"""Proving Chamorro"": Indigenous Narratives of Race, Identity, and Decolonization on Guam"
Monnig, Laurel Anne
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/85280
Description
Title
"""Proving Chamorro"": Indigenous Narratives of Race, Identity, and Decolonization on Guam"
Author(s)
Monnig, Laurel Anne
Issue Date
2007
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Janet Dixon Keller
Department of Study
Anthropology
Discipline
Anthropology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
History, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Language
eng
Abstract
"In the politicized world of sovereignty/decolonization movements on Guam, who is and who is not ""Chamorro"" is the source of consternation and debate among Chamorros, and between Chamorros and the colonizer, the United States. The concept of ""who is Chamorro"" is infused with a complex racial tapestry; one woven through three periods of colonization and corresponding racialization (Spain 1565-1898, Japan 1941-1944, US 1898-present). Historically, these processes have represented Chamorros in a specific way, as mestizo, whose cultural and linguistic lives have been extinguished, rendering them ""inauthentically"" indigenous. ""Authenticity,"" premised on conceptions of mestizo (race), has become the conceptual lattice through which Chamorros must navigate concerns about land, language, citizenship, and the overarching one of decolonization. This anthropological and ethnographic dissertation argues that this layered history of colonization and racialization has stripped Chamorros of cultural ""authenticity"" and, indeed, political legitimacy, as viewed by the colonial metropole. In turn, Chamorros are then obligated to continually ""prove"" their authenticity as a cultural group to verify their right to self-determination, self-rule, and/or US citizenship. Chamorros do the proving through discursive and political identity strategies. In other words, they construct an ""authentic"" group identity through such symbolic locations as the Chamorro family, land, language, and their mestizo identities. Being ""mestizu"" Chamorro is the acknowledgement of a communal ""racial"" history, but it also is an assertion of a unified group identity and genuine indigeneity---one hopefully strong enough to combat the delegitimization of the colonizer's racial ideology."
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
