Rights in Rebellion: Indigenous Struggle and Human Rights in Chiapas

by Shannon Speed

Rights in Rebellion examines the global discourse of human rights and its influence on the local culture, identity, and forms of resistance. Through a multi-sited ethnography of various groups in the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico—from paramilitaries to a Zapatista community, an indigenous human rights organization, and the Zapatista Good Governance Councils—the book explores how different groups actively engage with the discourse of rights, adapting it to their own individual subjectivities and goals, and develop new forms of resistance to the neoliberal model and its particular configurations of power. Far from being a traditional community study, this book instead follows the discourse of human rights and indigenous rights through their various manifestations. The author offers a compelling argument for the importance of a critical engagement between the anthropologist and her "subjects," passionately making the case for activist research and demonstrating how such an engagement will fortify and enliven academic research.

Genres: Anthropology, Indigenous, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mike Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nuanced, bold, activist-ethnographic analysis of the Indigenous Chiapas uprising and resistance. It brilliantly unsettles common western feminist modes of knowledge production as the only way, and outlines how local subjectivities can appropriate and subvert global discourses of human rights and law. I particularly appreciate how Speed positions herself in relation to her work (not hiding, but rather highlighting her political sensitivities), and how nuanced she is in discussing complications of research, rights, and nations.

[Emma Burris]

note — realized last time I left a review I somehow made a new goodreads account???

here’s it pasted again:

Read this as an assignment for my human rights class. It was very interesting and thoughtful, but I do feel like it's perhaps meant for populations who are already very familiar with Mexican political history. I definitely felt like I needed a bit more of a baseline background to be able to follow this better. Fascinating book though that l'm excited to talk about next class

[Emma]

Read this as an assignment for my human rights class. It was very interesting and thoughtful, but I do feel like it’s perhaps meant for populations who are already very familiar with Mexican political history. I definitely felt like I needed a bit more of a baseline background to be able to follow this better. Fascinating book though that I’m excited to talk about next class