Rhetoric

With only three pages left of the DeHart reading, I thought I understood the main point pretty well; a development organization was corrupted by capitalism and expansionist ambitions. However, after reading the conclusion, I was very confused about what the bottom line of the article actually was.

I don’t think that DeHart specifically states that CDRO’s main idea was wrong. Even in the end, she only admits that there were disagreements between community members as to the function of CDRO. According to DeHart, the people that criticized CDRO for being self-interested were working towards their own interests as well. Interestingly, Carol Smith’s arguments apply here. DeHart agrees with Smith’s assertions that Mayan villages are often arenas for ‘petty capitalism’ and social hierarchy. The community members arguing against CDRO’s capitalist approach are themselves wealthier capitalist members of their village. Their statements that they disagree with capitalism as a whole cannot be entirely valid. In fact, petty capitalism preceded most US influence in these villages.

Then why did CDRO take a line of being anti-capitalist in the first place? I think that in this case rhetoric was used in a very similar way that it is used in the United States. In this case, instead of trying to be seen as a representative of the ‘American way’ or ‘traditional values,’ community members are persuading others that they are the ones who can follow the sole ‘Mayan’ way. In this case, the pop is an example of a symbol that represents the Mayan way. Whether that symbol is entirely accurate to the true Mayan culture and reality is a different matter entirely. On the other hand, detractors from CDRO are also trying to own control over that ‘Mayan’ way in order to gain support in the community. They pretend to be against the CDRO because it is capitalist, yet they are capitalists themselves.

In the end, I am not convinced that CDRO’s work was bad. I am also not sure whether a ‘capitalist’ approach is so un-Mayan as most people seem to think it is. It just gets a bad reputation because of rhetoric.

Similarly with the Cook/Offit article, different groups are competing over which religion is the most ‘Mayan.’ In the end though, based on the readings for this class so far it seems like a majority of the Mayan people don’t care which is more ‘Mayan,’ as evidenced by the large number of converts to Evangelical Protestantism. Maybe what is more important for most people is which religion works for them and is more available to them.