Keywords
Multiculturalismo, etnicidad, poscolonial, Belice, política pública
How to Cite
Abstract
The former British colony in Central America, Belize, is usually described by observers as well as administrators and rulers, in terms of cultural diversity and multiplicity of ethnic groups which compose it. However, since recent independence (1981), the Government of Belize has not implemented multicultural policies that would grant differential treatment to individuals because of their ethnicity or racial background, as it is the case in the Americas since the 1980 - 90. The objective of the article is to understand this gap between the diversity of society and the absence of multicultural policies. It is based on the analysis of two types of public policies: cultural policies and property control policies. The article is built around a double questioning on the modalities for the implementation of a national project: how the Government of Belize has managed the legacy of the “divide and rule” colonial policy aimed at segmenting the population? How has it adapted to the “multicultural turn” of the years 1980-90 and its logic of recognition of diversity? The analysis tends to show that taking account of otherness by public policy is part of the British colonial tradition while integrating the aspirations born of the long march towards independence, and it also creates specific forms of management of the difference, in the sense of differential redistribution on the basis of collective memberships.
References
Barnett, Carla Natalie. The political economy of land in Belize, “Machete must fly”. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: University of the West Indies Main Library, 1991.
Berkey, Curtis G. Maya Land rights in Belize and the history of indian reservations. Washington: Indian Law Resource Center, 1994.
Bolland, Nigel y Shoman Assad. Land in Belize, 1765-1871. Kingston: University of the West Indies, 1977.
Bradley, Leo. Belizean races and their cultures. Belize City: Bliss Institute, 1967.
Cunin, Elisabeth. Belmopan, nouvelle capitale du Belize indépendant. De la colonie caribéenne à la nation centre-américaine. Etudes Caribéennes, 20 (2012).
Cunin, Elisabeth y Hoffmann, Odile. Description ou prescription? Les catégories ethnico-raciales dans les recensements et leurs usages politiques au Belize, 19-20ème siècles. Cahiers des Amériques Latines, 67 (2012).
Grant, Cedric H. The Making of Modern Belize: Politics, Society and British Colonialism in Central America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Gros, Christian y Dumoulin, Kervran David. Le multiculturalisme. Un modèle latino-américain “au concret”? París: Presse Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2011.
Gupta, Akhil y Ferguson, James. Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference Cultural Anthropology. Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference, 7, 1 (1992): 6-23.
Iyo, Joseph Aondofe. Towards understanding Belize’s multi-cultural history and identity. Belmopan : University of Belize, 2000.
Jacob, Jean-Pierre y Le Meur, Pierre-Yves (Dirs.). Politique de la terre et de l’appartenance. Droits fonciers et citoyenneté locale dans les sociétés du Sud. París: Karthala, 2010.
Krohn, Lita et al. Readings in Belizean History (2.a ed.). Belize City: St John’s College, 1987.
Land in Crown colonies and protectorates, Colonial Office, march 1912, HMSO.
Let’s diversity reign, let’s freedom flourish. Towards a culture policy for Belize, 1992, Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on Culture and the Arts, 20-21 February,1992. National Art Council, SPEAR, UNESCO, Belize (Belize Archives MC-2546).
Lund, Christian. Fragmented sovereignty: Land reform and dispossession in Laos. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38, 4 (2011): 885-905.
Malhi, Amrita. Making spaces, making subjects: Land, enclosure and Islam in colonial Malaya. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38, 4 (2011): 727-746.
Medina, Laurie Kroshus. Defining Difference, Forging Unity: the co-construction of race, ethnicity, and nation in Belize. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 20, 4 (1997): 757-780.
Moberg, Mark. Continuity under Colonial Rule: The Alcalde System and the Garifuna in Belize: 1858-1969. Ethnohistory, 39, 1 (1992): 1-19.
National Institute of Culture and History. National Cultural Policy. Working Document. Our Culture: Our Values, Our Identity, Our Prosperity. Belmopan: NICH, 2012.
Phillips, Michael D. The history of attemps to formulate a national cultural policy in Belize. University of North Florida, Indersciplinary Conference on Belize, March 6, 1993.
Price, Richard y Price, Sally. Executing Culture. Musée. Museo, Museum. American
Anthropologist, 97, 1 (1995): 97-109.
Price, Richard. Peuple Saramaka contre Etat du Suriname. Combat pour la forêt et les droits de l’homme. Paris: Collection Esclavages, Karthala-CIRESC, IRD, 2012.
Radcliffe, Sarah. Historias de vida de mujeres indígenas a través de la educación y el liderazgo. Intersecciones de raza, género y locación. En Valeria Coronel y Mercedes Prieto (Coords.), Celebraciones centenarias y negociaciones por la nación ecuatoriana (pp. 317-348). Quito, Ecuador: Ministerio de Cultura/ FLACSO, 2010.
Releasing National Creativity. Proceeding of the First Annual Conference on Culture and the arts, 10 November 1990. With an activities update to June 1991. National Arts Council and Curriculum Development Unit, Ministry of Education, June, Belize (Belize Archives MC-2472).
Rossiter, David A. Lessons in possession: Colonial resource geographies in practice on Vancouver Island, 1859-1865. Journal of Historical Geography, 33 (2007): 770-790.
Sánchez, Ines E. Belize and its cultural identity. Crisis of a people in search of their national identity. Belmopan: National Library Service, 1984.
Sassen, Saskia. The Repositioning of Citizenship and Alienage: Emergent Subjects and Spaces for Politics. Globalizations, 2, 1 (2005): 79-94.
Shoman, Assad. Backtalking Belize: Selected writings (selection d’articles réalisée par Anne Macpherson). Belize City: Angelus Press Ltd, 1995.
Stone, Michael. Cultural Policy, Local Creativity and the Globalization of Culture in Belize. In J. O. Palacio y B. S. Balboni (Editores), Taking Stock: Belize at 25 years of Independence (pp. 289-309). Benque Viejo del Carmen: Cubola, 1997.
Toledo Maya Cultural Council y Toledo Alcaldes Association. Maya Atlas. The struggle to preserve maya land in southern Belize, 1997.
Van Ausdal, Shawn. Development and Discourse among the Maya of Southern Belize. Development and Change, 32 (2001): 577-606.
Waddell, David. British Honduras: A historical and contemporary survey. London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1961.
Wainwright Joel y Bryan, Joe. Cartography, Territory, Property: Postcolonial Reflections on Indigenous Counter-Mapping in Nicaragua and Belize. Cultural Geographies, 16 (2009): 153-178.
What the people said. A report on the countrywide consultations on a culture policy for Belize, March-June 1992. Transcribed and prepared by Lita Hunter Krohn and the staff of the National Council, Bliss Institute, Belize City (Belize Archives MC-2519).
Wilk, Richard y Chapin, Mac. Ethnic minorities in Belize: Mopan, Kekchi and Garifuna. Speareports, 1 (1990).
Wilk Richard. Maya People of Toledo: recent and historical land use. Appendices to the TMCC Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Belize, 1997.