A Social Anthropology of Education: The Case of Chiapas

Abstract

In this study the author examines the utility of social anthropological theory for the analysis o f education. The framework is equilibrium and processual analysis as developed b y the British "school" of social anthropology. After discussing the most relevant literature, the author proceeds to apply this structural approach to the case o f Chiapas and analyzes schools in two ecological zones within this state: the piedmont region of the Pacific Coast known as the Soconusco, and the highland Altos zone. This analysis is based on extensive fieldwork in the area over a two-year period.. The study also discusses the manner in which educational policy is shaped by the national and political structure by using concepts from political anthropology. The author concludes that the national educational system has failed to introduce major sociocultural change in the Altos region because it is not congruent with Indian allocation o f time and resources and because the Indian mode of production must be transformed in order to produce sociocultural change. This stands in clear contrast with the Soconusco region where schools are valued as a resource and regarded as effective political institutions. The conservatism of the Indians in the Altos region and the openness to change in the Soconusco are outcomes of different systems of adaptation within different ecological settings. The Mexican case is often considered as an example of a revolutionary mode o f education. In the caw o f the Soconusco, education did in fact for a period of time promote and secure tl e restructuring of society, albeit as part o f a more general process of transformation. Patterns of stratification, ethnic identity and cultural patterns did change as a result o f agrarian reform; education as an institution reflected and promoted the process of change. In the case o f the Altos de Chiapas, education has not been revolutionary in nature but reflects and helps to perpetuate the existing ethnic differentiation and economic stratification o f the region. The educational system has had little impact on the majority of Indian children and manages to siphon off the few students who do become acculturated. EDUCATION, MEXICO, SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, SO-CIAL CHANGE.This essay examines the utility of social anthropological theory for the analysis of education. Two foci of research in education may be isolated: the school i n its sociocultural milieu and the classroom within the school. The emphasis here is on the relation of the school to other social institutions, yet it i s argued that the two units of study can be handled within a unitary frame of theory. This framework i s the equilibrium and processual analysis developed by the British "school" of social anthropology.In a recent review of anthropological approaches to education, Sindell summarizes the analytical framework utilized :One studies the culturally and socially conditioned values, attitudes, cognitive styles, self conceptions, role expectations, and modes of interpersonal interaction which pupils, tea...

Social Movement Knowledge and Anthropology of Education

“…School reform movements, of course, are frequently central to the studies published in AEQ , and their linkages to broader social movements are often explicitly noted (e.g., Hantzopoulos ; Yang ). The roles of social movements in framing the contexts and phenomena investigated have also been perceptively detailed in articles published throughout the history of AEQ (e.g., Brahinsky ; Keaton ; Kelley ; Lazar ; Levinson ; Lipman ; Merrill ). As more activist research and research on youth and community organizing have made impressive inroads into our field and into education research more broadly, we might have anticipated seeing movements featured more centrally in AEQ .…”

Globalisation And Local Indigenous Education In Mexico

“…The Revolution stands as an event that brought about equity and change in line with peasants' demands, including democratically available education. Free and universal primary education was constitutionally mandated with the requirement that any population centre with more than 20 school-age children should have a school (Kelley 1977). Public elementary education -and currently secondary educationhas distinguished itself by three attributes that give it its popular character: It is free, mandatory, and non-religious (Calvo 1998).…”

“…While, in theory, a bilingual and bicultural program has been operating within the formalised education system in Mexico, in practice this is rarely the case. Rather, there has been a politically enforced project to ensure the predominance of the Spanish language above all other languages in Mexico; and a formalised uniform education program has been in operation (Kelley 1977;Coronado Suzan 1992). Local communities have also faced difficulties in relation to the involvement of the federal bureaucracies (Rockwell 1996: 304-305):…”