Volume: 1  Number: 2  Page: 97–114  doi:10.2167/md015.0

The Tojolabal Language and Their Social Sciences

Carlos Lenkersdorf National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

In this paper we make an initial attempt to introduce a form of social science amongst a Mayan people, the Tojolabales, that is different from its Western counterpart. In particular we show that their social science as well as their wider culture is predicated on neither subjectivity nor objectivity, but intersubjectivity, and that this intersubjectivity, in turn, is embedded in social egalitarianism.We make our case, not by conventional methods of evidence or explanation provided by some independent, neutral and objective scholar, but by some 30 years of experience of living with the local, indigenous people. Thus, the present research is supposed not only to challenge the common universalising conception of social science and to provide insights into a culturally particular variant, but also to practise an unconventional method of accounting for reality.

Keywords: Tojolabal, social sciences, pedagogy, justice, linguistics

© 2006 C. Lenkersdorf

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