My anthropological identity:
Maria Lauridsen Jensen, MSc.
I open-mindedly gather different perspectives, look at them analytically, and communicate the insight in ways that bring forth many voices to provide a broader perspective. I love to write ‘thick description’, and I value long, deep conversations with informants.
I am specialized in identity constructions, ethnicity, Latin America, Mayas and Globalization.
I am currently working on:
- An autoethnography on yoga
- A book on Maya women
- Book chapter: “The Tulum Mayan Ruins – A Place for Foreigners” in Troubling the Imaginaries: The Meeting of Front and Back Stage on the African Plains, Mexican Beaches, and Other Bucket List Venues (Frances Julia Riemer, PhD, Editor) Abstract: In tourism discourses, the site of the Tulum ruins has become an icon of Mayan culture. “Maya” is often used as a sales strategy to evoke potential tourists’ excitement for the “glorious past” or the “Exotic Other.” However, I argue that the site of the Tulum ruins evokes opposing narratives. Primarily characterized as “Mayan” in tourist text, my Mayan informants identify the Tulum ruins as “a place for foreigners.”