Description
Book Synopsis In recent years the concept and study of “civil society” has received a lot of attention from political scientists, economists, and sociologists, but less so from anthropologists. A ground-breaking ethnographic approach to civil society as it is formed in indigenous communities in Latin America, this volume explores the multiple potentialities of civil society’s growth and critically assesses the potential for sustained change. Much recent literature has focused on the remarkable gains made by civil society and the chapters in this volume reinforce this trend while also showing the complexity of civil society - that civil society can itself sometimes be uncivil. In doing so, these insightful contributions speak not only to Latin American area studies but also to the changing shape of global systems of political economy in general.
Trade Review “The Fischer collection offers a useful assessment of the effects and limits of neoliberal governmentality projects, focused on critical discussion of the concept of ‘civil society’…also provides some useful reflections on translocal and transnational relations and processes.” · JRAI
Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction: Indigenous Peoples, Neo-liberal Regimes, and Varieties of Civil Society in Latin America
Edward F. Fischer
Chapter 2. Indigenous Politics and the State: The Andean Highlands in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Michiel Baud
Chapter 3. La Mano Dura and the Violence of Civil Society in Bolivia
Daniel M. Goldsteinwith Gloria Achá, Eric Hinojosa, and Theo Roncken
Chapter 4. Empire/Multitude—State/Civil Society: Rethinking Topographies of Power through Transnational Connectivity in Ecuador and Beyond
Suzana Sawyer
Chapter 5. The Power of Ecuador’s Indigenous Communities in an Era of Cultural Pluralism
Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld
Chapter 6. Civil Society and the Indigenous Movement in Colombia: The Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca
Joanne Rappaport
Chapter 7. Indigenous Nations in Guatemalan Democracy and the State: A Tentative Assessment
Demetrio Cojtí Cuxil
Chapter 8. Reformulating the Guatemalan State: The Role of Maya Intellectuals and Civil Society Discourse
Marta Elena Casaús Arzú
Chapter 9. El otro lado: Local Ends and Development in a Q’eqchi’ Maya Community
Avery Dickins
Chapter 10. The Political Uses of Maya Medicine: Civil Organizations in Chiapas and the Ventriloquism Effect
Pedro Pitarch
Bibliography
Index
