Dissertation Research: Afro-Mexican Identity in the Costa Chica

这篇论文的研究项目是由一位来自斯坦福大学的文化人类学学生完成的，涉及到对生活在墨西哥中部太平洋沿岸的一个非裔墨西哥人社区的研究。 通过参与观察和深入采访几个当地社区的成员，非洲裔美国学生将试图了解为什么墨西哥黑人不认为自己是唯一的黑人，或与其他国家的黑人，而是有作为梅斯蒂索人的身份，而不是当地的印第安人。 分析将跟踪的影响，一心一意的国家墨西哥社会文化思想和政策的印第安人和梅斯蒂索人，这往往掩盖任何其他身份，如非洲裔墨西哥人，和当地的地理，社会和经济孤立的影响，当地社会的连接与其他黑人社区在墨西哥以及在其他国家。 比较研究将在韦拉克鲁斯州进行，该州是一个拥有黑人人口的加勒比州，与其他黑人和非洲裔社区的联系要密切得多。 这项研究很重要，因为它将增进我们对非洲人后裔如何发展出不同的特性以及与国家社会和其他族裔群体成员的关系的了解。

This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropology student from Stanford University involves the study of a community of Afro-Mexicans living on the Pacific coast of central Mexico. Through participant observation and in depth interviews with members of several local communities, the African American student will try to understand why Mexican blacks do not identify themselves uniquely as blacks, or with blacks of other nations, but rather have identities as Mestizos in contrast to local Indians. The analysis will trace the effects of the single-minded national Mexican social-cultural thought and policies about Indians and Mestizos, which have tended to obscure any other identity such as Afro Mexican, and the effects of local geographic, social and economic isolation on the local society's connections with other black communities in Mexico as well as in other countries. Comparative studies will be briefly undertaken in the state of Veracruz, a Caribbean state with a black population which is much more connected with other black and African-descent communities. This research is important because it will advance our understanding of how peoples of African descent have developed variable identities and relations with national societies as well as with members of other ethnic groups.