not the motorcycle diaries

10/31/2007

Violence, Benevolence, Governmentality

 

Image: Gertrude Duby Blom with Lacandan friend, date unknown.

“We formed the first governmental expedition of the State of Chiapas to establish contact with the Lacandon Indians.  A contact not to exploit them, nor to study them anthropologically.  The mules carried very little of our things, the majority of the cargo were gifts for the Lacandon from the government.  Our goal was to investigate the necessities of these remote Indians, to construct modern houses and to establish a relationship between them and the government.”

- Franz and Gertrude Blom, La Selva Lacandona, Vol. 1, p.69, 1955.

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