Synopses & Reviews
Comprised 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- Offers previously unpublished work from Latin America scholars that has been translated into English explicitly for this volume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
Review
"More than an assemblage of essays, Deborah Poole's magisterial volume synthesizes the commitments, conundrums, and complicities that make up the long disciplinary history of Latin American anthropology. Revealing an imposing historical depth and analytical crispness, Poole’s
A Companion to Latin American Anthropology brings together an impressive array of scholars of and from Latin America to illuminate the critical relationship between politics and scholarship, in a region that has been central to anthropology's methodological and moral development."
–Greg Grandin, New York University
Review
"An indispensable reference for all social scientists interested in Latin American regions. Summing Up: Essential." (Choice Reviews, May 2009)
Synopsis
Comprised 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. Written by some of the most prominent figures in Latin American and Latin Americanist anthropology and drawing on their own ethnographic research, this volume highlights national and regional debates. Both geographically and topically focused, these chapters give a vivid sense of how anthropologists often combine intellectual and political work to address the pressing social and cultural issues of Latin America. Ultimately this volume encourages readers to consider how a confrontation with Latin American political, cultural, and historical realities has forced us to rethink traditional categories of scholarly analysis.
About the Author
Deborah Poole is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Program in Latin American Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Peru: Time of Fear (with Gerardo Renique, 1992), Unruly Order: Violence, Power, and Regional Identity in the High Provinces of Peru (1994), Vision, Race, and Modernity: A Visual Economy of the Andean Image World (1997), and Anthropology in the Margins of the State (coedited with Veena Das, 2004), as well as over 30 articles.
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction (Deborah Poole, Johns Hopkins University).
Part I: Locations.
1. Argentina: Contagious Marginalities (Claudia Briones, University of Buenos Aires and Rosana Guber, Institute for Social and Economic Development (IDES), Argentina).
2. Bolivia: Bridges and Chasms (Rossana Barragán, Director of the Historical Archive, City of La Paz).
3. Brazil: Otherness in Context (Mariza Peirano, Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil).
4. Colombia: Citizens and Anthropologists (Miriam Jimeno, Universidad Nacional de Colombia).
5. Ecuador: Militants, Priests, Technocrats, and Scholars (Carmen Martínez Novo, Facultad Latino Americana de Ciencias Sociales, Ecuador).
6. Guatemala: Essentialisms and Cultural Politics (Brigittine M. French, Grinnell College).
7. Mexico: Anthropology and the Nation State (Salomón Náhmad Sittón, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Oaxaca).
8. Peru: From Otherness a Shared Diversity (Carlos Iván Degregori, Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru and Pablo Sandoval, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru).
Part II: Debates.
9. Race in Latin America (Peter Wade, University of Manchester).
10. Language States (Penelope Harvey, University of Manchester).
11. Legalities and Illegalities (Mark Goodale, George Mason University).
12. Borders, Sovereignty and Racialization (Ana M. Alonso, University of Arizona).
13. Writing the Aftermath: Anthropology and “Post-Conflict” (Isaias Rojas-Pérez, Johns Hopkins University).
14. Alterities: Kinship and Gender (Olivia Harris, London School of Economics and Political Science).
15. Vinculaciones: Pharmaceutical Politics and Science (Cori Hayden, University of California, Berkeley).
16. Agrarian Reform and Peasant Studies (The Peruvian Case: Linda J. Seligmann, George Mason University).
17. Statistics and Anthropology: The Mexican Case (Casey Walsh, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City).
Part III: Positions.
18. Indigenous Anthropologies beyond Barbados (Stefano Varese, University of California, Davis; Guillermo Delgado, University of California, Santa Cruz and Rodolfo L. Meyer, University of California, Davis).
19. Afro Latin American Peoples (Jaime Arocha, National University of Colombia and Adriana Maya, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá).
20. Reconceptualizing Latin America (Lynn Stephen, University of Oregon).
21. Places and Academic Disputes: The Argentine Gran Chaco (Gastón Gordillo, University of British Columbia).
22. Disengaging Anthropology (Alcida Rita Ramos, University of Brasília, Brazil).
23. On the Frontlines: Forensic Anthropology (Victoria Sanford, Lehman College, CUNY).
24. Collaborative Anthropologies in Transition (Charles R. Hale, University of Texas, Austin).
Index.