Mediating Indigenous Identity: Video, Advocacy, and Knowledge in Oaxaca, Mexico
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO Laurel Catherine Smith University of Kentucky Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Smith, Laurel Catherine, "MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO" (2005). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 359. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/359 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Laurel Catherine Smith The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2005 MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO ______________________________________ ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION ______________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Laurel Catherine Smith Lexington, Kentucky Co-Directors: Dr. John Paul Jones III, Professor of Geography and Dr. Susan Roberts, Professor of Geography Lexington, Kentucky 2005 Copyright © Laurel Catherine Smith 2005 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO In the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, many indigenous communities further their struggles for greater political and cultural autonomy by working with transnational non- governmental organizations (NGOs). Communication technology (what I call comtech) is increasingly vital to these intersecting socio-spatial relations of activism and advocacy. In this dissertation, I examine how comtech offer indigenous individuals and organizations with the means for visualizing their political-cultural agendas. Approaching the access and use of comtech, especially video technologies, as a partial and situated technoscience, I inquire into how and why these activities reconfigure the production and evaluation of authoritative knowledge about indigenous peoples, places, and practices. More specifically, I undertook an organizational ethnography of a small intermediary NGO comprised of individuals who self-identify as indigenous and others who do not, Ojo de Agua Comunicación Indígena, which endeavors to place communication technologies (especially video equipment) at the disposal of indigenous communities. Through participation-observation and interviews, I explored this group’s everyday strategies of networking in the name of assisting indigenous actors’ access and appropriation of visual technologies. I also pursued interpretive analyses of video-mediated articulations of indigenous knowledge and identity that were enabled by Ojo de Agua. My research indicates that Ojo de Agua has selectively built upon the ambitions and the socio-spatial connections of a government program that emerged from the initiatives of academic advocates, who sought to open new spaces of participation for indigenous peoples. Members of Ojo de Agua have, however, found their goal of service somewhat stymied by a situation that positions them within a flexible labor force of knowledge workers. Their livelihoods as media makers did not allow them (the time or money) to pursue as much altruism and advocacy as they would have liked. Nonetheless, Ojo de Agua’s corpus of videos established the group as an alternative and yet authoritative source of visual knowledge of indigenous peoples, places, and practices. This relocation of advocacy is symptomatic of the creative destruction fueled by the neo-liberal economic policies that, for the last thirty years, have been reconfiguring spaces of cooperation and conflict in Latin America. KEYWORDS: Indigenous Peoples, Mexico, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Communication Technologies, Cultural Politics MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO By Laurel Catherine Smith Dr. John Paul Jones III, Professor of Geography Co-Director of Dissertation Dr. Susan Roberts, Professor of Geography Co-Director of Dissertation Wolfgang Natter, Professor of Geography Director of Graduate Studies RULES FOR THE USE OF DISSERTATIONS Unpublished dissertations submitted for the Doctor’s degree and deposited in the University of Kentucky Library are as a rule open for inspection, but are to be used only with due regard to the rights of the authors. Bibliographic references may be noted, but quotations or summaries of parts may be published only with permission of the author, and with the usual scholarly acknowledgements. Extensive copying or publication of the dissertation in whole or in part also requires the consent of the Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Kentucky. A library that borrows this dissertation for use by its patrons is expected to secure the signatures of each user. Name Date DISSERTATION Laurel Catherine Smith The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2005 MEDIATING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: VIDEO, ADVOCACY, AND KNOWLEDGE IN OAXACA, MEXICO ______________________________________ DISSERTATION ______________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Laurel Catherine Smith Lexington, Kentucky Co-Directors: Dr. John Paul Jones III, Professor of Geography and Dr. Susan Roberts, Professor of Geography Lexington, Kentucky 2005 Copyright © Laurel Catherine Smith 2005 To my beloved, supportive, and mightily patient family. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation was made possible through the kind generosity, good humor, and endless patience of my partners in theorizing: the members of Ojo de Agua and their many associates who made the time to share their insights and images. I am also much obliged to the members of dissertation committee for their encouragement and fortitude. Especially important and appreciated were the often long-distance guidance of John Paul Jones III and assistance of Susan Roberts. Additionally, I am grateful for the fine scholarship of Jones and Wolfgang Natter, which drew me to UK’s department of geography. I will never forget Robert’s willingness to let me to write about Nanook of the North in a political geography seminar, which allowed me to find my scholarly voice. And I am glad to have had the opportunity to draw upon Tad Musterbaugh’s experienced and well-informed understanding of Oaxaca. I also warmly thank Mary Anglin for helping me develop my methodological toolbox. While in Oaxaca, I found the advice and assistance of several individuals and institutions absolutely essential to my investigation. Oliver Froehling introduced me to this place and many of the people who have been central to my pursuit of knowledge and for this I am forever appreciative. My good friend and mentor, Martha Rees, welcomed me to Oaxaca and provided invaluable encouragement and guidance, for which I am ever grateful. I also benefited from the motivation and counsel from the community of scholars that coalesce around CIESAS, particularly Margarita Dalton and Michael Higgins, and the Welte Institute, especially Gudrun Dohrmann. Additionally, I thank Soledad Zárate for all the transcriptions! Finally, as suggested by this dissertation’s dedication, I am indebted to my family, especially my parents, who have supported (in many different ways) my education, most recently as I composed the words contained here within. My mom is an extraordinary editor! Likewise, throughout the dissertation process my husband, Filoteo Gómez Martínez, provided energy, inspiration, and timely reminders that there is life beyond scholarship. He also provided super (and speedy!) transcription assistance. I am also grateful for the unflagging camaraderie and commiseration of the many good friends and excellent colleagues that I have encountered in and around the University of Kentucky’s Department of Geography, in particular Tobie Saad, Maureen McDorman, Jamie Winders, and Taro Futamura. And although they are not geographers, my scholarly friends Sarah Goodfellow and Charlie Yood have been just as helpful. Thank you! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments...............................................................................................................................iii Chapter One: Visualizing Indigenous Video ................................................................ 1 THE ENTANGLED GEOGRAPHY OF INDIGENOUS VIDEO.......................................1 Indigenous Cultural Activism: Grounded in Place .....................................................................................4 Networking Indigenous Video...................................................................................................................9 Reconfiguring Categories with Indigenous Video.......................................................................................18 HONING IN: INDIGENOUS VIDEO IN OAXACA, MEXICO........................................26 SKETCHING THIS DISSERTATION .......................................................................................31 Chapter Two: Articulating Indigenous Video: As (a Particularly Post-Colonial) Technoscience