This article discusses indigenous autonomy and legal pluralism in Guatemala. It explores how local governing practices are increasingly being based on written, constitution-like statutes with an emergent focus on “rights”, replacing oral traditions focussed on relations. It argues that notwithstanding this great change, communal authorities continue to function as a principal medium for articulating indigenous sovereignty by appropriating a vital piece of modern nation-state imagery: constitutional law. This transformation of local political practices also shows how a long tradition with legal pluralism in Guatemala is maintained thanks to the continuing ordering capacity of the communal authorities. Building a successful, multicultural Guatemala hinges as much on the ability of communal power to reinvent itself as on nation-state legal reform.
Text from: Taylor & Francis Online