ANTH 303

Seminar in Cultural Anthropology

Latin America and Globalization

Course Summary: This course will examine contemporary Latin America and its changing place in the so-called "New World Order." We will start by examining Latin American society in the mid-20th Century, with an emphasis on the place of indigenous people in national societies and the international economy. We will read ethnographies from Mesoamerica, the Andean region and Amazonia. We will then examine the forces of globalization and change and how these are affecting the people of Latin America, especially indigenous people. We will also discuss theories and approaches to understanding globalization and how the process of globalization affects anthropological research.

The course is designed on a seminar basis. Students are expected to complete readings in the assigned time and come to class prepared to discuss them. Individuals will be designated to discuss particular readings and guide the class discussion.

The class will be organized as follows:

Part One: Weeks 1-5 -- The first part of the course will focus on the cultures of Latin America in the mid 20th Century. This will provide a baseline with which to examine the forces of social and economic change affecting the region.

Readings:

Week 1: Allen: The Hold Life Has Life Has, Introduction-Ch 4, Ch 9, Epilogue; Patch: "La Parada, Lima's market: Serrano, criollo and the confusion of race with class."
Week 2: Murphy & Murphy, Women of the Forest, Ch 1-6, 8
Week 3: Annis: God and Production in a Guatemalan town Ch 1-5, 7-8; Vogt, Ch 2, 5
Additional readings as assigned in class.

Exam 1:100 points (take home, handed out 9/25, due 10/2)

Part Two: Weeks 6-11 -- This section of the course will explore the forces of change affecting contemporary cultures of Latin America. These include violence associated with revolutionary (and counter-revolutionary) change, increased insertion of Latin America in the global economy and the penetration of the market into former "regions of refuge." We will read two books and a series of articles that essentially update the three regions under consideration: Mesoamerica, the Andean region and Amazonia.

Readings:

Week 6: Burgos-Debary: I, Rigoberta Menchu, Ch 1-14
Week 7: Burgos-Debary: I, Rigoberta Menchu, Ch 15-35, selected writings of Rigoberta Menchu.
Week 8: Hecht and Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest (chapters to be announced)
Week 9: Hecht and Cockburn The Fate of the Forest (chapters to be announced)
Week 10: Selected articles on Sendero Luminoso, and the rise of Alberto Fujimori in Peru.

Exam 2:100 points (Take home handed out 11/6, returned 11/13)

Part Three: Weeks 11-15 - The last few weeks of class will be devoted to a discussion of student papers and projects along with consideration of the future of Latin America in the context of "the end of history." We will be exploring the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, drug trafficking and political violence in the Andean region, conflict and reconstruction in Central America, and frontier expansion and contraction in the Amazon Basin.

Readings: A packet of photocopied readings for each topic will be made available to students. Readings from Sachs' The Development Dictionary will be assigned for class reading (to be announced).

Course Requirements: The readings have been chosen to give an overview of major culture areas and issues in the anthropology of Latin America and will be complemented by videos and slides. Students are expected to complete all the required readings, attend seminars and participate in and lead class discussions. There will be two exams (100 points each) covering each section of the course. Each exam is a take home exam and provides an opportunity to reflect on and analyze the course readings and content.

In addition students are required to write a [research paper on a topic of their choosing relevant to the seminar's subject matter. The research paper should be approximately 20 double-spaced, type-written pages. Papers should attempt to push the boundaries of current processes of social and cultural change, globalization and the effects of global change on local communities. Topics such as the local impacts of NAFTA on Mexico, the growing maquiladora industry, the impacts of non-traditional agricultural exports, rapid urbanization and rural-urban and international migration would be appropriate. The paper will be graded on both content, clarity, organization and grammatically correct writing. Paper topics must be finalized by the first exam. A rough draft is due before Thanksgiving break (11/20). The final version of the paper is due Wed, 12/11. The paper is worth 300 points. Late papers will incur a severe penalty!

Required Texs:

Allen, Catherine J.
	1988	The Hold Life Has: coca and cultural identity in an Andean community. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Annis, Sheldon
	1987	God and Production in a Guatemalan Town. University of Texas Press.
Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth (ed)
	1984	I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala. New York: Verso.
Hecht, Susanna and Alexander Cockburn
	1989	The Fate of the Forest. New York: Verso.
Murphy, Yolanda and Robert Murphy
	1985	Women of the Forest (2nd edition) New York: Columbia University Press.
Sachs, Wolfgang
	1991	The development Dictionary: a guide to knowledge as power. London: Zed Press.

Statement on Academic Honesty Academic misconduct (as defined in the Chico State catalogue) will not be tolerated. I encourage students to discuss course materials inside and outside the classroom. But all written material submitted by students must be their own work exclusively This is especially true of the writing of take home exams. Feel free to discuss, but the final written product must be your own. Be sure to cite sources appropriately, use quotes where required, and indicate the source of the ideas expressed. Use parenthetical referencing, following the format in your text books. When in doubt, cite. To do otherwise is plagiarism. if you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, or the consequences of academic misconduct, consult the university's catalogue, or ask me.