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Explores the complex relationship between linguistic diversity & intercultural communication, competition, & cooperation in Guatemala where 21 Mayan languages, Nahua, & an Afro-Caribbean language are spoken in addition to the official Spanish. The importance of ethnic diversity & multilingualism in Guatemalan history is discussed, along with the emphasis on "interculturalism" in the 1996 peace accords. Language shifts that have occurred over the last 25 years in Mayan regions are examined, noting the widespread trend toward bilingualism in the Mayan & Spanish languages in the highland regions, & in Spanish & another language (mostly English) in urban areas. A state sponsored bilingual education program in Mayan languages & Spanish was instituted in 1980. Steps outlined in the peace accords for achieving an authentic bilingual intercultural education are described, along with the meaning of "intercultural;" the implications of putting interculturalism into practice; & recommendations of the Special Parity Commission on Indigenous Language Officialization. Prospects for a future pluricultural & multilingual Guatemala are discussed. 1 Figure, 13 References. J. Lindroth

Globalization is understood here as "hybridization," in which forms become separated from existing practices & recombine with new forms in new practices. It is argued that globalization primarily involves neither universalization nor even multiculturalism, but instead, interculturalism. Globalization is not a condition of modernization, but instead, a historical epoch, beginning from the 1960s & contemporaneous with postmodernity. Both functionalist modernization theory & Marxist dependency theory are modernist paradigms of the period of the nation-state, while true globalization theory is the postmodern analysis of hybridity. Cultural hybridity is a universal, eg, the interface of transnational firms & host national government in offshore banking, or instances in which multiculturalism becomes interculturalism, in which an individual has a choice of a plurality of ethnic organizations as a basis of a multiple identity. Of special interest is a cultural hybridity between enemies, involving the formation of a "global field" of "global memory," circumscribed by conflictual unity -- bound by common political & cultural experiences of, eg, Jew & Arab. 101 References. V. Rios