PEOPLES OF LATIN AMERICA
ANT413/513,W
Dr. Kathryn S. Oths, Ph.D.
ANT 413/513, W Dr. Kathryn S. Oths, Ph.D.
Spring 2001 Office: 24D ten Hoor
Office Hours: Tues/Thur 3:30-5:00, Phone: 348-1957
after class, and by appt koths@tenhoor.as.ua.edu
This course will present an overview of ethnic groups and patterns of culture found throughout South America. Topics to be covered include ethnic composition of populations, social structure, economics, material culture, gender roles, religion, sports and political systems. Comparisons to North and Central American peoples will be drawn where instructive.
This course carries a "W" designation, therefore writing proficiency is required for a passing grade. Courses fulfilling the "W" requirement must be taken on the UA campus. Whenever possible, writing courses should be taken in the student's major. Prerequisites are 12 hours in anthropology, graduate standing, or permission of the instructor.
To request disability accommodations, please contact Disabilities Services (348-4285). After initial arrangements are made with that office, contact your professor.
1) To improve the writing and communication skills of students.
2) To impart an understanding of the lifeways of the various social and cultural groups
that comprise modern day South America.
3) To hone the speaking and teaching skills of graduate students.
Written and Oral Assignments:
For undergraduates, a review and commentary on the assigned materials will be due the week following their presentation in class. Papers are required to be coherent, logic and carefully edited. These assignments will be carefully graded, with ample commentary (see Guidelines below), and returned within two weeks. Five papers will be due in all, with the choice of weeks left up to the student. However, at least one of the papers must be handed in by Week 7 (Feb. 22nd), and one of the papers must cover Week 9. The paper will be three pages in length. A student may submit a sixth paper, with the five highest grades of the six counting for the final grade. No late papers will be accepted. For graduate students, a 20-page paper will be due on May 2nd, the last day of classes, on a topic to be approved by the professor. Additionally, all graduate students will prepare for and lead the class discussion on one occasion over their choice of topics from the syllabus. Undergraduate students are encouraged, and graduate students are required, to make use of optional supplementary sources in preparing their respective assignments. Students wishing to receive writing instruction beyond what is provided by the instructor may contact the Writing Center for assistance (348-5049).
Oths' Style Guide Consult this style guide for all of your written work
Attendance:
Students will be required to attend class and participate in discussions held in a seminar format. Quality, not quantity, of opinions is what counts. Students should endeavor to limit their contributions to class discussion to a maximum of 3 or 4 comments per class in order to allow all students the chance to participate.
GRADING POLICY
The undergraduate's grade is based 75% upon the written assignments and 25% on class participation. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper division student in the discipline will not be given a passing grade, regardless of class attendance or class participation. There will be no midterms or finals given. For graduate students, the final paper accounts for 45%, class participation for 45%, and the class lecture for 10% of the final grade. Class attendance and participation is evaluated by the peer-prof method. At the end of the semester, both students and the professor confidentially rate the attendance and participation of all other students on a scale of 1 to 5. A good peer score may raise, but will not lower, the overall course grade of the individual student.
In addition to the required texts and articles listed below, adjustments may be made to the reading list throughout the course as deemed necessary.
TEXTS
1. Perlman, Janice 1976 The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in
Rio de Janeiro, University of California Press.
2. Whitten, Norman and Arlene Torres 1998 Blackness in Latin America and the Carribean,
Indiana University Press.
3. Picchi, Debra 2000 The Bakairi Indians of Brazil, Waveland Press.
4. Weismantel, Mary 1998 Food, Gender, and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes, Waveland Press.
5. Oliver-Smith, Anthony 1992 The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes Waveland Press.
6. ON RESERVE: Heath, D. 1988 Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin American
ARTICLES
The assigned articles, along with the required texts, form the basis from which the review papers will be written. In some cases, the article on reserve may appear in a book. In this case, scan the table of contents for the chapter that matches the article title. In some cases, I have done this to preserve the quality of the photos that accompany the required reading. The title of each article is listed below in the course topic schedule.
LOCATION OF REQUIRED
READING MATERIALS
Required TEXTS may be purchased at the Alabama Bookstore, Supply Store, or College Bookstore. Assigned ARTICLES will be available on reserve at Gorgas Library.
The following books are recommended as supplemental materials for the interested student. Other supplemental materials may be located through on-line searches or other means.
Bourque, Susan and Kay Warren Women of the Andes.
Bastien, Joseph and John Donahue Health in the Andes.
Harris, Marvin Patterns of Race in the Americas.
Lloyd, Peter The 'Young Towns' of Lima: Aspects of Urbanization in Peru.
Orlove, Ben Alpacas, Sheep and Men: The Wool Export Economy and
Regional Society in Southern Peru
Summ, Harvey Brazilian Mosaic: Portraits of a Diverse People and Culture.
Steward, Julian Handbook of South American Indians.
Wade, Peter Race and Ethnicity in Latin America \
Whitten, Norman Black Frontiersmen: Afro-Hispanic Culture of Ecuador and Colombia
Winthrop, R. W. Café con Leche: Race, Class and National Image in Venezuela
--------------------------------------------------------------
KEY: b = book
r = article on reserve
R = Book on reserve
t1 = Heath textbook on reserve (2nd edition)
t2 = Heath textbook on reserve (3nd edition)
f = classroom film
GRADS = for grad students only; also recommended for undergrads
REC = recommended
---------------------------------------------------------------
CLASS SYLLABUS, read completely
Skidmore and Smith, Why Latin America? (r)
Gonzalez, South America: Continent of Contrasts (r)
REC: Stavenhagen, Seven Fallacies about Latin America (t1)
REC: Wolf, E. Types of Latin American Peasantry (r)
REC: Roseberry, Latin American Peasant studies in a "Postcolonial Era" (r)
WEEK 2: Jan 15, 17 -- OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND CULTURES
Wagley and Harris, A Typology of Latin American Subcultures (r)
Lewis, The Culture of Poverty (t)
Reis, The Impact of Television Viewing in the Brazilian Amazon (r)
Delgado-P and Becker, Latin America: The Internet and Indigenous Texts (r)
REC: Young & Fujimoto, Social Differentiation in Latin American Communities (t1)
REC: Oberg, Types of Social Structure among the Lowland Tribes of South and Central
America (r)
REC: Kottak, Television's Impact on Values and Local Life in Brazil (r)
REC: Belejack, Cyberculture Comes to the Americas (r)
REC: Blosser, Through the Pantalla Uruguaya: The Television Environment for Children in
Uruguay (r)
Foster, The Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan: Patron-Client Relations (t1)
Mintz & Wolf, An Analysis of Ritual Co-Parenthood (r)
Leeds, Brazilian Careers and Social Structure (t1)
DaMatta, Do You Know Who You’re Talking To? (r)
REC: Adams, Brokers & Career Mobility Systems in the Structure of Complex Societies (t1)
REC: Redfield, The Social Organization of Tradition (r)
REC: Foster, Cultural Responses to Expressions of Envy in Tzintzuntzan
WEEK 4:
Jan 29, 31 – cont.
Perlman, The Myth of Marginality (b)
UNDERGRADS: Perlman, Voices from the Favelas (update),
location = www.megacities.org/publications/pdf/mcp007.pdf
GRADS: Norris, Informal Sector Housing: Social Structure and the State in Brazil (r)
WEEK 5:
Feb 5, 7 -- ECONOMIC STRATEGIES: RURAL LIFE
Wilson, Contemporary Central Andean Villages (r—read pp.287 & 291-3 only; skim rest)
Foster, Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good (r)
Webster, Native Pastoralism in the Southern Andes(r)
Salomon, Weavers of Otavalo (r)
Romero, Spoonfuls of Hope, Tons of Pain (r-newspaper article)
GRADS: Kyle, The Otavao trade diaspora: social capital and transnational entrepreneurship
REC: Orlove & Custred, The Alternative Model of Agrarian Society in the Andes:
Households, Networks, and Corporate Groups (r)
REC: Meisch, The Reconquest of Otavalo, Ecuador: Indigenous Economic Gains and New
Power (r)
REC: Bolton, On Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress (r)
REC: Casagrande, Strategies for Survival: The Indians of Highland Ecuador (t1)
REC: Crandon-Malamud, Blessings of the Virgin in Capitalist Society: The Transformation
of a Rural Bolivian Fiesta (r)
WEEK 6: Feb 12, 14 –– ECONOMIC STRATEGIES: MIGRATION AND URBAN LIFE
Brush, Peru's Invisible Migrants: A Case Study of Inter-Andean Migration (r)
Goode, Latin American Urbanism and Corporate Groups (r)
Buechler, Doña Flora and the “Informal Sector” Debate: Entrepreneurial Strategies in a
Bolivian Enterprise (t2, Ch.13)
Hecht, In Search of Street Children (r)
REC: de Soto, The Other Path, intro & chaps 1, 3, 6, photos (R)
REC: Mangin, Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution (t1)
WEEK 7: FEB 19, 21 – ETHNICITY
van den Berghe, The Use of Ethnic Terms in the Peruvian Social Sciences Lit. (r)
Orlove, Down to Earth: Race and Substance in the Andes (r)
van den Berghe & Bastide, Stereotypes, Norms and Interracial Behavior in Sao Paulo,
Brazil (r)
Dzidzienyo, An Obsession with Whiteness and Blackness (r)
GRADS: Wade, Blacks and Indians in the Postmodern Nation State (r)
REC: Patch, Serrano and Criollo: The Confusion of Race with Class (t1
REC: Skidmore, The “Whitening” Ideal (r)
REC: Fernandes, A Counter-Ideology of Racial Unmasking (t1)
REC: Whitten, The Ecology of Race Relations in Northwest Ecuador (t1)
REC: Montiel, Our Third Root: On African Presence in American Populations (r)
WEEK 8: Feb 26, 28 – ETHNICITY, cont.
Whitten and Torres, Blackness in Latin America and the Carribean (b)
UNDERGRAD: (Ch 1,6,11-15)
GRADS: (Gen Intro, 1,6,7,10-15)
WEEK 9: Mar 5, 7 -- POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Conklin, Body Pain, Feathers, and VCRs (t2, Ch.30)
McFarren, The Politics of Bolivia’s Economic Crisis: Survival Strategies of Displaced
Tin-Mining Households (r)
Aron-Schaar, Local Government in Bolivia: Public Administration and Popular Participation (t1)
Feijoo, Women in the Transition to Democracy (t2, Ch.34)
Maybury-Lewis, The Persistent Patronage System (r)
REC: Strickon, Folk Models of Stratification, Political Ideology & Socio-Cultural Systems (t1)
REC: Torres, Message to the Students (t1)
REC: Whyte, Rural Peru: Peasants as Activists (t1)
REC: Burns, The Problem of Socialism in Liberation Theology (r)
REC: Goldrich, Political Organization and the Politicization of the Poblador (t1)
REC: Hicks, Politics, Power and the Role of the Village Priest in Paraguay (t1)
WEEK 10: Mar
12, 14 – cont.
Picchi, The Bakairí Indians of Brazil: Politics, Ecology and Change (b)
Browner & Lewin, Female Altruism Reconsidered: The Virgin Mary as Economic Woman (r)
Mitchell, Women’s Hierarchies of Age and Suffering in an Andean Community (r)
Berlin, Migrant Female Labor in the Venezuelan Garment Industry (r)
Farnsworth-Alvear, Talking, Fighting & Flirting: Sociability in Medallin Textile Mills (r)
REC: Lobato, Women Workers in the “Cathedrals of Corned Beef”: Structure and Subjectivity in
the Argentine Meatpacking Industry (r)
REC: Babb, Producers and Reproducers: Andean Marketwomen in the Economy (r)
REC: Weismantel, Time, Work-Discipline, and Beans: Indigenous Self-determination in the
Northern Andes (r)
REC: Stevens, Marianismo (r)
***************** SPRING BREAK *************************
WEEK 12: Apr 2, 4 – cont.
Weismantel, Food, Gender and Poverty (b)
GRADS: Market Vendors vs Multinationals (t2, Ch.16)
WEEK 13: Apr 9, 11 – POPULAR CULTURE
*choose 4 or more
articles:
Rojas, A Survey of Guarani Theatre: A Modern Experience (r)
Perrone, Changing of the Guard: Questions and Contrasts of Brazilian Rock
Phenomena (r)
Behague, Popular Music (r)
Llorens, Andean Voices on Lima Airwaves: Highland Migrants and Radio
Broadcasting in Peru (r)
Wade, Black Music and Cultural Syncretism in Colombia (r)
Camnitzer, Art and Politics: The Aesthetics of Resistance (r)
No more than two of the following chapters in:
Memory and Modernity, by W. Rowe and V. Schelling, 1991 (R)
Popular Catholicism
The Dancing Ox: Peasant Life and Popular Theatre
The Telenovela: From Melodrama to Farce
From Slavery to Samba
Carnival and Black Identity
WEEK 14:
Apr 16, 18 –
HEALTH, with FOCUS ON INFANT MORTALITY IN BRAZIL
Oths, Assessing Variation in Health Status in the Andes: A Biocultural Model (r)
Dobkin del Rios, Saladera: A Culture Bound Misfortune Syndrome in the Peruvian Andes (r)
Scheper-Hughes, Cultural Scarcity & Maternal Thinking (r)
Nations & Rebhun, Angels with Wet Wings Won't Fly (r)
REC: Crandon, Grass Roots, Herbs, Promoters and Preventions: A Reevaluation of
Contemporary International Health Care Planning, the Bolivian Case (r)
REC: Press, Urban Illness: Physicians, Curers and Dual Use in Bogota (r)
WEEK 15: Apr
23, 25 – RELIGION and CULTURE
CHANGE
Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Sacred Mountain of Colombia's Kogi Indians (R)
Greenfield, The Pragmatics of Conversion in the Brazilian Religious Marketplace (t2, Ch.44)
Doughty, Ending Serfdom in Peru: The Struggle for Land and Freedom in Vicos (t2, Ch.22)
Heath, Changes in Drinking Patterns in Five Bolivian Cultures (t2, Ch.19)
GRADS: Wilson, The Kogi (r)
REC: Dos Santos & Dos Santos, Religion and Black Culture (r)
REC: Levine, Assessing the Impacts of Liberation Theology in Latin America (r)
Oliver-Smith, The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes (b)
Regional Society in Southern Peru
Summ, Harvey Brazilian Mosaic: Portraits of a Diverse People and Culture.
Steward, Julian Handbook of South American Indians.
Wade, Peter Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
Weismantel, M.J. Food, Gender and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes
Winthrop, R. W. Café con Leche: Race, Class and National Image in Venezuela
--------------------------------------------------------------
KEY: t = Heath textbook on reserve
b = book
r = article on reserve
R = Book on reserve
f = classroom film
GRADS = for grad students only; also recommended for undergrads
RECOM = recommended
---------------------------------------------------------------
CLASS SYLLABUS, read completely
Gonzalez, South America: Continent of Contrasts (r)
Wagley and Harris, A Typology of Latin American Subcultures (t)
Oberg, Types of Social Structure among the Lowland Tribes of South and Central
America (r)
RECOM: Roseberry, Latin American Peasant studies in a "Postcolonial Era" (r)
RECOM: Wolf, E. Types of Latin American Peasantry (r)
WEEK 2: Aug 29, 31 -- OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND CULTURES
Stavenhagen, Seven Fallacies about Latin America (t)
Young & Fujimoto, Social Differentiation in Latin American Communities (t)
Lewis, The Culture of Poverty (t)
Reis, The Impact of Television Viewing in the Brazilian Amazon (r)
Delgado-P and Becker, Latin Amearica: The Internet and Indigenous Texts
RECOM: Kottak, Television's Impact on Values and Local Life in Brazil (r)
RECOM: Belejack, Cyberculture Comes to the Americas (r)
RECOM: Blosser, Through the Pantalla Uruguaya: The Television Environment for Children in
Uruguay (r)
Foster, The Dyadic Contract in Tzintzuntzan: Patron-Client Relations (t)
Mintz & Wolf, An Analysis of Ritual Co-Parenthood (r)
Leeds, Brazilian Careers and Social Structure (t)
DaMatta, Do You Know Who You’re Talking To? (r)
RECOM: Adams, Brokers & Career Mobility Systems in the Structure of Complex Societies (t)
RECOM: Redfield, The Social Organization of Tradition (r)
RECOM: Foster, Cultural Responses to Expressions of Envy in Tzintzuntzan
WEEK 4:
Sept 12, 14 – cont.
Perlman, The Myth of Marginality (b)
GRADS: Norris, Informal Sector Housing: Social Structure and the State in Brazil (r)
WEEK 5: Sept 19, 21 – ECONOMIC STRATEGIES: MIGRATION AND URBAN LIFE
Mangin, Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution (t)
Brush, Peru's Invisible Migrants: A Case Study of Inter-Andean Migration (r)
de Soto, The Other Path, intro & chaps 1, 3, 6, photos (R)
Goode, Latin American Urbanism and Corporate Groups (r)
RECOM: Hecht, In Search of Street Children
RECOM: Crandon-Malamud, Blessings of the Virgin in Capitalist Society: The Transformation
of a Rural Bolivian Fiesta (r)
WEEK 6: Sept
26, 28 – ECONOMIC STRATEGIES: RURAL LIFE
Wilson, Contemporary Central Andean Villages (r—read pp.287 & 291-3 only; skim rest)
Foster, Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good (r)
Webster, Native Pastoralism in the Southern Andes(r)
Salomon, Weavers of Otavalo (r)
Meisch, The Reconquest of Otavalo, Ecuador: Indigenous Economic Gains and New Power (r)
GRADS: Orlove & Custred, The Alternative Model of Agrarian Society in the Andes:
Households, Networks, and Corporate Groups (r)
RECOM: Bolton, On Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress (r)
RECOM: Casagrande, Strategies for Survival: The Indians of Highland Ecuador (t)
WEEK 7: Oct 3, 5 – ETHNICITY
van den Berghe, The Use of Ethnic Terms in the Peruvian Social Sciences Lit. (r)
Patch, Serrano and Criollo: The Confusion of Race with Class (t)
van den Berghe & Bastide, Stereotypes, Norms and Interracial Behavior in Sao Paulo,
Brazil (r)
Dzidzienyo, An Obsession with Whiteness and Blackness (r)
RECOM: Skidmore, The “Whitening” Ideal (r)
RECOM: Fernandes, A Counter-Ideology of Racial Unmasking (t)
RECOM: Whitten, The Ecology of Race Relations in Northwest Ecuador (t)
RECOM: Montiel, Our Third Root: On African Presence in American Populations (r)
WEEK 8: Oct 10, 12 -- ETHNICITY, cont.
Whitten, Black Frontiersmen (b)
GRADS: Whitten, Blackness in the Americas (r)
WEEK 9: Oct 17, 19 -- POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
McFarren, The Politics of Bolivia’s Economic Crisis: Survival Strategies of Displaced
Tin-Mining Households (r)
Whyte, Rural Peru: Peasants as Activists (t)
Aron-Schaar, Local Government in Bolivia: Public Administration and Popular Participation (t)
Maybury-Lewis, The Persistent Patronage System (r)
RECOM: Strickon, Folk Models of Stratification, Political Ideology & Socio-Cultural Systems (t)
RECOM: Torres, Message to the Students (t)
RECOM: Burns, The Problem of Socialism in Liberation Theology (r)
RECOM: Goldrich, Political Organization and the Politicization of the Poblador (t)
RECOM: Hicks, Politics, Power and the Role of the Village Priest in Paraguay (t)
WEEK 10: Oct
24, 26 -- cont.
Picchi, The Bakairí Indians of Brazil: Politics, Ecology and Change (b)
Weismantel, Time, Work-Discipline, and Beans: Indigenous Self-determination in the Northern
Andes (r)
Browner & Lewin, Female Altruism Reconsidered: The Virgin Mary as Economic
Woman (r)
Berlin, Migrant Female Labor in the Venezuelan Garment Industry (r)
Lobato, Women Workers in the “Cathedrals of Corned Beef”: Structure and Subjectivity in the
Argentine Meatpacking Industry (r)
RECOM: Babb, Producers and Reproducers: Andean Marketwomen in the Economy (r)
RECOM: Stevens, Marianismo (r)
WEEK 12: Nov 7, 9 -- cont.
Stephenson, Gender and Modernity in Andean Bolivia (b)
WEEK 13: Nov 14, 16 – POPULAR CULTURE
*choose 4 or more
articles:
Rojas, A Survey of Guarani Theatre: A Modern Experience (r)
Perrone, Changing of the Guard: Questions and Contrasts of Brazilian Rock
Phenomena (r)
Behague, Popular Music (r)
Llorens, Andean Voices on Lima Airwaves: Highland Migrants and Radio
Broadcasting in Peru (r)
Wade, Black Music and Cultural Syncretism in Colombia (r)
Camnitzer, Art and Politics: The Aesthetics of Resistance (r)
No more than two of the following chapters in:
Memory and Modernity, by W. Rowe and V. Schelling, 1991 (R)
Popular Catholicism
The Dancing Ox: Peasant Life and Popular Theatre
The Telenovela: From Melodrama to Farce
From Slavery to Samba
Carnival and Black Identity
WEEK 14:
Nov. 21 -- cont.
Lever, Soccer Madness: Brazil’s Passion for the World’s Most Popular Sport (b)
GRADS: Chapter in Rowe and Shelling (R), Football and the Political Significance of Style
***************** THANKSGIVING NOV. 23 *************************
WEEK 15: Nov.
28, 30 – HEALTH, with
FOCUS
ON INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY IN BRAZIL
Oths, Assessing Variation in Health Status in the Andes: A Biocultural Model (r)
Dobkin del Rios, Saladera: A Culture Bound Misfortune Syndrome in the Peruvian
Andes (r)
Scheper-Hughes, Cultural Scarcity & Maternal Thinking (r)
Nations & Rebhun, Angels with Wet Wings Won't Fly (r)
GRADS: Crandon, Grass Roots, Herbs, Promoters and Preventions: A Reevaluation of
Contemporary International Health Care Planning, the Bolivian Case (r)
RECOM: Press, Urban Illness: Physicians, Curers and Dual Use in Bogota (r)
Wilson, The Kogi (r)
Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Sacred Mountain of Colombia's Kogi Indians (R)
RECOM: Dos Santos & Dos Santos, Religion and Black Culture (r)
RECOM: Levine, Assessing the Impacts of Liberation Theology in Latin America (r)
Potential Films to Watch
*FILM: Mirrors of the Heart (Ethnicity in Bolivia)
*FILM: In Women's Hands (Chilean Women's Rights)
*FILM: Miracle Are Not Enough (Religion in Brazil)
*FILM: Builder of Images (Latin American Arts)
*PBS FILM: Get Up, Stand Up (Sovereignty in Colombia)
*PBS FILM: Fire in the Mind (Revolutionaries in Peru)
FILM: Washington/Peru: We Ain't Winnin'
Pixote
Re-add articles next time?
Picchi
Lever