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Sugarcane and Rum: The Bittersweet History of Labor and Life on the Yucatán Peninsula Paperback – Illustrated, April 21, 2020

by John Robert Gust (Author), Jennifer P. Mathews (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
See all formats and editions
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While the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico may conjure up images of vacation getaways and cocktails by the sea, these easy stereotypes hide a story filled with sweat and toil. The story of sugarcane and rum production in the Caribbean has been told many times. But few know the bittersweet story of sugar and rum in the jungles of the Yucatán Peninsula during the nineteenth century. This is much more than a history of coveted commodities. The unique story that unfolds in John R. Gust and Jennifer P. Mathews’s new history Sugarcane and Rum is told through the lens of Maya laborers who worked under brutal conditions on small haciendas to harvest sugarcane and produce rum.

Gust and Mathews weave together ethnographic interviews and historical archives with archaeological evidence to bring the daily lives of Maya workers into focus. They lived in a cycle of debt, forced to buy all of their supplies from the company store and take loans from the hacienda owners. And yet they had a certain autonomy because the owners were so dependent on their labor at harvest time. We also see how the rise of cantinas and distilled alcohol in the nineteenth century affected traditional Maya culture and that the economies of Cancún and the Mérida area are predicated on the rum-influenced local social systems of the past. Sugarcane and Rum brings this bittersweet story to the present and explains how rum continues to impact the Yucatán and the people who have lived there for millennia.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Arizona Press
  4. Publication date
    April 21, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0816538883
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0816538881
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sugarcane and Rum offers important insights into the ways sugar and rum have shaped social relations throughout Yucatán’s history. Gust and Mathews also contribute to the growing body of literature focused on the historical archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula. Free of jargon and rich in content, this book is a good resource for undergraduate and gradu-ate students interested in the history and archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula and/or histories of labor."—Samantha Seyler, Ethnoarchaeology

"Gust and Mathews successfully use sugarcane and rum to tell the history of Yucatán ..."—Michele McArdle Stephens, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina

“This book is an exciting and innovative contribution to the history of Yucatán. It challenges us to think carefully about the role of commodities in the production of social relations.”—Elizabeth Terese Newman, author of Biography of a Hacienda: Work and Revolution in Rural Mexico

“Gust and Mathews offer an engaging account of the history of sugarcane production, weaving historical descriptions with archaeological evidence and contemporary political and economic systems in the Yucatán Peninsula.”—Elizabeth A. Olson, co-editor of “The Biodiversity of Conservation Industry in Mexico: Perspectives, Trends, and Challenges”
 

About the Author

John R. Gust is the lab director at Cogstone Resource Management in Orange, California. Sugarcane and Rum is the culmination of research started in 2009 and draws on research that began in 2001.

Jennifer P. Mathews is a professor of anthropology at Trinity University in San Antonio and has conducted research studying the ancient, historic, and contemporary Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico since 1993.
 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Arizona Press; Illustrated edition (April 21, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0816538883
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0816538881
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
5 global ratings

Top review from the United States

Daniel Morgan
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid book on a niche topic - sugar in Yucatán
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2023
This is a solid book about sugar production - and associated labor and lifestyle patterns - in the Yucatán Peninsula. (Very important, as the book deals with both Yucatán state and Quintana Roo state).

Chapters 1 and 2 focus on sugar production and labor in other parts of the Americas, such as the Caribbean and Brazil. The purpose is to provide a frame of reference and a comparision.

Chapter 3 focuses on the history of sugar production in the Yucatán during the 19th and 20th centuries. Chapter 4 is super fascinating - the authors explore 2 sugar haciendas and outline the physical arrangement, documents, and artifacts. Who knew that there were Chinese and Korean migrants in this random hacienda in the middle of Quintana Roo!

Chapter 5 focuses on the post-Revolution - i.e., the post-hacienda - era. The main focus is on revolutionary reforms, how the Mexican government formed Cancún as a planned tourist site, and cantinas and rum.

This is a great book with lots of photos and extensive sources.
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