Dissertation Research: Afro-Mexican Identity in the Costa Chica

这篇论文是由斯坦福大学文化人类学专业的一名学生完成的，研究对象是居住在墨西哥中部太平洋沿岸的一个非裔墨西哥人社区。通过参与者观察和对几个当地社区成员的深入采访，这位非裔美国学生将试图理解为什么墨西哥黑人并不是唯一地将自己认同为黑人，或者与其他国家的黑人认同，而是具有与当地印第安人不同的梅斯蒂佐身份。这项分析将追溯墨西哥关于印第安人和梅斯蒂佐人的单一民族社会文化思想和政策的影响，这些思想和政策往往掩盖任何其他身份，如墨西哥非洲人，以及当地地理、社会和经济孤立对当地社会与墨西哥和其他国家其他黑人社区联系的影响。将在韦拉克鲁斯州进行简短的比较研究，韦拉克鲁斯州是加勒比海的一个拥有黑人人口的州，与其他黑人和非洲裔社区联系更密切。这项研究很重要，因为它将增进我们对非洲人后裔人民如何与国家社会以及与其他族裔群体成员发展各种身份和关系的理解。

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.