The Fragmented Present: Mesoamerican Societies Facing Modernization (review)

This anthology of sixteen essays is a re-publication, with only "minor changes," of the 1995 first edition. The editors explain in the introduction that the main goal of the volume is to explore the impact of "modernization" on the traditional Mesoamerican societies, Mexico being one of the first regions of the world in which this process was applied in a systematic and strategic way. Also to be found in the introduction is a brief synopsis of each essay provided by the editors.

The volume is heavily weighted toward the Maya region. Twelve of the essays deal with indigenous Mayas (two of them on the Mayas of Guatemala); the other essays focus on indigenous peoples in central Mexico, Veracruz, and Oaxaca.

All of the essays faithfully address the issue of modernization in the region, especially that resulting from economic forces, and its impact on rural peoples, both indigenous and mestizo. With only a couple of exceptions, the essays are strongly sociological and economic and provide limited information on the ideas, symbols, and meanings of the indigenous and rural peoples involved in modernization processes. Nevertheless, we are provided with accounts of diverse case studies that reveal how modernization forces have transformed the economic situation of the region's rural indigenous and mestizo populations. Despite some highly rhetorical characterizations of the modernizing agents (both private and state), we are treated to a series of poignant empirical sketches of the highly rational struggles by which the rural peoples of the region have attempted to adapt to these outside forces within the context of their traditional cultures.

Most of the essays give only minimal attention to the historical antecedents to the recent modernization forces introduced into the region. That is to say, they are primarily ethnographic accounts. The exceptions to this will be of special interest to readers of Ethnohistory: Rattray's comparison between ancient and modern potters in Puebla; Restall's account of sociocultural continuities and changes by the Yucatecan Maya in the face of Spanish colonial "modernization"; Konrad's fascinating history of chicle tapping by four different indigenous groups in Mexico; and Hostettler's empirical history of changing social stratification among the descendants of the Maya Cruzob people.

If one defines Mesoamerica as a broad cultural tradition, a civilization, this volume casts sparse light on the topic. But if Mesoamerica is simply a reference to the rural peoples—indigenous and mestizo—who now inhabit the region and who are being subjected to intense modernization processes, then the volume provides a treasure of detailed cases of the profound and often disastrous impact that these processes are having on the weakest, most peripheral peoples of the region.