Indigenous Peoples in Latin America The Quest for Self Determination

This book deals with the perennial tensions between ethnic groups and the modern nation-state and does so from the perspective of a leading Mexican anthropologist with deep and long experience in these matters. As such, it is both a superb introduction to the basic issues and a presentation of the authors own original contributions. The appearance of this book in English gives North American readers access to these important and political currents in Latin American anthropology and political economy. It is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the current recrudescence of indigenous peoples at this moment in history—when conventional wisdom had predicted its demise.

This book deals with the perennial tensions between ethnic groups and the modern nation-state and does so from the perspective of a leading Mexican anthropologist with deep and long experience in thes

Héctor Díaz Polanco is professor and researcher at Centro de Investigaciones Superiores en Antropología Social in Mexico City. Lucia Rayas, a sociologist and translator, studied at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana and El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City, and at the University of California at Riverside. She has translated several books and articles on social sciences and humanities.