Cornell University
Library
Cornell UniversityLibrary

eCommons

Help
Log In(current)
  1. Home
  2. Cornell University Graduate School
  3. Cornell Theses and Dissertations
  4. Participatory Mapping and the Emergence of Indigenous Territorial Formation in the Honduran Muskitia

Participatory Mapping and the Emergence of Indigenous Territorial Formation in the Honduran Muskitia

File(s)
Galeana_cornell_0058O_10063.pdf (235.87 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/X49Z92V5
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/47839
Collections
Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Galeana, Fernando
Abstract

The post-colonial critique of participatory mapping, once held as a tool of empowerment for indigenous peoples seeking property rights to their ancestral territories, has turned attention to the ways in which the law and mapping practices constrain rather than enable the prospects for indigenous autonomy. This critique, however, often fails to consider the effects that these participatory mapping projects have on the capacity of indigenous organizations to mobilize their own unique forms of territoriality. This paper seeks to contribute a different reading of participatory mapping by using theoretical insights from post-representational cartographies to analyze the case of the Miskitu peoples in Honduras. The Miskitu have collaborated in participatory mapping projects since the early 1990s as way of advancing their claims for the legalization of their ancestral territories in the Muskitia region. I engage with post-representational cartographies as a way of understanding maps, not as an ideological representation of space but as expressions of dynamic social practices. I conduct this post-representational analysis by contextualizing the social practices that led to the production of four maps of the Muskitia region and by observing how these maps were later re-inscribed and transformed into specific socio-spatial arrangements. Based on this analysis, I propose the idiom of co-production from science and technology studies as a productive way to engage with the multiplicity and contingency involved in participatory mapping.

Date Issued
2017-01-30
Keywords
Honduras
•
indigenous peoples
•
Miskito
•
participatory mapping
•
post-representational cartography
•
Sociology
•
Geography
•
Latin American studies
Committee Chair
Wolford, Wendy W.
Committee Member
Craib, Raymond B.
Degree Discipline
Development Sociology
Degree Name
M.S., Development Sociology
Degree Level
Master of Science
Type
dissertation or thesis

Site Statistics | Help

About eCommons | Policies | Terms of use | Contact Us

copyright © 2002-2026 Cornell University Library | Privacy | Web Accessibility Assistance