A
The Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean
Harry Sanabria University of Pittsburgh
Boston New York San Francisco Mexico City Montreal Toronto London Madrid Hong Kong Singapore Tokyo Cape Town
Munich Sydney
Paris
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments and Thanks Preface xiii
xii
Analytical Approach xiv Strengths and Features xv Organization and Themes
"I X
xv
Anthropology, Latin America, and the Caribbean
1
Why Study the Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean? Doing Cultural Anthropology and Documenting Everyday Life
6
Controversies: The Culture of Poverty and Perspectives on the Poor Oscar Lewis and the "Culture of Poverty" Dying and Weeping in Brazilian Favelas
Summary
8 10
15
Issues and Questions
15
Key Terms and Concepts Endnotes
15 16
Introducing Latin America and the Caribbean
17
Delimiting and Imagining Latin America: Ideas, Spaces, and Places Countries and Population Migration and Cities Languages
22
24
25
Landscapes, Culture, and Society Major Landscapes
27
28
Structural Zones 29 Physiographic Regions 32 South America 32 / Mexico Central America
42 / Caribbean
39 43
Landscape Transformations Before and After the Europeans Controversies: Is the Culture Area Concept Still Useful?
43 45
17
Summary
47
Issues and Questions
48
Key Terms and Concepts Endnotes
3
48 49
Society and Culture Before the Europeans
50
Anthropological Perspectives on the Evolution of Social Complexity
50
Phases in the Emergence of Societal Complexity in Latin America and the Caribbean 52 Paleo-Indian 53 Archaic 55 Formative 61 Horizon 63 The Inca and Aztec States 65 The Andean and Mesoamerican Highlands: Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries The Inca and Aztec Expansions 66 Controversies: The Peopling of the Americas Summary
74
Key Terms and Concepts
4
70
74
Issues and Questions
Endnote
65
74
75
Conquest, Colonialism, and Resistance The European Conquests 76 Voyages, Exploration, and Expeditions How Did (and Could) It Happen? 78 The Columbian Exchange 84
76 76
The Colonial Period 85 Mechanisms of Rule 86 Encomiendas, Repartimientos, and Tribute 86 / Reducciones 87 Expansion of the State Bureaucracy 88 Local Elites as Power and Cultural Brokers 89 / Rituals and Ceremonies Pillars of the Colonial Economy: Haciendas, Plantations, and Mines 92 Haciendas 92 / Plantations and Slavery 93 / Mines 94 Resisting the Colonial Order 95 Rebellions 95 / Evasive, "Everyday" Forms of Resistance 97
91
CONTENTS
Ethnogenesis
99
Colonial Legacies, Independence, and the Coalescence of Nation-States 102 Controversies: The Quincentennial, or Remembering Columbus 104 Summary
107
Issues and Questions
108
Key Terms and Concepts Endnotes
108 109
Cultural Politics of Race and Ethnicity
110
Racial Categories and Racial Fluidity in Latin America Colonialism, Empire, and the Invention of Race
110
114
Marriage and Race in the Eighteenth Through Early Twentieth Centuries 115 Scientific Racisms of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 118 Culture and Race 120 Decency, Hygiene, and Race 122
Mestizos and Mestizaje: Class, Race, and Nation The Rise of Ethnicity and Ethnic Movements
125 130
Indian versus Indigenous 130 Ethnicity, Culture, and Class 132 Indigenous Movements and the Politics of Difference Land, Ethnicity, and Indianness 135
Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Gender
137
Nationalism 137 Gender 139
Controversies: Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Peoples 139 In the United States: Race and Respect in the Streets of New York City 141 Summary Issues and Questions Key Terms and Concepts
144 145 145
133
CONTENTS
VI]
Cultural Constructions of Gender and Sexuality Pre-European Gender Systems 146 Sexuality, Parallelism, and Complementarity Gender and State Expansion 148 The Conquest and Colonial Period
146
147
150
Gender and the Consolidation of Nation-States
151
Femininity and Masculinity: Rethinking Marianismo and Machismo 152 Contesting Marianismo: Women and Gender in Revolutionary Settings 153 Cuba 153 / Chile 154 / Nicaragua 155 Contesting Marianismo: Sexuality and Female-Headed Households 156 Sexuality 156 / Matrifocality: Female-Headed Households 159 Real "Machos" or Contingent Masculinities? 161 Contesting Machismo: Alcohol and Fatherhood 165 Alcohol 165 / Fathering 165 Models of Behavior or Lived Experience? 167 Shifting Contours of Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexual Identities
168
Controversies: Gender, Masculinity, and Violence in Amazonian Societies 172 In the United States: Courtship, Sexuality, and Love Across the Border Summary Issues and Questions
179 180
Key Terms and Concepts
Religion and Everyday Life
180
181
Popular Catholicism 181 Major Attributes of Popular Catholicism 183 Facets of Popular Catholicism 186 The Virgin Mary 186 / Working with the Devil Todos Santos: The Days of the Dead 192
190
The Spread of Protestantism 196 Maya Women in Mexico 197 Andean Villagers in Highland Ecuador
200
The African Heritage: Candomble, Santeria, and Vodou
201
Controversies: Mesoamerican Civil-Religious Cargo Systems In the United States: Re-Creating Vodou in Brooklyn
211
207
176
CONTENTS
Summary
212
Issues and Questions
213
Key Terms and Concepts
213
Striving for Health and Coping with Illness Medical Anthropology
214
214
The Poor Health of Latin America and the Caribbean Mortality, Access to Biomedicine, and Malnutrition Poverty, Inequality, and Disease 218 Tuberculosis 220 / AIDS 224 Gender and Health 228
Folk Illnesses: Susto, Mai de Ojo, and Nervios The Expressive and Healthy Body
215 215
229
232
Bodies, Communities, and Mountains in the Andes 233 Body and Knowledge in Lowland South America 234 Jamaican Bodies: Health, Sexuality, and Gender 234
Religion and Healing
236
Shamanism, Ritual Poetics, and Hallucinogenic Healing Medicine and Religious Pluralism 240
Controversies: Marijuana and Coca, Health and Politics Marijuana in Jamaica and Costa Rica Coca in the Andes 245
236
241
242
In the United States: Susto and Mai de Ojo Among Florida Farmworkers 247 Summary
249
Issues and Questions
249
Key Terms and Concepts
J7
249
Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Expression Food and Culture
250
250
Historical and Cultural Sketch of Latin American Food Food, Consumption, and Ritual
260
Guinea Pigs and Ritual in the Andes 260 Juthaa: Sharing Polluting Food in Trinidad
262
254
CONTENTS
IX
Communicating Gender and Sexuality Through Food Highland Ecuador Jamaica 267 Brazil 269
Cuisine, Cookbooks, and Nation-Building
270
Globalization and National Cuisine in Belize 270 Cookbooks, Tamales, and Mexican Nation-Building
Controversies: "Hot" and "Cold" Foods
Summary
272
274
In the United States: Tamales, Gender, and Survival
277
279
Issues and Questions
280
Key Terms and Concepts Endnotes
280 280
Perspectives on Globalization Globalization
264
265
281
281
Tourism, Crafts, and Cultural Authenticity In Search of the "Authentic" and the Timeless Producing "Ethnic" Handicrafts 285
Transnational Production and Labor
283 284
288
The North American Free Trade Agreement 290 Transnational Migrants in the United States and Canada 292 Labor and Gender in Mexican and Guatemalan Maquilas 293 Lurking Danger on the Borderlands: Women, Maquilas, and Death
Global Interests and the Environment
297
298
Sustainable Development and Bioprospecting Deforestation and Degradation 301 The Amazon 303 / Central America
299 304
Controversies: Global Interests and Ethnographic Representations in the Amazon 305 In the United States: Domestic Workers in the Midst of Affluence Summary
312
Issues and Questions
312
Key Terms and Concepts Endnote
313
313
309
CONTENTS
Manifestations of Popular Culture What Is Popular Culture? Sports 316
314
314
Soccer 316 The Central American Soccer War 317 Nationalism, Masculinity, and Party Politics in Argentine Soccer Popular Discontent and Soccer in Urban Chile 319 Baseball 320 The Dominican Republic 320 / Cuba 322 Carnaval and Popular Celebrations 323 The Origins of Carnaval 323 Understanding Carnaval 324 Tourism and Violence in Brazilian Carnaval 327 Fertility, Community, and the Supernatural in Bolivian Carnaval Music and Dance Tango 332 Salsa 335 Reggae 337
330
332
Television and Telenovelas 339 Why Are Telenovelas so Popular? 340 The Cultural Impact of Telenovelas and Television Programming Controversies: Tango and Sexuality
Summary
342
344
In the United States: Quinceaneras, Gender, and Tradition
347
349
Issues and Questions
350
Key Terms and Concepts Endnote
350
350
Violence, Memory, and Striving for a Just World Violence and Memory
351
The Central American Civil Wars 353 Nicaragua and El Salvador 355 Nicaragua 355 / El Salvador 356 Guatemala's Despotic State 357 Chile's Pinochet
318
361
351
CONTENTS
Xi
Argentina's Dirty War
364
Colombia's Violencia
368
Mexico's Zapatistas
371
Peru's Shining Path
374
Controversies: Rigoberta Menchii, and the Politics of Memory and Culture 378 In the United States: Fleeing War and Reconstituting New Lives Summary
384
Issues and Questions Key Terms and Concepts Bibliography
Glossary Index
386
417 423
385 385
381
