AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 42, no. 2 (Spring 2003)

THE WAR OF THE EGGS: EVENT, ARCHIVE, AND HISTORY IN YUCATÁN'S INDEPENDENT UNION MOVEMENT, 1990

Paul Eiss
Carnegie Mellon University

In 1990, a strike of national significance took place at large-scale egg- and poultry-raising facilities in Yucatán, Mexico. This article relates the history of the struggle of Maya-speaking workers to form independent unions and of the event that came to be known as the "War of the Eggs." Part of that struggle relates to the formation of an archive by strikers, and the eventual production of a historical narrative of the conflict by labor organizers from elsewhere in Mexico. An ethnographic reading of event, archive, and history demonstrates some of the ways that local understandings of past, present, and future shaped the account authored by organizers, transforming a story of national infamy into one of local redemption. (Yucatán, people's archive, union organizing, strike, labor oppression, redemption).

NATIONALISM IN INDONESIA: BUILDING IMAGINED AND INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH TRANSMIGRATION

Brian A. Hoey
University of Michigan

Transmigration settlements are planned according to Indonesian government priorities, which intend them to help build an imagined community, a unified nation. They are also places where settlers struggle to build their own vision of community as a place where they feel they belong. This article introduces the history of the Indonesian program and the place of Sulawesi transmigration settlements in nation-building. (Indonesia, nationalism, development, transmigration, community).

OLDER WOMEN AS CAREGIVERS AND ANCESTRAL PROTECTION IN RURAL JAPAN

John W. Traphagan
University of Texas at Austin

Ancestral appearance in the dreams of older women is closely related to Japanese tendencies to center responsibilities for taking care of family health and well-being on women. Two points related to women and ancestor veneration are: 1) when confronted with the question of how people know they are protected by the ancestors, many informants turned to discussions of specific dream experiences in which ancestors appeared; and 2) although men report seeing ancestors in dreams and ancestral-dream experiences can happen at any age, the appearance of ancestors in dreams has gendered and age-dependent features. Particularly as they enter into middle and old age, women often become caretakers of the collective well-being of the family and the appearance of ancestors in dreams becomes a signal that something is amiss in the world of the living. Regular participation in ancestor-related rituals and reporting of ancestral dreams is one way in which elderly women, in particular, can exercise their caregiving role by mediating the worlds of the living and dead and conveying the concern of the ancestors to their descendants. (Dreams, ancestors, Japan, gender, elderly women, ritual).

THE NEW SILK ROAD: MEDIATORS AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA

Cynthia Werner
Texas A&M University

Within the past century, international tourists have increasingly sought exotic destinations in their pursuit of relaxation, escape, and adventure. Recognizing the opportunity to earn valuable foreign currency, developing countries have catered to these desires by encouraging tourism development. The interplay between "hosts" and "guests" and the impact of tourism on host communities have been recurring themes in the anthropological literature on tourism, but scholars recognize that these categories have several limitations. The terms gloss over the wide variation that exists in the tourist experience for both guests and hosts, and ignore the important actors known as mediators. This article examines the role of mediators in two post-Soviet Central Asia states: Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Mediators there are particularly important because neither country is well known in Western countries, and neither country inherited a well-developed tourist infrastructure from the Soviet state. These mediators are cultivating a positive image of Central Asia as a new tourist destination, developing tourist accommodations, and lobbying government institutions to support and regulate tourism. However, the industry is rife with conflict and competition. (Tourism, development, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan).

COCAINE IN MISKITU VILLAGES

Philip A. Dennis
Texas Tech University

During the 1990s, Miskitu people in the coastal villages north of Puerto Cabezas began finding cocaine washed up on the beach and on the Miskitu Keys just off the coast. Drug runners carrying the cocaine north apparently dump it overboard when pursued by authorities. Cocaine wealth has been used differently in two local communities. In Sandy Bay, cocaine money has been used to build new houses, schools, and churches, in a project of self-directed development. As a result, Sandy Bay appears prosperous. In Awastara, on the other hand, there is little evidence of new wealth from cocaine. Unfortunately, in all the coastal communities, cocaine finds have also led to deaths from overdoses, cocaine addiction among young men, and increased theft and violence. (Cocaine, drug trade, Miskitu Indians, economic development, violence).