creation of alien a6 individuals who ace totally without ties ta and claims on blood kin.746 CAROL &. snaTHE Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries, such as those who led Guatemala's re- cent revolutionary movement, are more likely than cegular modemists to support Weimapstyle freedoms—of sexuality, of the individual, of status mobility, and of strong elements in civil society such a5 organizations for workers and for feminists. But as Stacey (193) and M. Wolf (1985) have argued for revolutionary China and as Molyneux (1985) and Randall (1922) have shown for revolutionary Nicaragua, the sexual and marital freedoms of revolutionary society ate largely illusory. Just lke the conservative modem (Ladino) race-class gender ideology, revolutionary ideology appears to offer ‘women the possibility of using their sexuality and reproductive potential as they will, even though the fee woman is likely to reap dire consequences for her actions, should she actualy beak the rules of appropriate sexual and reproductive conduct. Truly anti-moders belief systems (which the Maya had, but the Nazis did not), on the other hand, reject that illusion. That is, they mote clearly deny to individual women the possibility af sexual (reproduc: tive) freedom. More important, however, they substitute for tha freedom the security provided by some kind of protective and real, rather than totally imagined, community. Both systems are socially supported by the reproduc- tive woman's extreme social vulnerability ‘Almost all kinds of nationalism build upon our attachment co the supports and claims that we can make of blood ties, kinship, and family. (Inthe words ‘of many nationalist ideologues, “the family isthe microcosm ofthe nation.") Tris is as true of Ladino Guatemalan nationalism, with its modem race-class- sender system, as itis of Nazi nationalism. The various attempts that Gus- temalans have made to create a nation, contradictory as they have been, required the incorporation of Maya into the Guatemalan family —whic to the Maya has meant the death of teit own cultures, nations, and kinship systems ‘When it appeated to Ladino Guatemalans, erroneously as it turned out, chat all Maya were united in an atempt to cain the nation, they did not hesitate to consider a “final solution” that required for Guatemala, a for Nazi Germany, the eradication of those unfit or unwilling to become part of the Ladino Guatemalan nation. Inthe early 1980s, the Guatemalan military chased over half of the Maya from their homes in 2 campaign of terror specifically directed ‘against Indians—a campaign that involved the death and torture of more than 100,000 Maya—with the implicit consent of most ordinary Ladino Gua- ‘emmalans How could ordinary Guatemalans, most of them at least partially descended from the Maya, support this campaign? I believe they could do so because they accepted the idea that Mays (evolutionary) nationalism would destroy the foundations of their own nation, together with the blood and kinship supports they had constructed within that nation, The Ladino Guatemalan is inscribed in a modem race-class-gender system that promises individual free~ dom and mobility, but the complex of beliefs that undergied itis stil rooted inRACE-CLASS-GENDER IDEOLOGY IN GUATEMALA 747, rnon-modem blood sentiments which mainly circumscribe women and minar- ies. These non-modern sentiments, which are part of all modem nationalist ‘ideologies, were readily mobilized by the Guatemalan military state. [¢ re- ‘mains a major question how readily they can be mobilized in any modern nationalist conflict. ‘The differences between these different ideological systems—modem, antisrodern, and revolutionary ~I conclude, are only ones in degree, not in kind. 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