“…At present, development strategies are often sensitive to Mayan culture and support economic autonomy and endogenous development, but still struggle to overcome local factionalism (Porcuna-Ferrer et al 2020). Despite many challenges, some initiatives have remarkable success in engaging different religious factions within the community and reconciling different worldviews (Einbinder and Morales 2020). Alliance building requires generating the right settings for people to weave their different voices into a coherent development narrative.…”
The Green Revolution still exerts an important influence on agricultural policy as a technology-centred development strategy. A main policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution was first expounded in Transforming Traditional Agriculture (TTA), a book published in 1964 by Nobel Prize-winning economist Ted Schultz. He famously argued that traditional farmers were ‘poor but efficient’. As farmers responded to economic incentives, technology-driven strategies would transform traditional agriculture into an engine of economic growth. Schultz relied on published ethnographic data and his own calculations to construct this policy narrative. My reanalysis of TTA focuses on its main case study, Panajachel, a village in Guatemala. I follow a narrative approach, evaluating whether Schultz’s story relates a plausible account of agricultural development in Panajachel and its region. I show how Schultz deliberately tried to hide that Mayan farmers in Panajachel were not challenged in technological terms and were able to reach relatively high economic returns. His interpretation of the Guatemalan rural economy ignored ethnic tensions dominating market exchange, a main barrier for agricultural development. I evaluate Schultz’s narrative further by tracing the subsequent evolution of Panajachel and its wider region. High-input strategies had to address ethnic barriers and change agents became embroiled in violent conflict along ethnic lines. Assessing the adequacy of Schultz’s contribution, from a narrative approach, shows how he ‘got the story wrong’ and that the Green Revolution policy narrative has an excessively narrow intellectual basis. New narratives should reserve a much more important place for institutional change in agricultural development.
“…At present, development strategies are often sensitive to Mayan culture and support economic autonomy and endogenous development, but still struggle to overcome local factionalism (Porcuna-Ferrer et al 2020). Despite many challenges, some initiatives have remarkable success in engaging different religious factions within the community and reconciling different worldviews (Einbinder and Morales 2020). Alliance building requires generating the right settings for people to weave their different voices into a coherent development narrative.…”
The Green Revolution still exerts an important influence on agricultural policy as a technology-centred development strategy. A main policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution was first expounded in Transforming Traditional Agriculture (TTA), a book published in 1964 by Nobel Prize-winning economist Ted Schultz. He famously argued that traditional farmers were ‘poor but efficient’. As farmers responded to economic incentives, technology-driven strategies would transform traditional agriculture into an engine of economic growth. Schultz relied on published ethnographic data and his own calculations to construct this policy narrative. My reanalysis of TTA focuses on its main case study, Panajachel, a village in Guatemala. I follow a narrative approach, evaluating whether Schultz’s story relates a plausible account of agricultural development in Panajachel and its region. I show how Schultz deliberately tried to hide that Mayan farmers in Panajachel were not challenged in technological terms and were able to reach relatively high economic returns. His interpretation of the Guatemalan rural economy ignored ethnic tensions dominating market exchange, a main barrier for agricultural development. I evaluate Schultz’s narrative further by tracing the subsequent evolution of Panajachel and its wider region. High-input strategies had to address ethnic barriers and change agents became embroiled in violent conflict along ethnic lines. Assessing the adequacy of Schultz’s contribution, from a narrative approach, shows how he ‘got the story wrong’ and that the Green Revolution policy narrative has an excessively narrow intellectual basis. New narratives should reserve a much more important place for institutional change in agricultural development.
“…The anachronism of the La‐candones in our modern world continues to attract the attention of the adventurer and romantic who returns from the jungle with awesome tales of ancient ritual and mystery.(Baer & Baer, 1969, 63)Development often stems from a desire to improve humanity. However, for much of the 20th century, development meant assimilation to global capitalism, heteropatriarchy, and other aspects of British, French, and European lifeways (Einbinder & Morales, 2020; Escobar, 2012; Sultana, 2019; Wainwright, 2008). For Indigenous peoples, this process involved giving up their culture, history, kin, and land.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Our vision of well‐being finds kinship with the idea of buen vivir or a “good life” (Einbinder & Morales, 2020; Gudynas, 2011). Buen vivir stems from South American Indigenous conceptions of life to bring together diverse ideas and practices that emphasize forms of well‐being that are locally relevant, relational, and communal.…”
In this article, we examine what local well‐being means in the contexts of collaborative heritage management and national development in Mexico. Driven by the request of Lacandon Mayas (including the second author) who live in Puerto Bello Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico, in 2018, we engaged in archeological consolidation and heritage management to promote local tourism and sustainable economic development. This collaboration raised a series of ethical and practical questions of how to engage with the Eurocentric project of development. Addressing these issues has become critical, as the Mexican president's signature infrastructure project, Tren Maya (Maya Train), is designed to promote nationwide development via increased cultural heritage tourism in Chiapas and southern Mexico. Through critical reflection on experiences with Metzabok community members, we address Eurocentrism and colonialism by enacting a Lacandon (i.e., Hach Winik) buen vivir. This form of well‐being is relational and communal and creates a common good that includes more‐than‐humans. Via this critical perspective, we argue that a decolonial project can use the tools of development as an initial step in creating Indigenous well‐being.
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