Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 3, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2018 | Page 14

Conflicting Values Shaping Perceptions of Community Security and Women’s Health Security
the tension between individual and community rights can be a way of privileging
the desires of the dominant group. Kuokkanen (2012) has gone so far as to assert
in her study of the interconnections between indigenous self-determination and
indigenous women's rights, “the tension between collective and individual indigenous
rights is illusory and that those who argue against individual rights do so
only when women’s rights are in question” (249).
As our discussion of the Quiverfull movement will illustrate, the stories that
women are told about their security have justified limitations on their pursuit of
their own health or in their efforts to advocate for other women in their community.
These challenges are particularly fierce when women are cooperating with or
at least receiving help from outside of the community. Community suspicion of
outsiders often reflects collective memory of actual physical threats to community
survival, as in the case of the Maya in Guatemala, or a collective belief that the
wider culture is encroaching on religious beliefs, as in the case of the Quiverfull
movement in the United States.
A Comparison of Two Communities
For this project, we carried out a comparative case study design focusing on
two cases of women’s reproductive security: the Quiverfull in the United
States and the Maya in Guatamala. The research was executed through interviews
in 2015 with 14 indigenous women who were clients of the NGO Mayan
Families, Mayan Families leadership, employees (both local indigenous and foreign),
and six Guatemalan school teachers. Interviews were done in person in Panajachel,
Guatemala, and the surrounding villages of Tierra Linda, El Barranco,
and San Jorge La Laguna. Follow-up interviews with NGO directors and staff occurred
by Skype and phone. Additionally, analysis of videos, blogs, and webpages
was carried out to assess the messaging used when discussing reproductive health
in the Maya and Quiverfull communities.
The Maya Community in Guatamala
The Maya community in the Lake Atitlan region of Guatemala has consistently
suffered from higher rates of chronic malnutrition, teen pregnancies,
and maternal deaths than the nonindigenous population (USG Guatemala
GHI Team 2016). This group has also been highly impacted by the Guatemalan
civil war and ensuing mass killings. These historic events heighten a societal need
for self-preservation, exacerbating a situation in which focusing on the security
of one part of one’s identity, such as women’s reproductive health, impacts the
security of another identity. While access to sexual education and birth control
are guaranteed in Guatemala under the family planning law, passed in 2005 and
enacted in 2009, this law has by no means been fully implemented (Ospina 2015).
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