Description
Book SynopsisComprised of 24 newly commissioned chapters, this defining reference volume on Latin America introduces English-language readers to the debates, traditions, and sensibilities that have shaped the study of this diverse region.
- Contributors include some of the most prominent figures in Latin American and Latin Americanist anthropology
- Offers previously unpublished work from Latin America scholars that has been translated into English explicitly for this volume
- Includes overviews of national anthropologies in Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil, and is also topically focused on new research
- Draws on original ethnographic and archival research
- Highlights national and regional debates
- Provides a vivid sense of how anthropologists often combine intellectual and political work to address the pressing social and cultural issues of Latin America
Trade Review"An indispensable reference for all social scientists interested in Latin American regions. Summing Up: Essential." (
Choice Reviews, May 2009)
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgments xiv
Introduction 1
Deborah Poole
Part I: Locations 9
1 Argentina: Contagious Marginalities 11
Claudia Briones and Rosana Guber
2 Bolivia: Bridges and Chasms 32
Rossana Barragán
3 Brazil: Otherness in Context 56
Mariza Peirano
4 Colombia: Citizens and Anthropologists 72
Myriam Jimeno
5 Ecuador: Militants, Priests, Technocrats, and Scholars 90
Carmen Martínez Novo
6 Guatemala: Essentialisms and Cultural Politics 109
Brigittine M. French
7 Mexico: Anthropology and the Nation-State 128
Salomón Nahmad Sittón
8 Peru: From Otherness to a Shared Diversity 150
Carlos Iván Degregori and Pablo Sandoval
Part II: Debates 175
9 Race in Latin America 177
Peter Wade
10 Language States 193
Penelope Harvey
11 Legalities and Illegalities 214
Mark Goodale
12 Borders, Sovereignty, and Racialization 230
Ana M. Alonso
13 Writing the Aftermath: Anthropology and “Post-Conflict” 254
Isaias Rojas Pérez
14 Alterities: Kinship and Gender 276
Olivia Harris
15 Vinculaciones: Pharmaceutical Politics and Science 303
Cori Hayden
16 Agrarian Reform and Peasant Studies: The Peruvian Case 325
Linda J. Seligmann
17 Statistics and Anthropology: The Mexican Case 352
Casey Walsh
Part III: Positions 373
18 Indigenous Anthropologies beyond Barbados 375
Stefano Varese, Guillermo Delgado, and Rodolfo L. Meyer
19 Afro-Latin American Peoples 399
Jaime Arocha and Adriana Maya
20 Reconceptualizing Latin America 426
Lynn Stephen
21 Places and Academic Disputes: The Argentine Gran Chaco 447
Gastón Gordillo
22 Disengaging Anthropology 466
Alcida Rita Ramos
23 On the Frontlines: Forensic Anthropology 485
Victoria Sanford
24 Collaborative Anthropologies in Transition 502
Charles R. Hale
Index 519
