Online ZEF Colloquium / Public Lecture on How to achieve justice for indigenous peoples in the 21st century: The case of the Río Yaqui Pueblos (Sonora, Mexico)

May 28, 2020 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h

Online ZEF Colloquium / Public Lecture

Title: How to achieve justice for indigenous peoples in the 21^st century: The case of the Río Yaqui Pueblos (Sonora, Mexico)

Presenter: Dr. Antje Gunsenheimer is a senior researcher at the Dep. for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn and she administrates the University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Latin America. Trained in archaeology and ethnohistory of pre-Columbian societies, she currently studies social organizational and transmission of collective memories among indigenous societies today, specifically among Río Yaqui Pueblos (Sonora, Mexico) and the importance of collective memory in current conflicts and the commodification of collective indigenous memories in tourism industry among cruzó’ob maya (Quintana Roo, Mexico).

Abstract:

The presentation addresses the complexity of current efforts to integrate indigenous societies in modern nation states by acknowledging their specific cultural rights as formerly colonized and now minoritized. How to do them justice today with regard to past injuries (dispossession and expulsion, genocide in the 19^th century, disadvantages in economic development in the 20 ^th century) and to avoid new injustices?

This basic question is going to be elaborated on:

1) the background of Río Yaqui People’s conflict history (the defense of their land rights in the 19^th century and the Peace treaty with the Mexican Republic of 1940), 2) their current political organization and economic status, 3) their integration into the Mexican nation state, 4) contemporary struggles with state institutions about the improvement of infrastructure (roads, communication, health service, education, etc.), 5) water policies and its impact on economic and political development, 6) creating a new horizon of indigenous – state relationship within the current presidency of AMLO and el plan de justicia yaqui.

Questions for discussion:

-Are autonomous self-governed areas the key to do justice to formerly colonized indigenous societies?

-What would be the consequences (different citizen rights, unequal rights to land possession)?

-What kind of conflict resolutions do we know from other areas?

Details on Zoom Connection:

Topic: ZEF colloquium May 28, 2020
Time: May 28, 2020 01:20 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

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https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/92620089989?pwd=cS9CWkYxQzFPV2QyYzdnK0E3dkYxUT09

Meeting ID: 926 2008 9989
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