Walter E. Little paints a complex and nuanced portrait of Maya identity formation in Mayas in the Marketplace. He does so, however, not by following the well-established ethnographic tradition of studying indigenous people close-up, in their home communities. Rather, he does so by following their trajectories in a wider social space in which the local meets the global. These are marketplaces in addition to those places where the lives of Guatemalan típica (or handicrafts) vendors intersect with a variety of other social spaces and actors (including their home communities and international tourists). Of course, market or vendor studies are not without precedent in the ethnographic literature, and Little’s study makes its own distinctive contribution as it works from such precedents and responds to ongoing debates. Using a straightforward, conversational (at times, almost alarmingly casual) style that belies the complexity of his overall argument, Little deftly builds a multilayered composite sketch of the highly particularistic ways that Maya vendors use various strategies for making and deploying multiple identities.

The result will be frustrating for those who seek a space outside the politics of identity from which to think through the local, national, and global economic, political, and cultural aspects of Maya identity formation. According to Little, even without firm footing from which to dissect the intricacies of Maya identity, the answer is, “Maya all the way down” (p. 269). Those more comfortable with the idea that identity formation is an ongoing process, and with the notion that transnational social space (the global) is built up from the everyday practices of people going about their everyday lives, will find much to recommend in this ethnography.

Little finds his theoretical footing in a convincing coupling of an interactionist approach to marketplace analysis and the practice theory of Michel de Certeau. Meanwhile, the ethnographic narrative he crafts moves through the social spaces articulated through the identity-making practices of Maya típica vendors. This space and the practices that give it shape are peeled away and examined chapter by chapter. He begins this process by explaining that to tour the Ruta Maya (the much-traveled, Maya-focused touristic sites, also sometimes called the “Mundo Maya”, stretching from Mexico south to El Salvador) is to visit a living history museum where Mayaness is exhibited- often by the Maya (and especially Maya women) themselves. Mayas live and work in this performative space, a “touristic borderzone,” according to Little, where they craft gendered identities (and many vendors are women), emphasizing different aspects of their identities depending on the circumstance—now típica vendors are women, now indios, now Maya women, now Kaqchikel speakers, and so on.

Little builds this complex composite sketch of típica vendors as his narrative follows them through the streets and formal marketplaces of Antigua as well as to their homes in the western Guatemalan highland communities of Santa Antonio Aguas Calientes and Santa Catarina Palopó- which have also become places where típica is sold. Rather than treat these various locales as distinct social spaces, however, Little’s narrative follows distinct personalities and themes (such as gendered patterns of participation in household típica businesses or state-sponsored cultural patrimony programs or himself) to link them as part of his larger trans-locale touristic borderzone space.

Some of the approaches Little takes as he peels away his multilayered analysis of the social spaces in which Maya típica vendors make their identities are more successful than others. For example, his use of Michel Foucault’s notion of “heterotopia” does not seem to move his analysis forward in any profound way. And his use of de Certeau’s distinction between tactic and strategy, although intriguing as a means of thinking through the role of power in shaping Maya identity-making practices in different contexts (home, típica marketplace, and street), might have been more fully developed throughout the entire ethnography. Overall, however, Little convincingly and deftly builds his multisited account of the strategic (and frequently tactical) ways that Guatemalan típica vendors deploy multiple identities in a very complex social space. Moreover, the straightforward, accessible narrative style will have broad appeal to a diverse audience, making it an ideal choice for undergraduate courses and, in particular, for an introductory course (or section of a course) examining the global lives of the world’s indigenous peoples.