“<i>The Grimace of Macho RatÓn</i> will make a stimulating addition to anthropological interpretations of nationalism and ethnicity, as well as to the broader Latin Americanist literature on the relationship between intellectual production and cultural policy in the modern era.”-<b>Joanne Rappaport</b>, Georgetown University “Field’s study of small-town and rural artisans meets an evident need in the literature on Nicaragua. This innovative, stimulating, and important book is a prime example of the ‘new ethnography’: theoretically sophisticated, critical of the anthropological enterprise yet empirically rich and grounded.”-<b>Charles R. Hale</b>, University of Texas at Austin
Elite appropriations of El GÜegÜence construe it as an allegory of mestizo national identity in which mestizaje is defined as the production of a national majority of ethnically bounded non-Indians in active collaboration with the state. By contrast, Field interprets the play as a parable of cultural history and not a declaration of cultural identity, a scatological reflection on power and the state, and an evocation of collective loss and humor broadly associated with the national experience of disempowered social groups. By engaging with those most intimately involved in the performance of the play-and by including essays by some of these artisans-Field shows how El GÜegÜence tells a story about the passing of time, the absurdity of authority, and the contradictions of coping with inheritances of the past. Refusing essentialist notions of what it means to be Indian or artisan, Field explains the reemergence of politicized indigenous identity in western Nicaragua and relates this to the longer history of artisan political organization. Parting ways with many scholars who associate the notion of mestizaje with identity loss and hegemony, Field emphasizes its creative,
productive, and insightful meanings. With an emphasis on the particular struggles of women artisans, he explores the reasons why forms of collective identity have posed various kinds of predicaments for this marginalized class of western Nicaraguans.
This book will appeal to readers beyond the field of Latin American anthropology, including students and scholars of literature, intellectual history, women’s studies, and the politics of ethnicity.
Prologue
Introduction: Regarding Macho Raton
I. A Class Project: El Gueguence, Masay-Carazo, and Nicaraguan National Identity
2. Nobody as to give me permission for this, Lord Governor Tastuanes, or, Why the Artisans Did Not Become a Revolutionary Class 1979-1990
3. Breaking the Silence: Suche-Malinche, Artisan Women, and Nicaraguan Feminism
4. The Time of the Blue Thread: Knowledge and Truth about Ethnicity in Western Nicaragua
5. Whither the Grimace? Reimagining Nation, State, and Culture
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Les W. Field is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.