Synopses & Reviews
Brazil, the largest of the Latin American nations, is fast becoming a potent international economic player as well as a regional power. This English translation of an acclaimed Brazilian anthology provides critical overviews of Brazilian life, history, and culture and insight into Brazil's development over the past century. The distinguished essayists, most of whom are Brazilian, provide expert perspectives on the social, economic, and cultural challenges that face Brazil as it seeks future directions in the age of globalization.
All of the contributors connect past, present, and future Brazil. Their analyses converge on the observation that although Brazil has undergone radical changes during the past one hundred years, trenchant legacies of social and economic inequality remain to be addressed in the new century. A foreword by Jerry Davila highlights the volume's contributions for a new, English-reading audience.
The contributors are:
Cristovam Buarque
Aspasia Camargo
Gilberto Dupas
Celso Furtado
Afranio Garcia
Celso Lafer, Jose Seixas Lourenco
Renato Ortiz
Moacir Palmeira
Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro
Ignacy Sachs
Paulo Singer
Herve Thery
Jorge Wilheim
Review
"Extremely valuable to scholarship."
The Latin American Review of Books
Review
"Presents the collective wisdom of a group of prominent intellectuals and policy makers. . . . This fine English translation provides us with an excellent text for our students and colleagues who have not yet had the privilege of learning Portuguese."
-Hispanic American Historical Review "[A] lucid compilation of essays . . . immerse[s] readers in the nation's history, culture, population changes, and political, social, and concentrated wealth changes. . . . It is notable that Brazilian academics and policy makers who have been principle figures in Brazilian administrative life wrote 11 of the 12 essays. Their applied insights show in these candid and articulate summaries, which ultimately advocate for alterations of the national reality for the present century. . . . Highly recommended."
-Choice "Extremely valuable to scholarship."
-The Latin American Review of Books
Review
"The volume will serve especially well in advanced undergraduate courses and graduate seminars . . . . Highly recommended."
-EIAL
Review
and#8220;[Fluent Selves] is an astonishingly well-written collection of firsthand accounts of particular Native personsand#8217; experiences with and#8216;colonialism,and#8217; and#8216;development,and#8217; and and#8216;civilizing practices.and#8217; It is a major contribution to several fields: the comparative ethnographic and social historical study of lowland South America, postcolonial studies of self/structural interaction, and the psychological study of Native American trauma passed down through generations.and#8221;and#8212;Kathleen Fine-Dare, coeditor of Border Crossings: Transnational Americanist Anthropology
Review
andquot;Highly recommended for all scholars of South American peoples, and its use cross-culturally is of equal value.andquot;andmdash;Norman E. Whitten, Jr., Journal of Anthropological Research
Synopsis
Fluent Selves examines narrative practices throughout lowland South America focusing on indigenous communities in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, illuminating the social and cultural processes that make the past as important as the present for these peoples. This collection brings together leading scholars in the fields of anthropology and linguistics to examine the intersection of these narratives of the past with the construction of personhood. The volumeand#8217;s exploration of autobiographical and biographical accounts raises questions about fieldwork, ethical practices, and cultural boundaries in the study of anthropology.
Rather than relying on a simple opposition between the and#8220;Western individualand#8221; and the non-Western rest, contributors to Fluent Selves explore the complex interplay of both individualizing as well as relational personhood in these practices. Transcending classic debates over the categorization of and#8220;mythand#8221; and and#8220;history,and#8221; the autobiographical and biographical narratives in Fluent Selves illustrate the very medium in which several modes of engaging with the past meet, are reconciled, and reemerge.and#160;
About the Author
Suzanne Oakdale is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of I Foresee My Life: The Ritual Performance of Autobiography in an Amazonian Community (Nebraska, 2005). Magnus Course is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Becoming Mapuche: Person and Ritual in Indigenous Chile.