The Political Economy of Gender Construction Among the Maya of Northern Yucatan in the Era of Maquiladoras
Locating the gendered anthropological subject at the intersection of the global and the local, the author deals with the installation of maquiladoras in the Northern region of Yucatan, Mexico. This process is one of the dimensions taken by globalization in the region. Multinational capital is clearly in search of the cheapest possible labour and the article examines the dynamics of the devaluation of Yucatec Mayan labour. The data, processed within a political economy framework, show that the economic restructuration rests, at a local level, on historically constructed differences in terms of gender, ethnicity and generations. The specific combination of these three factors gives the process of globalization in Yucatan its unique pace. In spite of the fact that ethnic discrimination and the generation gap are important factors in the devaluation of labour in this region, gender inequalities, consolidated and revitalized by the patriarchal state are the most important factor.