Walter E. Little

Office: Arts & Sciences Building, Room 245
Ph: (518) 442-4718
E-mail: wlittle@albany.edu

Ph.D., University of Illinois, 2001

Interests: Cultural and Ethnic Identity, Cultural Performance, Gender Relations, Marketplace and Household Economics, Transcultural Studies - Tourism, Urban Anthropology.
Areas: Mesoamerica

Curriculum Vitae

Director, Ethnographic Field School in Guatemala

Co-Director, Maya Language School in Guatemala

Co-Founder, Guatemalan Emergency Relief Fund

Research Statement

My research focuses on the socio-economic and political lives of Kaqchikel and K'iche' Maya handicraft vendors. Using a theoretical approach that combines political economy and interpretive perspectives, I have analyzed their participation in tourism settings, handicraft marketplaces, and their homes. I am interested in how they use identity instrumentally for political and economic gain, the reasons why individuals and communities compete for tourism and development money by attending to the performative and self-representative mechanisms they employ, and why community continues to be a powerful way for Mayas to organized their economic, political, and social life, given their participation in global economic and cultural markets.

My other ethnographic research projects include the politics of Maya spirituality, which is in collaboration with two Kaqchikel Maya ajq’ija’ (daykeepers). In addition, to being Maya spiritual guides, one is a field linguist and the other is a lawyer. Our research looks at the increase in participation, increased visibility, and formalization of Maya spirituality from modern historical, juridical, linguistic, and ethnographic perspectives.

In addition to this research, I run two field schools in Guatemala. One is an Ethnographic Field Methods class, which involves a month of intensive fieldwork on a specific topic. Brochure The other is Tulane University's Kaqchikel Maya language and culture class, which I co-direct with Judith Maxwell an anthropological linguist. This class combines instruction in language acquisition and ethnographic field methods. It meets annually during the summer and provides advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in Mesoamerican archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, economic development, and linguistics with an opportunity to acquire skills necessary for conducting research in this region. Brochure, Application Forms

In October 2005, some colleagues and I started a humanitarian aid collective, the Guatemalan Emergency Relief Fund (GFUND) to address the lack of coordination between aid organizations and Guatemalan communities needing assistance, resulting from Hurricane Stan's damage. We help facilitate and foster communication among Maya communities in need of assistance, development and aid organizations, and academic experts.

Select Publications

Books and Special Issues: Authored, Co-Authored, and Edited

Forthcoming April 2009 Harvest of Violence Revisited: Mayas in Post War Guatemala, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. (Edited with Timothy J. Smith).

2006 La ütz awäch? Introduction to the Kaqchikel Maya Language. Austin: University of Texas Press. (With R. McKenna Brown and Judith M. Maxwell).

2006 Kaqchikel Tijonïk Oxlajuj Aj: Curso de Idioma y Cultura Maya Kaqchikel. (With Judith M. Maxwell) Antigua, Guatemala: Editorial Junapu’.

2005 Guest editor, Special Issue: “Maya Livelihoods in Guatemala’s Global Economy,” Latin American Perspectives 32(5).

2004 Mayas in the Marketplace: Tourism, Globalization, and Cultural Identity. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Winner of the New England Council of Latin America Studies

Best Book Prize 2005

Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

2008 A Visual Political Economy of Maya Representations in Guatemala, 1931-1944. Ethnohistory55(4): 633-663.

2008 Living within the Mundo Maya Development Project: Strategies of Maya Handicraft Vendors. Latin American Perspectives 35(3): 87-102.

2008 Weaving Rituals and the Production of Commemorative Cloth in Highland Guatemala. Research in Economic Anthropology 27: 121-148.

2008 Crime, Maya Handicraft Vendors, and the Social Re/Construction of Market Spaces in a Tourism Town. Economies and the Transformation of Landscape. SEA, Volume 25: 267-290. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.

2007 Chapter 9, “Transnationalism and the Political Economy of Mesoamerica.” In R. Carmack, J. Gasco, and G. Gossen (eds.) The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization. Prentice Hall. 2nd Edition. Pp. 347-378. (With Liliana Goldín)

2005 Getting Organized: Political and Economic Dilemmas for Maya Handicrafts Venders. In W. Little, editor, Special Issue: “Maya Livelihoods in Guatemala’s Global Economy,” Latin American Perspectives 32(5).

2004 In Between Social Movements: Dilemmas of Indigenous Handicrafts Vendors in Guatemala. American Ethnologist. 31(1): 43-59.

2003 Performing Tourism: Maya Women’s Strategies. Special Issue: Development Cultures: New Environments, New Realities, New Strategies. Signs 29(2): 527-532

Additional Publications