Anthropology

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Anthropology

Latin American scholars began the anthropological enterprise aiming to identify, describe, and understand the multiple cultures and ethnic groups that populate the region. Hegemonic in their approach until the 1970s, theories of cultural assimilation or acculturation assumed that "static" indigenous societies would eventually be subjugated by dynamic modernizing forces, adopting dominant cultures to the detriment of their autonomy and particular ethnic characters. Therefore, early anthropological research was mainly concerned with documenting indigenous cultural heritages such as language, ritual, and myth, and/or supporting indigenous people through the inexorable acculturation process. In regions with relatively small and isolated indigenous populations, detailed ethnologies of still-living indigenous ethnic cultures dominated the discipline for decades. Darcy Ribeiro's original work in Brazil, which added a critical political dimension to comparative descriptions of indigenous peoples, advanced the research agenda for later ethnological studies on indigenous communities in Amazonia, Patagonia, and elsewhere in remote areas.

In countries with large native populations, intellectual debates on possible indigenous contribution to and incorporation into national cultural projects informed anthropological developments. In Mexico, most studies followed official discourses of cultural assimilation toward the constitution of an imagined mestizo (mixed-heritage) national character; Guillermo Bonfil's work on indigenous resistance against state cultural impositions is a relevant exception. In the Andes, the first decades of systematic anthropological work saw both applied research projects intended to foster indigenous modernization and impressive ethnographic studies on enduring indigenous cosmologies and social structures. At the same time, a branch of political economy studies started to give valuable insights on campesino communities' political organizations and systems of production.

As national assimilative projects reached their limits, critical indigenous voices began to populate the anthropological literature. José María Arguedas's pioneer work manifests indigenous agency in shaping the processes of cultural transformation, informing a decade-long debate about ethnicity and mestizaje (mixed ancestry) in the Andes. Similarly, Rigoberta Menchu's testimony on terror and political consciousness in Guatemala stimulated important indigenous literary production as well as a controversy about the epistemology of testimonies. The work of the Taller de Historia Oral Andina (Andes oral history workshop) in Bolivia is a good recent example of this branch of indigenous literary anthropology.

Moreover, the issues of massive indigenous rural-to-urban migrations and continuous transformations of urban popular cultures and rituals have brought anthropological inquiry to the cities. Roberto Damatta's work on the symbolic constitution of an alternative national discourse in Brazilian carnivals is a fascinating early piece, whereas Néstor García Canclini's excellent research on hybrid cultures and urban social landscapes well represent recent urban anthropology studies.

Since the 1970s anthropological literature has focused on the politics of identity in light of the emergence of social movements and the cultural processes of globalization. Research on the indigenous uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, nationwide revolts in Ecuador, or electoral gains in Bolivia analyzes the construction of indigenous political narratives and national alternatives. Likewise, studies on indigenous and grassroots mobilizations in the southern cone, Central America, and Colombia examine the increasing political and cultural visibility of historically marginalized social groups. Xavier Albo's work on Aymara's political representations, Minor Sinclair's compilation on social movements in Central America, and The Journal of Latin American Anthropology's issues on Mayan and Argentinean indigenous movements are significant examples of studies that connect local, national, and global power spheres.

Moreover, significant developments, drawing mostly on post-theories such as postmodern, postcolonial, and subaltern studies, have decentered the meanings of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in postulating the coexistence of contested and multiple identities. Arturo Escobar's work is a good start on ethnic discursive reconstitution and empowerment, whereas Marisol de la Cadena's research on ethnicity and gender has produced an interesting assessment of power-related constructions of identities. Finally, later developments on collective memory and spatial dimensions have contributed to the unfinished anthropological quest for understanding and grasping Latin America's extraordinary cultural diversity and political complexity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albó, Xavier. Pueblos indios en la política. La Paz: Plural Editores/CIPCA, 2002.

Alvarez, Sonia E., Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar, eds. Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Re-Visioning Latin American Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.

Arguedas, José María. Indios Mestizos y Señores. Lima: Editorial Horizonte, 1985.

Bonfil Batalla, Guillermo. México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Cadena, Marisol de la. Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1919–1991. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.

García Canclini, Néstor. La antropología urbana en México. México, D.F.: Conaculta, UAM, FCE, 2005

García Canclini, Néstor. Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Matta, Roberto da. Carnivals, Rogues, and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991.

Menchú, Rigoberta, and Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. London and New York: Verso, 1984.

Ribeiro, Darcy. Os índios e a civilização: A integração das populações indígenas no Brasil moderno. 4th ed. Vol. 5. Petrópolis, Brasil: Vozes, 1982.

Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia, and Taller de Historia Oral Andina. La mujer andina en la historia. La Paz: Ediciones del THOA, 1990.

Sinclair, Minor. The New Politics of Survival: Grassroots Movements in Central America. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995.

Gerardo Damonte

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture