Abstract

RAMIREZ CAMACHO, Mundo Alberto. On Violence and Stereotypes. Approaches to Suicidal Death Among Yucatan Mayan Peoples. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2020, n.60, pp.79-110.  Epub Mar 14, 2022. ISSN 0185-2620.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24485004e.2020.60.71404.

The suicide of Mayan population is one of the main concerns of Yucatan’s current public policies, academic research and local media. This interest, however, has begotten an idea about what can be called “Mayan suicide”, which can be interpreted as a violent expression that folklorizes a social group because it relates this type of death to a cultural legacy. This article seeks to show that suicidal death in this Mesoamerican population has generally been approached from a non-Mayan perspective, so putting down the local categories and ignoring what this utmost behavior really means for Yucatecan Mayans. Such a view can lead to both public policies and journalistic stereotypes that exoticize this social group.

Keywords : Suicide; Maya; death; Ixtab; violence; hanging; racism; public policies.