Roots, rights, and belonging: Garifuna indigeneity and land rights on Honduras' north coast

This dissertation traces the production of Garifuna indigeneity and its effects on coastal landholding within the context of Honduran tourism development. The Garifuna are descendants of Africans and Amerindians (i.e., Carib and Arawak Indians) who settled along the Central American coastline more than 208 years ago. Garifuna identity has been created and recreated throughout their time on the coast---they have been positioned as negro 'others,' AfroHondurans, and autochthonous AfroHondurans. Today some groups are casting the Garifuna as indigenous. Using the community of Sambo Creek as a case study, I explore the creation and deployment of Garifuna indigeneity as well as the effects this recasting of identity has on non-Garifuna, who are now beginning to question their own identity and rights within the nation-state.; This dissertation contributes to research on Latin American indigenous mobilization in general, as well as makes three specific contributions to anthropological discussions. First, this case study contributes to theory regarding the production of identity categories by looking beyond the effects of identity construction on the people whose identity is being cast or recast (in this case the Garifuna) to how the new framing of identity impacts others who live within their communities (in this case Mestizos). I apply the concept of "place-making" (Malkki 1997) to show how actors are both producing and responding to Garifuna indigeneity. Place-making is a tool used by Garifuna organizations and activists to lay claim to land by rooting the Garifuna, historically, into Honduran territory or more generally, into the Americas. It also serves as a tool to articulate the Garifuna place within the world. Place-making serves as a response to the production of Garifuna indigeneity by Mestizo residents of Garifuna communities who believe that they too have rights to local land. Some Mestizo residents use the identity label "indio" to root themselves into Honduran territory by claiming descent from pre-Columbian indigenous ("indio") peoples.; Second, I discuss the disjuncture between Garifuna organizational representation and the interests of Sambo Creek's residents. Garifuna organizations call for the recuperation of ancestral territories by linking the maintenance of indigenous identity to the ability to enact cultural traditions, which in this case frequently means fishing and agriculture. Organizational representation is problematic for two reasons: (1) Sambo Creek is a mixed community, comprised of both Garifuna and Mestizos. Representing the community under an indigenous rights discourse serves to exclude some of Sambo Creek's residents; and (2) Sambo Creek's youth are losing interest in pursing traditional economic activities that constitute "cultural traditions."; Third, this case study is one of the first that focuses explicitly on the gendered impact of land privatization in Garifuna communities. Traditional Garifuna land tenure systems are communal, with use rights passed matrilineally. In the last twenty-five years, Garifuna women have lost their ancestral cultivation plots through privatization to men.