False Consciousness In Latin America

We may sometimes wonder why those who are oppressed, don’t rebel against their subordinate position in society. Perhaps the concept of false consciousness could help answer this question. According to the Marxism theory, false consciousness is “a way of thinking that prevents a person from perceiving the true nature of their current social or economic situation.” Because of this, it prevents individuals from taking action towards change for a better life than what they currently have, which may very well be unjust. In this essay, I will discuss the three main theories of false consciousness and further attempt to answer the question above, using a specific ethnographic example from Latin America.

There are three main theories of false consciousness,

Mayans had their own systems of living, their own language, economic means, and knowledge and understandings of the world long before the Europeans came. They took away their authority, as well as attempted to control their knowledge of what is right/wrong, good/bad, desirable/not desirable etc. Unfortunately, all this continues to happen to this day, not by Europeans but by their own nation state of

Authoritative individuals with power, enforce the idea that capitalism and the integration of their indigenous people and white Europeans or those with European ancestry, will celebrate racial and cultural mixture (Helen I. Safa). This concept is also known as mestisaje, which was “embodied in the paradigm of indigenismo” (June Nash, author of Mayan Vision) which from the time of the 1910 revolution, dominated Mexico’s state policy. I believe mestisaje was also a way of falsifying an idea of a unified nation, as it favored blanqueamiento or the whitening of people. In other words, mestisaje made it seem like in order to be successful and progress as a nation, they needed the integration of the whites. Mayans were forced to accept the dominant order, perhaps believing the false idea of what is better for them, which made it hard for them to fight against the oppression. Although their behaviors changed to fit those enforced by the Europeans, and now the state itself, I’m sure their values still conflict, and there is certainly a degree of reluctance. According to Nash, “Mayans retain a sense of their communal identity and the values that sustain an alternative vision to that offered by capitalist