Who Counts?

Klappentext In Who Counts? Diane M. Nelson explores the social life of numbers! teasing out the myriad roles math plays in Guatemalan state violence! economic exploitation! and disenfranchisement! as well as in Mayan revitalization and grassroots environmental struggles. In the aftermath of thirty-six years of civil war! to count-both numerically and in the sense of having value-is a contested and qualitative practice of complex calculations encompassing war losses! migration! debt! and competing understandings of progress. Nelson makes broad connections among seemingly divergent phenomena! such as debates over reparations for genocide victims! Ponzi schemes! and antimining movements. Challenging the presumed objectivity of Western mathematics! Nelson shows how it flattens social complexity and becomes a raced! classed! and gendered skill that colonial powers considered beyond the grasp of indigenous peoples. Yet the Classic Maya are famous for the precision of their mathematics! including conceptualizing zero long before Europeans. Nelson shows how Guatemala's indigenous population is increasingly returning to Mayan numeracy to critique systemic inequalities with the goal of being counted-in every sense of the word. Zusammenfassung In Who Counts? Diane M. Nelson presents a complex reading of mathematics and the contested and myriad ways it is used by the Guatemalan state to marginalize indigenous populations as well as its use by indigenous peoples to critique systemic inequalities.

Auteur

Diane M. Nelson is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala; she is also the author of Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala and coeditor of War by Other Means: Aftermath in Post-Genocide Guatemala, both also published by Duke University Press.

Texte du rabat

In Who Counts? Diane M. Nelson explores the social life of numbers, teasing out the myriad roles math plays in Guatemalan state violence, economic exploitation, and disenfranchisement, as well as in Mayan revitalization and grassroots environmental struggles. In the aftermath of thirty-six years of civil war, to count-both numerically and in the sense of having value-is a contested and qualitative practice of complex calculations encompassing war losses, migration, debt, and competing understandings of progress. Nelson makes broad connections among seemingly divergent phenomena, such as debates over reparations for genocide victims, Ponzi schemes, and antimining movements. Challenging the presumed objectivity of Western mathematics, Nelson shows how it flattens social complexity and becomes a raced, classed, and gendered skill that colonial powers considered beyond the grasp of indigenous peoples. Yet the Classic Maya are famous for the precision of their mathematics, including conceptualizing zero long before Europeans. Nelson shows how Guatemala's indigenous population is increasingly returning to Mayan numeracy to critique systemic inequalities with the goal of being counted-in every sense of the word.

Résumé
In Who Counts? Diane M. Nelson presents a complex reading of mathematics and the contested and myriad ways it is used by the Guatemalan state to marginalize indigenous populations as well as its use by indigenous peoples to critique systemic inequalities.

Contenu

Preface xi

-1. Chapter Minus One 1

Part I. When You Count You Begin with 1, 2, 3

0. Bookkeeping 7

1. Before and After-Math 37

   Part II. Bonesetting

2. The Algebra of Genocide 63

3. Reunion of Broken Parts 93

   Part III. Mayan Pyramids

4. 100% Omnilife 121

5. Mayan Pyramid (Scheme) 157

   Part IV. Yes to Life = NO to Mining

6. A Life's Worth 189

7. Beyond Adequacy 227

   Notes 265

   References 281

   Index 297