Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on the works and words of artisans and artisanas, Indians, and mestizos, the author critiques the national ideology of ethnic homogeneity. He shows how Gueguence tells a story about the passing of time, the absurdity of authority, and the contradictions of coping with inheritances of the past.
Trade Review“
The Grimace of Macho Ratón will make a stimulating addition to anthropological interpretations of nationalism and ethnicity, as well as to the broader Latin Americanist literature on the relationship between intellectual production and cultural policy in the modern era.”—
Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University
“Field’s study of small-town and rural artisans meets an evident need in the literature on Nicaragua. This innovative, stimulating, and important book is a prime example of the ‘new ethnography’: theoretically sophisticated, critical of the anthropological enterprise yet empirically rich and grounded.”—
Charles R. Hale, University of Texas at Austin
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction: Regarding Macho Raton
I. A Class Project: El Gueguence, Masay-Carazo, and Nicaraguan National Identity
2. Nobody as to give me permission for this, Lord Governor Tastuanes, or, Why the Artisans Did Not Become a Revolutionary Class 1979-1990
3. Breaking the Silence: Suche-Malinche, Artisan Women, and Nicaraguan Feminism
4. The Time of the Blue Thread: Knowledge and Truth about Ethnicity in Western Nicaragua
5. Whither the Grimace? Reimagining Nation, State, and Culture
Notes
Bibliography
Index
