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The Reconstruction of Community and Identity among Guatemalan Returnees ()
Author:
Kristi Anne Stølen
University of Oslo, NO
About Kristi Anne
Kristi Anne Stølen is professor of social anthropology at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. She has written extensively on gender, power and social change based on fieldwork in Argentina and Ecuador. Currently she is conducting research on the causes and consequences of violence in Guatemala, seen through the eyes of returned refugees. Her recent publications include ‘Constructing the Future: Experiences of Guatemalan Returnees’, which she edited together with N. Shanmugaratnam and R. Lund, In the Maze of Displacement: Conflict, Migration and Change (2003, Kristiansand: Norwegian Academic Press), and ‘Contradictory Notions of the State: The Case of Returned Refugees in Guatemala’ edited by C. Krohn-Hansen, and K. Nustad (2004, State Formations, Anthropological Explorations, forthcoming).
Abstract
Based on anthropological fieldwork in the Petén, Guatemala, this article focuses on the (re)construction of community and identity among returned refugees. With a past marked by armed conflict and violence, flight and life in exile, return and resettlement, the returnees are in the process of developing a new multi-ethnic community based on their common experiences as well as on new forms of cooperative organization that incorporate solidarity and equality to prevent the recurrence of the injustices of the past. The paper discusses how their encounters in exile with other people from a variety of ethnic groups and with the international aid and solidarity organizations influenced them in the development of a new community that is quite different from the ones the returnees had left behind in Guatemala. It also explores the processes whereby social identities are shaped and reformulated and how they are linked with struggles over power on the one hand and with livelihood practices on the other.
Resumen: La reconstrucción de la comunidad y de la identidad entre retornados guatemaltecos
Con base en investigación antropológica realizada en Petén, Guatemala, este artículo se centra en la (re)construcción de las comunidades e identidades de refugiados que han regresado a su lugar de origen. Cargando un pasado de conflicto armado y violencia, lucha y vida en exilio, los retornados deben construir una nueva comunidad multiétnica, basada tanto en sus experiencias compartidas como en nuevas formas de organización cooperativa que incluyen solidaridad e igualdad para prevenir las injusticias del pasado. Este ensayo debate sobre los encuentros de los retornados durante el exilio con gente de otros grupos étnicos, con la ayuda internacional y organizaciones de solidaridad, y sobre cómo esto los ha influenciado para desarrollar así una nueva comunidad que es muy diferente a aquéllas que los retornados habían dejado antes en Guatemala. También se explora el proceso a través del cual las identidades sociales son definidas y reformuladas, y cómo éstas están vinculadas a luchas de poder, por un lado, y con las prácticas de subsistencia, por el otro.
How to Cite:
Stølen, K. A. (2004). The Reconstruction of Community and Identity among Guatemalan Returnees (). European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (77), 3–24. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/erlacs.9675
Published on
15 Oct 2004.
Peer Reviewed
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