Komon Sajb'ichil for Ixil Cartographies during the Cold War: Knowledge Exchange for Intergenerational Justice

冷战期间 Ixil 制图公司的 Komon Sajbichil：知识交流促进代际正义

• 批准号: AH/X008096/1
• 负责人: Julie Gibbings
• 金额: $ 37.61万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX008096%2F1
• 关键词: Komon; Sajb; ichil; Ixil; Cartographies

This is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research project modelled on the lxil practice of Komon Sajb'ichil (New Dawn through Community). The Komon Sajb'ichil is a communal ritual that begins every spring, when it is time to plant a new field of maize. Upon the request of an Ixil family, the entire community works in rotation through the night to complete ancestral ceremonies until the sajb'ichal (new dawn), when the whole community awakens to plant corn. This is a communal labour rooted in Maya principles of solidarity and reciprocity to cultivate a new beginning and ensure prosperity for all. Grounded in the theory and method of Komon Sajb'ichil, our collaborative research project seeks to remember Ixil cartographies--the ways they navigated, understood, and represented places--in the midst of insurrection, state terror, exile, and refuge, to prepare for a new future. The Ixil region, located in the Department of El Quiche, was the epicentre of genocide during the Guatemalan civil war (1960-1996). Ixil Mayas, who comprise the majority of the population, formed one of the crucial bases of support for armed revolutionaries. In response, the Guatemalan military unleashed unthinkable violence, which according to the Historical Clarification Commission included at least 114 state-sponsored massacres in that region alone. As Jennifer Schirmer has argued, the army systematically "destroyed, reconstructed and penetrated the geographic and cultural fabric of villages." The military redrew municipal boundaries, usurped communal territories, planed for hydro-electric dams and mines, scorched the earth, and rearranged villages into 'models' that could be governed by the military. At the same time, Ixiles participated in the war as guerrillas, as populations in resistance, as soldiers, and as civil patrol, using their knowledge of their local territories. Among those displaced by the war, Mayas recalled that "the sacred forest saved us" as they sought refuge from state terror. The geographical meaning of the war carried significant consequences for Ixiles, since being forced off the land, where their ancestors remain, entailed a shameful separation from their spiritual origins. This separation of the physical from the spiritual dimensions of family life compounded the psychological and physical trauma of war. By seeking to recover Ixil histories and memories of the places where the war was waged, this project recognises intergenerational knowledge and sharing as the keys to communal healing and justice. This research is also timely: all three of the municipalities that compose the Ixil region are beginning legal processes to recover territories lost during the civil war.Cartography has played a crucial role in the colonisation and dispossession of Indigenous territory, including during the Latin American Cold War. As a result, Indigenous and Afro-Latin communities have been undertaking participatory counter-mapping projects across Latin America since the 1970s. These have used participatory mapping technologies such as GIS to strengthen self-determination within their own territories and to document and represent their own conceptions of time, place, and space. Inspired by participatory counter-mapping yet in stark contrast to abstract spaces of the map, our research seeks to co-create an inter-active visual and oral archive of memorialized and experienced places. This will include visual ethnographies, oral histories, and hand-drawn maps based on Ixil memories, state-produced maps of model villages, geological ,and fluvial resources. In addition, we will publish high-impact articles, book chapters, and editorials that will reflect upon our collaborative methodology and reveal how Indigenous geographic epistemologies shaped one of the central legacies of the Latin American Cold War.

这是一个跨学科的合作研究项目，以Komon Sajb'ichil（通过社区的新黎明）的lxil实践为模型。Komon Sajb'ichil是每年春天开始的一个社区仪式，当时是种植新玉米的时候。在一个伊克西尔家庭的要求下，整个社区在夜间轮流工作，以完成祖先的仪式，直到sajb'ichal（新的黎明），当整个社区醒来种植玉米。这是一项植根于玛雅团结和互惠原则的社区劳动，旨在创造新的开端，确保所有人的繁荣。在Komon Sajb'ichil的理论和方法的基础上，我们的合作研究项目旨在记住Ixil制图-他们导航，理解和代表地方的方式-在叛乱，国家恐怖，流亡和避难中，为新的未来做准备。位于基切省的伊西尔地区是危地马拉内战（1960-1996年）期间种族灭绝的中心。占人口大多数的Ixil Mayas是支持武装革命者的重要基础之一。作为回应，危地马拉军方发动了难以想象的暴力，根据历史澄清委员会的说法，仅在该地区就发生了至少114起国家支持的大屠杀。正如Jennifer Schirmer所说，军队系统地“摧毁、重建和渗透了村庄的地理和文化结构。“军方重新划定了城市边界，篡夺了公共领土，规划了水力发电大坝和矿山，烧焦了土地，并将村庄重新安排成可以由军方管理的“模型”。与此同时，伊克赛勒人以游击队员、抵抗者、士兵和民间巡逻队的身份参加了战争，利用他们对当地领土的了解。在那些因战争而流离失所的人中，玛雅人回忆说，“神圣的森林拯救了我们”，因为他们寻求躲避国家恐怖。这场战争的地理意义对伊克赛勒人产生了重大影响，因为他们被迫离开祖先居住的土地，这意味着他们与精神起源的可耻分离。家庭生活的物质层面与精神层面的分离加剧了战争造成的心理和物质创伤。通过寻求恢复Ixil历史和战争发生地的记忆，该项目认识到代际知识和分享是社区愈合和正义的关键。这项研究也很及时：组成伊克西尔地区的三个自治市都开始了收复内战期间失去的领土的法律的程序。2制图在殖民和剥夺土著领土方面发挥了至关重要的作用，包括在拉丁美洲冷战期间。因此，自1970年代以来，土著社区和拉丁美洲黑人社区一直在拉丁美洲各地开展参与性反测绘项目。这些国家利用地理信息系统等参与性绘图技术，加强其领土内的自决，并记录和体现其自己的时间、地点和空间概念。受参与式反映射的启发，但与地图的抽象空间形成鲜明对比，我们的研究旨在共同创建一个互动的视觉和口头纪念和经验丰富的地方档案。这将包括视觉民族志，口述历史，以及基于Ixil记忆的手绘地图，国家制作的模型村庄地图，地质和河流资源。此外，我们将出版高影响力的文章，书籍章节和社论，将反映我们的合作方法，并揭示土著地理认识论如何塑造了拉丁美洲冷战的核心遗产之一。