Book Reviews

Corrido! The Living Ballad of Mexico’s ¡Corrido! is intended as a compan- Western Coast. John Holmes McDowell. ion to McDowell’s excellent book Poetry Albuquerque, NM: University of New and Violence: the Ballad Tradition of Mex- Mexico Press, 2015. 435 pp. ico’s Costa Chica (2000) in which the re- lationship between poetry and violence is Cathy Ragland explained though three modes of analy- University of North Texas sis: celebratory (violent deeds that mostly “Why do young men kill?” John Holmes young men are inspired to emulate), reg- McDowell begins by asking this question ulatory (a moral outcome to violent ac- in the preface of ¡Corrido! “For them, it is tions), and therapeutic (emotional release glorious to die like the heroes in the songs” for those directly or indirectly affected). (xiii), offers an informant from Costa McDowell argued for an integration of all Chica—a region located along the South- three, which he notes can shift depending ern Coast of Guerrero in Western Mexico. on performer, performance context, and The book’s collection of 107 heroic nar- reception. However, when it comes to his rative ballads (corridos)gatheredbetween “therapeutic” thesis, there is not much ev- 1972 and 1996 is, in essence, a forum for idence presented other than to say that it examining the ethos of a society that both is reflected in which stories are told and celebrates and condemns violent behavior. how they are told. In ¡Corrido! the reader For decades, and increasingly since is reminded of this framework (perhaps 1980, Guerrero has been plagued by vi- too often) throughout the book, reveal- olence and mayhem caused by politi- ing what he calls a “complex, multivocal cally motivated guerillas and drug cartels artistic product” (7), but we still are left who repress the local population and take wondering how it plays out among local refuge in the region’s rugged terrain. The performers and listeners. mass kidnapping and suspected murder of Aided by many more song texts with 43 students in the state in 2014 is unique translations, selected musical transcrip- for the global attention the story received, tions, and photographs, we travel to sev- but many more such stories are spun into eral intimate performance venues and are poetry, set to music, and shared locally in introduced to the predominantly Afro- public settings, such as restaurants, canti- mestizo musicians of the region. We learn nas, plazas, and markets, or at private so- how the personal lives of these individ- cial gatherings, such as birthday parties uals are so intricately intertwined with and weddings. the songs, which they either compose

The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 189–207. ISSN 1935-4932, online ISSN 1935-4940. C 2017 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/jlca.12274

Book Reviews 189 themselves or adapt and uniquely and his “scribe,” meticulously transcrib- personalize—a vast oral tradition passed ing the songs they collect. But she is clearly on to them by family members, friends, an anomaly and McDowell notes that the neighbors, and acquaintances. The col- place of women in the tradition is as the lection opens with “Regional Standards.” “conscience of the community” and to These are songs in general circulation like “point out the patent insanity of the re- “Simon´ Blanco,” which simultaneously venge cycles depicted in the corridos of the represents the protagonist as a trouble- coast” (251). He notes a few such obser- maker and a victim of his own youth vations from informants and in songs, but (a scenario similar to many corridos says little about women in several corridos found throughout Mexico), stories of local presented in the book (“El corrido de oax- heroes (and anti-heroes) such as “Moises´ aqueno,”˜ “El corrido de Elyria Carmona,” Colon”´ and “Genaro Vazquez”´ alongside “El corrido de Matias Rojas”) as victims historic figures such as “Maximillano de of kidnapping and “bride capture,” a tra- Hapsburgo” (23–80). dition of stealing girls from their families. Subsequent chapters are organized ac- While girls’ families are certainly angered cording to McDowell’s fieldwork logic of by these acts, marriage typically diffuses connecting each song collected first to the the situation and all is forgotten. It is diffi- location, then the performer(s), and fi- cult to recognize a moral outcome or emo- nally,theplacewhereitwasrecorded. tional release for a community that finds Many of these informant/performers this practice acceptable. In fact, Juvencio worked with McDowell for more than reveals that he “captured” then married twenty years and, as readers, we benefit his wife (Meche’s mother). “She got used from his emic observations and descrip- to it,” he assures (127). tions of how these individuals live in and The violent turn that the contempo- through this tradition. One striking ex- rary Mexican corrido has taken in the ample is in Chapter three, titled “Juvencio past three decades—particularly the nar- and Meche Vargas.” Juvencio and Meche cocorrido of the northwest coast and in Vargas are a father/daughter team of am- Southern California—has overshadowed ateur folklorists who have dedicated their the Costa Chica tradition, though some lives and, in turn, that of their families to are accessible via YouTube and Internet the preservation of corridos of the Costa sites. However, outside of the work by Mc- Chica. As vibrant performers and enthu- Dowell, little has been known or heard siastic preservationists, McDowell recog- of these songs, save for a very few excel- nizes, at least in Juvencio, an appreciation lent recordings made in the 1960s and of the protagonist’s bravado. We know this 1970s and issued on the Mexican label not only because McDowell’s description Discos Corazon´ in the early 1990s. This of the singing is so emotionally charged, collection is a significant contribution to but in the photos by Patricia Glushko, we the vast corrido literature and the sur- see Juvencio’s face infused with pleasure as prisingly lean amount of research on liv- his body is filled with song. ing regional Mexican ballad traditions. Though an equally animated Meche Most significantly, McDowell offers stu- is a capable singer, we learn that she is dents of folklore, anthropology, and eth- primarily a mother, her father’s keeper, nomusicology a primer on data collection,

190 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology interview techniques, analysis, and the Haitian immigration experience. The value of maintaining fruitful and re- authors have also constructed the text warding long-term relationships in the to be appropriate for those in academia field. Sadly, McDowell’s research offers no and accessible for readers outside of the answer to his opening question, and, judg- academy who have a general interest in ing from recent events it is the violent acts Haiti, its people, and their rich religious of the local government that young men practices. have to fear most. Rey and Stepick organize this book by religion, presenting chapters dedicated solely to Catholicism, Vodou, and Protes- Crossing the Water and Keeping the tantism. Although the first three chapters Faith: Haitian Religion in Miami. Terry explore Catholic practice, they each ex- Rey Alex Stepick.NewYork:NewYorkUni- amine a different aspect of the religion: versity Press, 2013. 266 pp. the first focuses on Notre Dame d’Ha¨ıti Carissa Cullum in Little Haiti and Catholic practices University of Florida among lower class Haitians; the second on the relationship between middle class Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith Haitian practitioners and Catholicism; is the result of its authors’ extensive and the third on the increasingly popu- ethnographic research conducted through lar Catholic Charismatic Renewal move- participant observation, interviews, and ment. The chapter on Vodouworks toward archival research in Miami, Florida, and destigmatizing the religion and explain- Haiti. During their immersion in Haitian ing why so few Haitians continue to prac- culture, authors Rey and Stepick witnessed ticeVodouuponarrivingintheUnited countless important religious events, in- States. Their insight reveals that many shed cluding rituals and ceremonies practiced Vodou practices to avoid marginalization within the context of the three major and the high costs of herbal remedies and religions the book examines: Catholicism, rituals provided by Vodou priests, known Protestantism, and Vodou. Through their as ougans and mambos. The book’s fi- observations of these three religions, the nal chapter presents premier ethnographic authors fulfill their goal of looking at studies of Pentecostalism in the Haitian di- Haitian religion as a whole, instead of aspora. All three religions have churches looking at different religions as separate that operate transnationally, a fact that be- structures that operate autonomously came evident as resources and aid were within the Haitian community. In ad- sent to Haiti and information returned to dition to observing these practices, they the United States following the 2010 earth- gathered information through interviews quake that struck just outside Haiti’s cap- with a number of Haitian immigrants ital of Port-au-Prince. living in the United States, from undocu- The authors acknowledge that be- mented parishioners to prominent figures cause they examine the three religions in within the community. This diversity tandem, rather than focusing exclusively of perspective allowed them to collect on one, they cannot present an in-depth valuable personal stories that portray analysis of any single religion. Neverthe- the role of religious practice within the less, they posit that the juxtaposition of

Book Reviews 191 these religions allows them to explore shed light on the importance of religion their commonalities. Through this in the Haitian diaspora, they also recog- approach, they identify two traits that nize some of the significant accomplish- unify all Haitian churchgoers, regardless ments that the Haitian immigrant pop- of religious practice. The first is “that ulation has seen over the past few years, religion provides Haitian immigrants particularly that Haitian immigrants are witha‘salvationgood’intheformof more likely than any other new immigrant worthiness in a society where this desig- group in the United States to become cit- nation might otherwise be elusive” due izens, have a high school diploma, com- to the discrimination Haitians experience plete some level of college education, and throughout much of the United States escape poverty (28). Ultimately, Crossing (195). While worthiness may be the most the Water and Keeping the Faith is a text prominent “salvation good,” a concept that promotes the acceptance of “Haitian- introduced by Max Weber, other forms ness,” and perpetuates the Haitian cultural may include “luck (chans), magic (maji), renaissance that Rey and Stepick celebrate protection, health, [and] prosperity” (5). through their study. Thesecondis“thatthereexistsacrossand beneath denominational and theological differences among Haitians a transcendent Knowing History in Mexico: An Ethnog- and unifying Haitian religious collusio” raphy of Citizenship. Trevor Stack.Albu- (195). Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s querque, NM: University of New Mexico concept of “collusio,” the Haitian religious Press, 2012. 184 pp. collusio refers to the idea that virtually all churchgoers agree that supernatural Ivy Alana Rieger forces exist and that these spirits can be Universidad Autonoma´ de San Luis invoked to work in the worshiper’s favor Potos´ı through prayer or other rituals. To this end, the authors provide the example What counts as history? How is history of Catholic and Protestant practitioners’ created, curated, and transformed over views about Vodou; while these groups time, and by whom? What relationships often denounce the practice of Vodou and exist between history, place, and belong- believe the rituals to be demonic, they ing? In his insightful ethnography, Trevor nonetheless recognize that Vodou prac- Stack explores the ways in which history tices have the potential to invoke spiritual is related to the concept of citizenship powers. These points mark the two signif- for residents of the municipio (municipal- icant theoretical arguments that Rey and ity) of Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico. Knowing Stepick contribute to the current literature history is a practice that involves an ac- on religion in the Haitian diaspora. tive differentiation between “what in fact Crossing the Water and Keeping the happened,” historia (history), and “what Faith is an important contribution to the might have happened,” leyenda (legend). study of Haitian religion in the diaspora This practice transforms events and places and provides valuable insight into the into entities that have (or do not have) value of the many Haitian churches in Mi- history and its residents into persons ami. Not only do the authors effectively who possess (or do not possess) cultura

192 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology (culture). Something that is said to have (through their knowledge of history and as historythereforehasvalueforthecommu- people who possess cultura) with a com- nity as a whole and inspires the creation of mitment to the growth and well-being of “good” citizens. the physical community itself. Another ex- Thosemembersofthecommunity ample are transnational migrants living in who “know” its history—which, unlike places such as California, who may be seen legend,isconsideredbyresidentsof as unable to demonstrate rooting because Tapalpa to be an account of things past they have “lost” their status as citizens of that is made up of facts and truths and not Tapalpa due to their physical movement gossip or folktales—make for good citi- away from the community, resulting in a zens because they are said to have “cultura”. disconnection from their own culture and Stack proposes that history is linked with history. Finally, some weekenders from the concept of “cultura” in Tapalpa be- the nearby city of Guadalajara who visit cause history is something for which there Tapalpa and buy property claim, via prac- is no immediate return. Knowing history tices related to economic consumption, a demonstrates cultura because it represents certain rootedness in Tapalpa. In all cases, the ability to comprehend something be- rooting and cultura are practices that are yond the present. History is also connected variably connected to concepts of citizen- to cultura as an example of how mem- ship for the residents of, and visitors to, this bers of the community should express community. themselves publicly, because the practice History is also tied to place, and the of history must be appropriate for pub- creation, diffusion, and forgetting of var- lic consumption. Finally, history is related ious histories affect, and are affected by, to cultura because “making” a history in- the perceptions and practices of its res- volves the active exchange of truths within idents. Stack emphasizes the importance the wider cosmopolitan realm of cultura, of understanding history as a local prac- meaning that those who know history of- tice that is involved in active dialogue with ten interact with academic or governmen- hegemonic historical discourses present at tal entities responsible for the production a regional or even national level. Who, and of cultural and historic discourses beyond what, has the right to practice history? Like the local setting. many other mestizo towns and municipios In Tapalpa, the practice of making his- throughout Mexico, Tapalpa’s history, as tory is intimately tied to the practice of be- well as its identity, is in part determined by longing. Stack proposes that the concept of its imagined or documented connections “rooting” connects an individual’s knowl- with an indigenous past, nationally recog- edge of history with a sense of being “from” nized historic events, archaeological sites, a certain place as well as an ability to be and sociopolitical ties with other towns a good citizen and demonstrate cultura. and cities throughout the region. Residents of Tapalpa connect concepts of Places, just like people, can also pos- rooting, cultura, and citizenship in various sess cultura. In the small town of At- ways. Local groups dedicated to cultural acco, located near Tapalpa, the question and historic preservation, for example, of cultura and its relationship to history demonstrate rooting because they actively is particularly pertinent for many of its associate their practices as good citizens residents. Stack observes that some

Book Reviews 193 people see the citizens of Atacco as in- at a national or regional level, but also, dios (Indians), or indiorantes (ignorant In- and perhaps more importantly, at a lo- dians), who live in a “backward” rural cal level. Being a citizen of the town village. Somewhat ironically, however, At- and municipio of Tapalpa is directly con- acco is also known as a place with his- nected to concepts of place and cultura, tory and cultura because of its status as a in addition to an active commitment or community that is considered older than interest in the development and conserva- neighboring Tapalpa. How do the inhab- tion of the community’s identity. Further- itants of Atacco reconcile these contra- more, this ethnography demonstrates that dictory perceptions? One way, according what counts as history, as well as who prac- to Stack, directly relates to the ways in tices it, is constantly shifting, with some which residents engage with concepts of versions, or “strains,” of history becom- place, cultura, and citizenship. This en- ing more successful than others over time. gagement has included the promotion Stack elegantly articulates the nature of cit- of cultural projects to make cultura “at izenship as practiced in many rural and ur- home” in Atacco, such as local festivals, the ban contexts throughout Mexico, making restoration of historic architectural mon- this ethnography required reading for an- uments, the renaming of streets to re- thropologists working in and beyond this flect local cultural and historic identity, region who are interested in questions of conducting interviews with elderly resi- belonging. dents about the town’s history, and at- tempts to connect adjacent pre-Hispanic mounds with the history of Atacco. How- Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism ever, because, according to Stack, history and Autonomy in Argentina. Marina is “skewed” to favor those who possess Sitrin. New York and London: Zed, 2012. the appropriate academic training or so- 272 pp. cial status to present it, the residents of Atacco have also experienced difficulty in Jeremy Rayner connecting their practices of history with Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales “good business” prospects that result in economic growth for the community as a Horizontalism was still flourishing in Ar- whole. gentina more than a decade after the By fluidly combining historical and economic meltdown and popular upris- anthropological analysis, this ethnography ing of 2001 brought the nation’s so- reveals that “history” represents an in- cial movements to the world’s attention. trinsic form of knowledge that informs That flourishing is the central message the variable ways in which residents of of this book, which draws on ten years Tapalpa imagine belonging. As part of of engagement with occupied workplaces, the practice of belonging, history is also neighborhood assemblies, unemployed connected with citizenship. Stack pro- workers’ organizations (piqueteros), media vides an important contribution to the collectives, and human rights activists. academic discussion of what can define By showing how these movements have citizenship by proposing that the con- put into practice principles of horizon- cept of “citizen” is demarcated not only talidad (horizontalism) and autogestion´

194 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology (self-management), activist and sociolo- marking an alternative, more promising gist Marina Sitrin hopes to inspire readers revolutionary path that works by creating to imagine new revolutionary possibilities. new institutions and transforming affects. Sitrin strongly affirms the success of It is not clear, however, that “revolution,” Argentina’s “horizontal” movements. She even in this sense, is a shared goal of the shows how they have established new, participants in these projects; although she more egalitarian ways of working together, has some striking quotations to this ef- promoted the dignity and agency of par- fect, she also indicates that most partici- ticipants, and challenged capitalist values pants are primarily concerned with more to prioritize human needs. These, Sitrin immediate goals. Intentions aside, to ar- argues, are achievements from the per- gue that these initiatives can “change so- spective of the movements themselves— ciety,” one must also extrapolate a larger astandardthatistoooftenneglectedby transformative process of which they are a academics writing about social move- part. Sitrin points hopefully to the global ments. Anthropologists will generally spread of horizontal politics (from the Za- agree with her call to take the goals and patistas to Occupy), but many will not see priorities of movement protagonists seri- the same transformative potential in these ously, although they will not find a tra- movements. ditional ethnography that situates these One of the most interesting aspects of worldviews in thick descriptions. As in her this book, which might have been more previous work (Sitrin 2006), Sitrin often fully integrated into the reassessment of prefers to offer the narratives of partici- revolution, is Sitrin’s demonstration of the pants and even of other scholars close to horizontal movements’ practicality. This the movements rather than her own obser- practical grounding can provide inspira- vations and analysis. These narratives are tion for others facing similar problems, drawn from a number of different sites at but it also presents some limiting condi- different times, accompanied by relatively tions. As Sitrin argues, drawing on Bour- schematic descriptions of the activities of dieu, cultivating horizontalism is not just the movement. While more contextualiza- a matter of changing consciousness, but of tion might sometimes be helpful, the nar- undoing ingrained habits through prac- ratives she offers are deeply affecting and tice. That people are able to do this is cer- profoundly interesting. At a time when tainly inspiring. But it also means that hor- Carl Schmitt’s friend–enemy distinction is izontalism cannot spread like an infectious at the fore of much radical thought, it is idea. It must become a practical context— bracing to hear men and women talk about usually, as Sitrin points out, within some how they are building communities based kind of autonomous territory, whether on love and solidarity. a factory, a communal kitchen, or the There is some tension between argu- behind a blockade. ing that success should be defined by the The participants’ narratives stress that movements’ protagonists and holding up horizontalism was less a plan than an those movements as examples. Sitrin her- outcome of attempts to solve prob- self wants to interpret the creation of hor- lems collectively. The initiatives described izontal and autonomous spaces as part of by Sitrin mostly emerged as means of a “revolution,” and more specifically as provisioning and survival, first in the

Book Reviews 195 context of economic collapse, and then While Sitrin argues that the move- in the daily grind of semiperipheral cap- ments represent both an alternative to “the italism. These projects have included state” and an attempt “to eliminate” it vast barter networks (including quasi- (202), from her own account they seem currencies); collective kitchens, gardens, to approach state institutions quite prag- and microenterprises organized by the pi- matically. As she acknowledges, the slogan queteros; and the hundreds of workplaces “que se vayan todos” (out with them all) occupied by workers, including factories, had largely ceded to the Kirchners’ revi- clinics, and even one luxury hotel. No- talized Peronism by the time of the book’s tably, such productive projects have fared publication. She attributes this restoration much better than the (largely middle class) to a mix of cooptation and repression, but neighborhood assemblies, which tended a more nuanced approach might enrich to dissipate once the routines of ordinary the analysis. Even though she chooses to life resumed. Those assemblies that have avoid those organizations that are closest survived tend to have some kind of project to the government (e.g., the “piqueteros k” producing tangible results—an exception for “Kirchner”), almost all of the move- that proves the rule. Even if it takes a crisis ments she profiles receive some kind of to bring horizontalism into being, the fact state support. The situation is clearly com- that many of these projects are providing plex, as they are also often in conflict with working solutions to real problems is itself the police and struggle to maintain au- very significant. tonomy from political parties—a relation- Among these productive projects, the ship described by some as a “dance” and occupied workplaces have attracted the others as a “war.” Sitrin ends up con- most attention, although possibly not as cluding that “war” is in fact the correct much as they deserve. Now that they are metaphor, but this seems to simplify mat- established as a viable response to plant ters too much. “The state” is not usually closings and the threat of unemployment, a unitary agent, and movements through- their number keeps increasing. Sitrin’s fig- out Latin America have been busy creating ures do not go beyond 2010, when there new political and state forms. The more re- were 270 occupied workplaces, but a regu- cent rightward shift in Argentine (and re- larly updated survey conducted by Andres´ gional) politics will provide an important Ruggeri of the University of Buenos Aires testing ground for these varied strategies shows 310 workplaces as of 2013, with of engagement. preliminary results indicating 350 work- Everyday Revolutions is one of those places employing 16,000 workers for 2016 rare books capable of expanding the (Colotti 2016). The great majority of occu- reader’s political horizon. It is almost pied workplaces have managed to survive, guaranteed to be either inspiring or and most of them, Sitrin reports, are orga- provocative, and should appeal to a broad nized along remarkably participatory and audience. The attempts to build and main- horizontal lines. They are knit together by tain autonomous communities might be bonds of solidarity forged in struggle and of interest to political anthropologists and often deeply embedded in communities students of indigenous peoples. The em- that have helped to defend them from the phasis on “affective politics,” on creat- police. ing new subjectivities bound up with new

196 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology ways of living, might provide interesting steps of the recent grassroots movements comparative insights for scholars of reli- struggling for emancipation in Bolivia. gious movements. Economic anthropol- Gutierrez´ Aguilar’s greatest contribu- ogists and anthropologists of work will tion in this work is her exploration of be interested in the occupied workplaces, the creative potential that these social barter networks, and other collective en- struggles offer. Following John Holloway’s terprises. The writing is clear and en- framework, she underlines the innova- gaging, and could be profitably read by tive, extra-institutional political processes undergraduates—but especially by any- that transcend the limits of state-centered one interested in how to make a more strategies of social change. Thus, the corol- horizontal world. lary of her blatant critique of reformist solutions is a detailed exposition of the emerging “community-popular perspec- References Cited tive,” which indicates alternative ways of organizing social, political, and economic Colotti, Geraldina. 2016. Argentina, Paso relations beyond capitalism and the state. Doble: Intervista. Andres´ Ruggeri, This perspective, conceived against the Direttore Del Programma Di Ricerca backdrop of Zavaleta Mercado’s idea of Facultad Abierta, Il 21 Al Cin- the national-popular in Bolivia, emerges ema Palazzo. Il Manifesto. Accessed in the 2000–2005 upheavals and paves the May 18, 2016. http://ilmanifesto. way for a “redefinition of the relationship info/argentina-paso-doble/. between the government and society, re- Sitrin, Marina. 2006. Horizontalism: Voices configuring and renegotiating autonomy of Popular Power in Argentina. and decentralizing power” (176). In other Oakland, CA: AK Press. words, it fosters the materialization of the pachakuti. Throughout the book, Gutierrez´ Aguilar explores how a mobilized society Rhythms of the Pachakuti: Indigenous defied the Bolivian “democratic pact,” re- Uprising and State Power in Bolivia. sponsible for neoliberal reforms. Begin- Raquel Guti´errez Aguilar. Durham, NC: ning with the Water War in Cochabamba, Duke University Press, 2014. 336 pp. the first part of the book follows three different, yet deeply related, experiences Aiko Ikemura Amaral of resistance against market and gov- University of Essex ernment advances on local autonomy. Rhythms of the Pachakuti features a com- The first two cases clearly exemplify how prehensive guide for, and a bold analysis persistent struggles enabled moments of of, the upheavals that swept Bolivia dur- de facto self-governance, overcoming the ing the first five years of the new millen- government-backed interests of capital nium. In the book, the increasing tension over water and land. The last case presents between society and the neoliberal regime the anti-neoliberal and pragmatic organi- sets the rhythms of the pachakuti—an Ay- zation of Chapare coca growers, who ul- mara word for a complete inversion of time timately chose to pursue their goals in and space. Rhythms honors the author’s the electoral arena. In the second part, critical Marxist perspective, following the the Gas War is the emblematic start of a

Book Reviews 197 period of extreme inflections and increas- have not only segregated, but also precar- ing political creativity. The population iously incorporated, the rural, poor, and mobilizes to defend their natural resources indigenous peoples of Bolivia. In so do- and, most importantly, the power of de- ing, these legacies inseminated their ideals ciding the course of their own lives. As and contributed to defining “feasibility” in they are violently repressed, a profound their own particular ways. The same holds disruption ensues. This conflict is then true for state institutions and their ruling followed by political reforms and succes- over what is legal and legitimate. sive attempts to domesticate the popu- Although the author does mention lar revolt. If the generalized anti-market this topic on several occasions, there is prerogative is a constant for the period, no further reflection on how the allegedly the popular-communitarian slowly gives universal ideas of nationhood and liberal way to a “new beat,” set by an electoral- democracy also mold local perspectives on democratic and pro-legality tone. politics. These discussions would help her Gutierrez´ Aguilar finds the increas- develop a better explanation for Morales’s ingly national, centralist appeal of Evo rise to power and the (temporary) acqui- Morales’ presidency (2006–present) a dis- escence of certain social movements. It illusioning sequel to the popular political should also be mentioned that the book effervescence of the early 2000s. I could is silent on the numerous lowland indige- not agree more; in fact, perhaps the major nous populations and their long-lasting shortcoming of the book is the lack of an struggle for deep transformations of the explanation for why Morales’ popularity state-society relationship. They currently came to be. The emancipatory potentials represent one of the most significant resis- Gutierrez´ Aguilar describes are deeply re- tance movements against Morales’s cen- lated to what she calls the “horizons of tralist policies, and their activities also desire,” or what is collectively perceived as point to political alternatives transcending desirable and feasible. The construction of the state. Including these elements would these social aspirations is not, however, ex- definitely enrich a discussion that is al- clusively an outcome of the spaces for au- ready one of the best analyses of these tur- tonomy that have flourished in the gaps of bulent years. I hope that more is yet to the hole-riddled Bolivian state. They are, come and that our ears should be prepared on the other hand, inevitably influenced for the new drums of pachakuti. by the political constructs that have con- tinuously excluded collective and individ- Film Review ual subjects from, and assimilated them into, the idea of a broader whole which the Jogo de Corpo: Capoeira e Ancestrali- nation represents. dade/Body Games: Capoeira and Ances- In this vein, Gutierrez´ Aguilar’s book try, 2013. A film by Richard Pakleppa, would benefit from a deeper discussion Matthias Rohrig¨ Assunc¸ao˜ and Mestre Co- of how the successive citizenship require- bra Mansa. 87 min. Color. Distributed by ments imposed during the nationalist and Manganga Produc¸oes.˜ neoliberal periods also played an impor- tant role in shaping these “horizons of de- Katya Wesolowski sire.” The colonial and capitalist legacies Duke University

198 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology “Imagine. Imagine my ancestors, the slave gola, this journey to “the real Africa,” he ship, all that cultural memory, body mem- tells us, was a dream come true. ory . . . Imagine Africa, Brazil, the sea.” Do capoeira’s generative roots re- From its opening, spoken against haunting ally trace back to Angola? This ques- shots of wooden fishing boats on misty wa- tion has long preoccupied capoeiristas ters, empty beaches, and submerged ruins, and researchers. As early as the 16th Jogo de Corpo: Capoeira e Ancestralidade century,thePortuguesetransporteden- promises a journey. Structured around slaved Africans from Benguela and Luanda thirteen chapters that move back and and other ports in west and central forth across the Atlantic, the film searches Africa to their colony in South America. through memory and place for body traces Along with the human cargo came lin- of the Afro-Brazilian combat game of guistic, religious, and expressive practices. capoeira. We, the viewers, are in adept Little is known about capoeira prior to the hands with the co-researchers/directors, nineteenth century. However, the fact that our guides on this journey: historian its most famous early twentieth-century Matthias Rohrig¨ Assunc¸ao˜ is author of masters—Mestres Pastinha and Bimba— Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian claimed to have learned from Africans, Martial Art (Routledge, 2005), perhaps the possibly Angolans, suggests a connection. finest English-language history of capoeira In the 1960s, the painter Albano Neves to date. And our narrator, Mestre Cobra e Sousa travelled through both Brazil Mansa—one of the first capoeiristas Iever and his Angolan homeland, producing a saw play in the late 1980s and whose mov- manuscript of line drawings illustrating ingly graceful and playful game convinced similarities between capoeira and certain me to pursue the art—is among the world’s Angolan combat dances. The film takes in- most acclaimed capoeira masters. spiration from Neves e Sousa’s study: each After the opening shots of Angola’s chapter, a different geographic location in coast, the camera shifts to urban Rio Angola or Brazil, is introduced with a title de Janeiro, following Cobra Mansa as and a Neves e Sousa drawing, as if torn he walks and plays capoeira in the from the artist’s travel sketchbook or from streets. Engaging and charismatic with his thejournalweseeCobraMansawritingin dreadlock-haloed face, expressive, warm from time to time. eyes, and soft voice, Cobra Mansa nar- The journey into capoeira’s past is not rates how as a child he scavenged dis- an easy one. Not long after Neves e Sousa’s carded food from the street market so travels, Angola plunged into a brutal, his family could eat. As a youth, perfect- twenty-seven-year civil war that devas- ing his skills in capoeira—this partnered tated the country, particularly the inte- game that combines dance, combat, ac- rior rural regions to which the research robatics, and music—saved him from a team travelled. While the war, finally over life of crime or death. As a young black in 2002, is only briefly mentioned during man in the 1980s, capoeira politicized one somber fireside conversation, its af- him to recognize the intense, yet masked, termath is ever present in that many local racism in Brazil and introduced him to the dances have been lost in practice, and al- idea of Africa. Having long imagined his most to memory. Several shots of the re- ancestors—biological and artistic—in An- search team’s land rover broken down on

Film Review 199 unpaved roads through terrain very pos- “cousins” scattered around the African di- sibly still riddled with landmines evoke aspora is a shared ethos: these are aesthetic the journey into memory: never a smooth and strategic games that are at once playful or complete process, but one full of and competitive, athletic and theatrical. At starts, stops, and uncertainties. Repeat- one point, an engolo dancer is knocked to edly, Assunc¸ao˜ and Cobra Mansa are told the ground and rather than leap back to his by their interviewees that the past is disap- feet, he momentarily stretches out with his pearing, that the younger generations are arms tucked behind his head as if taking a not interested in learning the old dances. nap, taunting his opponent. This comedic The camera documents these older An- gesture is akin to the theatrics and ma- golans reaching into their memory to pull landragem (cunning) of a good capoeira out stories and fragments of dance and player. Humor is one of the many tactics song. Often their faces, at first blank, trans- that allow a capoeirista or engolo dancer form into smiles and laughter as they re- to be flexible like “a tree in the wind,” as member. One man exclaims “thank you, one dancer tells us. And, he continues, en- thank you, thank you,” as he witnesses a golo must be danced with a “light” not an capoeira demonstration that reminds him “angry” heart. This statement reminded of the combat dance he once practiced. Yet me of the saying that capoeira should another old man breaks down in tears as be played with a “hot foot” but “cool he begins to sing as if the memory of what head.” has been lost is too great to bear. At times the film drags and may be- About halfway through the film we come repetitive for some viewers. The reach Mucope, a village in southern story told here, a return to Africa in search Angola and “the holy grail of capoeira,” of roots, is a familiar one. Perhaps more re- as the subtitle announces. Here, Neves e flection on this genre and what new ques- Sousa documented engolo, a dance that tions this film opens up could have added mimicked battling zebras and which he another layer to the rich documentation. claimed as capoeira’s possible origin, a no- Also, the voices of the film are predom- tion promoted by many capoeiristas. The inantly male, an approach that is under- kicks, spins, sweeps, and feints are cer- standable as the dances in Angola that tainly reminiscent of capoeira. But then so interest the research team are largely per- too are some of the other fighting dances— formed by men. Even in the last chapter, such as kambangula and ondjumbo—even which focuses on efiko (the puberty rite if they employ hand slaps and wrestling of a young girl), it is the men who per- moves, not used in capoeira. Some of the form engolo as Betina is adorned in a hut. film’s most pleasurable moments come When asked why only men dance, the male when Cobra Mansa and Assunc¸ao˜ (also an dancers look nonplussed and say well, the accomplished capoeirista) attempt to learn women have their own dances. While all from or engage with the Angolan dancers. the combat games we witness are playful, The capoeiristas dodge and respond to there is also an aggressively competitive attacks with an uncanny adeptness. As edge. Repeatedly, we hear the saying that Assunc¸ao˜ suggests, while perhaps not its “who dies in engolo is not wept for,” and “mother,” engolo is certainly a “cousin” one woman chuckles at the memory of her of capoeira. What is most extraordinary husband beating (up) many opponents. and profound about these dances and their Capoeira was similarly a tough masculine

200 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology arena for most of its history, and persists as such in many ways despite its radical Review Essay re-gendering in recent years. Female presence is also sparse on the Aymara Indian Perspectives on Devel- research team. Ethnomusicologist Chris- opment in the Andes. Amy Eisenberg. tine Dettman appears in many scenes, but Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama does not speak. This is a shame as the film’s Press, 2013. 280 pp. lovely soundtrack that meanders through State Theory and Andean Politics: New capoeira ladainhas and corridos, the beats Approaches to the Study of Rule. of various drums, the twangs of the berim- Christopher Krupa and David Nugent, eds. bau and urucungo (the Brazilian and An- Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylva- golan versions of a musical bow) to the nia Press, 2015. 336 pp. hauntingly beautiful and nostalgic voice of Isabel M. Scarborough Angolan semba artist, Paulo Flores, could Parkland College have used more explication. Particularly intriguing are the song lyrics—many of The Andean countries in Latin America which speak of cattle—that accompany the have undergone a true revolution in ad- Angolan dances. Often, it is the songs and ministrative rule in the past two decades rhythms—produced by hands, feet, and based on a series of political victories for mouths—that seem to leap most readily indigenous and populist parties. These tri- to memory. umphs placed the marginalized indige- In all, the film is a wonderful re- nous in the heretofore unimagined role source for researchers and practitioners of collaborators and even, in some cases, of capoeira. I will certainly use it in my of rulers of the nations along the An- capoeira studio/seminar course, as I imag- des. As the region entered the twenty- ine others will. More broadly, the film is first century with indigenous peoples oc- a vital contribution to African Diasporic cupying the power seats of their former studies and in documenting the essen- oppressors, government policies and pro- tial role corporal movement and mem- cesses required revision and rearticula- ory play in deepening our understanding tion to adapt to new administrative de- of transatlantic connections, past, present mographics. The two books reviewed here and future. At one point in the film, Co- exemplify how new priorities in Andean bra Mansa gently admonishes a group of politics and international development af- young Angolans, undoubtedly intrigued fect the construction of national belonging by capoeira, which has become popular and citizenship rights. The first volume— now in Angola, to learn their own cultural edited by Christopher Krupa and David practices. Capoeira is everywhere today, Nugent—is a collection of essays on new he says. More endangered are the other adaptations in constructing and perceiv- practices documented in the film. Cobra ing state rule by anthropologists and his- Mansa urges the youth to seek out the old torians in six different Andean coun- masters of engolo, kambangula, khandeka, tries. This volume also provides inno- kakhula,andondjumbo,andsoon,tolearn vative reflections on how societies con- from them before these cousins of capoeira struct and challenge spatial and theoretical disappear altogether. definitions of national administration.

Film Review 201 The second book is the work of ethnob- a strong thread that runs through Krupa otanist Amy Eisenberg, who culled the his- and Nugent’s book and is an integral part tory and narratives of Chile’s Aymara on of Eisenberg’s argument on development this people’s ongoing struggle with state governance. and international development policies. Starting in the northern reaches of the Both volumes tell a tale of state gover- Andes, a trio of chapters in Krupa and nance from the lens of the disenfranchised Nugent’s volume are dedicated to Colom- and marginalized and make a call to move bia. All three chapters vividly demon- forward in a more inclusive manner. An- strate how the mechanics of rule were the other thread shared by both volumes is a bone of contention between paramilitary detailed examination of the local histories groups, guerrilla factions, drug traffick- of state-indigenous relations to illuminate ers, and government administrators for the complexity of Andean administrative the past half century. Mar´ıa Clemencia issues. Here, I explore the arguments and Ram´ırez’s chapter centers on how the per- mechanisms used by this group of authors ception of the state as spatially articulated in unpacking new bureaucratic and devel- obscures its arbitrary nature (35). A com- opment relationships at a moment when mon geographical theme also emerges in the state continues to “command an im- her study, disclosing the quintessentially agery of power and a screen for political Andean representation of the administra- desire” (Arextaga 2003:394). tive and patriotic core as situated in the Krupa and Nugent’s book opens with highlands, while the tropical geography is a challenge and question to the reader: how an invisible space far from the reaches of is the Andean political landscape changing civilization. In another chapter, Winifred and what does this change mean to the rest Tate agrees with this assessment and, with of the world? The editors eschew dividing data from research also taking place in the the book by geography and instead Putumayo, provides a narrative of a sur- group the articles by state perception and feit of groups seeking to “be the state” construction. The book is divided through a show of force at the dawn of the into four discrete sections where phe- 21st century. The uncontrolled violence nomenologies of rule, state morphologies, that has raged in Putumayo for decades, borders, and discourses of fear, fantasy, Tate posits, is made possible by the per- and delusion are explored to yield new ception of the area’s residents as criminals theoretical tools in state-construction who live outside the boundaries of lawless- conversations. The divisions work and ness and who, in turn, feel neglected and emphasize the purpose of the editors in abandoned by their government. Its resi- compiling diverse mechanisms and tech- dents, she sums up, are “forced to navigate nologies of state definition. Nevertheless, extreme violence and competing claims to for the purposes of this review, I found state authority” (236), while powerful lo- that by organizing these conversations cal actors vie to claim ties of affection with based on the distinct realities of the the citizenry and bind them to their regu- Andean countries represented in the two lation. volumes herein, I can better trace the di- These ties of reciprocal aid are res- versity and commonalities of this region. onant of earlier relations of clientelism Indeed, the shared history of the region is in these tropics. It is based on this

202 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology clientelism that Lesley Gill critiques the tral registration efforts in the highland re- “parapolitics” of yet another periphery gion of Cayambe.´ The implementation of in Colombia; the Barrancabermeja oil- this project, he concludes, would effec- producing region. Gill reminds us that the tively transform the Ecuadorian political state is known for forging alliances with landscape implementing “retribution for other actors to regulate social life and fa- injustices past and present” (110) when cilitate capital accumulation (89). Her ar- Cayambe’s´ indigenous representatives sat gument is based on the creation of a work- for the state and presided on land rulings ing class sector in Barrancabermeja from where elite and middle class land and busi- the transnational oil companies that ex- ness owners were the petitioners. ploited this area’s residents in the first half The administrative power of indige- of the twentieth century and its eventual nous representatives made Andean cen- violent destruction to pave the way for the tral states part of the reality of the pe- rise of neoliberal economic interests. It is riphery and challenged the long standing noteworthy that all three chapters on the regional power of landowning and com- Colombian periphery concur that, rather mercial elites. A similar awakening is ev- than collapsing or becoming an invisible idenced by Kim Clark’s tale of the work presence, the state at the margins will re- of Ecuador’s national public health ser- define and reconfigure itself through any vice officials on two state public health actors and means available. projects in the early twentieth century. The State Theory and Andean Politics in- first is an eradication campaign against cludes three distinct cases on Ecuador’s the bubonic plague and the second is a construction of a state imaginary. The first, national maternal infant health program. authored by Christopher Krupa, examines The campaign was created in reaction to cadastral documents registering property international regulations which forcibly of rural indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s closed and quarantined ports where the highlands and the use of this bureaucratic plague was detected, while the health practice to incorporate seemingly unwill- program responded to the state’s desire ing regions into a central administration. to propel Ecuador into modernity based The transformation from land to tax- on the registration and ordering of indige- able property does much to assert ad- nous households with expectant mothers. ministrative control, particularly in spaces Both of these cases resulted in the emer- far from the center where reminders of gence of a health system lead by profes- the state’s presence are few and far be- sionals who placed the welfare of the state tween. Property, Krupa argues, implies over that of local upper-class landhold- a series of social relations that trans- ers and treated the indigenous victims of form material contexts and make collective abuse with fairness, projecting an image of identities (102). Based on a Foucauldian a neutral and beneficent ruler (127). perception of governmentality and the be- The neutral and charitable state lief that a properly administered records of Clark’s study envisioned indigenous system can bring the marginalized into women as critical in nation building ef- modernity, Krupa traces how the Ecuado- forts, a key factor in Mercedes Prieto’s rian state appealed to international aid chapter on the developing relationship organisms to provide funding for cadas- between indigenous women and the state

Film Review 203 in mid-twentieth century. Prieto traces officials who, both at the capital in Lima how the social imagery of the Ecuado- and in the highland periphery, blamed a rian family has long been divided be- national shortage of conscripted laborers tween that of the urban, white, or mes- on the secret machinations of a political tizo middle classes, and those of the ru- party long gone underground. In reality, ral, backward, indigenous whom the state there had never been the inflated number worked to transform into modern citizens. of prospective conscripts recorded by the Whether indios were placed as a foil to the same officials. While this manipulation of moral family, given their proclivity to give demographics and recording of phantom women authority over family decisions, or laborers upheld a discourse of state infalli- whether they were seen as leading a simple bility and strength, it also evidences a lack lifestyle contributing to their innocence of coherence. Further, Nugent posits, the and symbiotic relationship with the nat- blaming game of lies and misdirection of ural world, these elite-told narratives were government officials challenged and un- meant to control and oppress. The con- dermined the effectiveness of government quest of indigenous women’s inferior bod- surveillance and control. ies took place at several fronts; through the A similar case of manipulative dis- laws making indigenous males into heads courses is presented in Nicole Fabricant’s of household and taking away women’s reading of the autonomy movement in rights, and by implementing development Eastern lowland Bolivia where the periph- programs. It is from these development eryistransformedintoasmaller,localized programs that the current model of state center. This movement, led by the elites intervention emerged in which commu- and middle classes in the department of nity management is handled by a local spe- Santa Cruz, believed in an active reshap- cialized bureaucracy. ing of their nation’s natural space. Bolivia’s These studies show that indigenous political imaginary has traditionally split peoples and women in particular become a the country into the Andean highlands at useful barometer to read indigenous-state thecoreandtheAmazonlowlandsatthe relations and explore how the state op- margins. These same lowlands underwent erates “off center” (142). The same con- explosive economic growth in the past half cept of an off-centered administration is century, Fabricant tells us, to the point a key concern in David Nugent’s work on where they now espouse their own brand the process of state formation that took of “resource nationalism” (69) based on place in late 20th century Peru. Nugent’s the large-scale agricultural productivity of research is based on the notion of the the region that also houses the country’s “magic of the state,” which is constructed oil and natural gas reserves. The local per- through displacement, dissimulation, and ception of Santa Cruz’s role as the coun- fear. The fantastic comes alive and plays a try’ssourceofkeyexportsandcenterof vital role in political manipulations, he ar- transnational trade fuels the ideology that gues, and paranoid tales of blame among the regional autonomy movement deploys rural bureaucrats can collude with misrep- to seek a comprehensive decentralization resentation to construct a vulnerable state project (65). The region has a decades long (188). State vulnerability is disclosed in history of perceiving itself as perpetually this particular research with government neglected and ignored by the central state

204 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology apparatus in the highlands. Today, Santa years later. The author claims the Aymara Cruz’s citizens feel this neglect is exacer- concept of nayrapacha, which roughly bated under the presidency of Evo Morales translates as “thinking of the past as visible and his anticolonial platform that includes and interwoven with the present,” as her the redistribution of natural resources to guiding framework, yet these inconsisten- the poor. A historical fear of being over- cies weaken her argument. whelmed by the highland indios, racially Despite the tensions explained above, stereotypedasdirtyanduncouth,provides Eisenberg’s history of the Aymara is an im- yet another layer of complexity in an in- pressive compilation and resonates with creasingly volatile situation. Krupa and Nugent’s work in demonstrat- The view of and approaches to the ing the importance of looking to the state from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and colonial and republican origins of mod- Bolivia described to this point provide a ern Andean nation-states to understand remarkable foil to Amy Eisenberg’s vol- present-day conflicts. In Eisenberg’s case, ume on Chile’s Aymara minority. Eisen- her depiction of the history behind Ay- berg’s study is a blatant call for attention mara everyday habits, customs, and tradi- to a region and a people whose rights have tions, which include deeply held beliefs on been abused and whose way of living has environmental stewardship, provides in- been slowly eroded by a faraway state. valuable background for her latter anal- She explains how Chile’s administrative ysis on how the encroachment of devel- power has viewed the Aymara in the north- opment projects affects this marginalized ernmost reaches as a backward nuisance population. The much shorter second half and bump in the road to development at of Eisenberg’s book includes a chapter fo- worst and as exotic commodity at best (8). cused on how government projects of de- Herfirstfourchaptersdocumentpre-and velopment and environmental protection post-Columbian history of the Aymara, in the second half of the twentieth cen- their worldview, cultural customs, and tury negatively impacted the traditional everyday agricultural and nomadic pas- Aymara way of living, and her sixth chap- toralist lifestyle. The chapters are a veri- ter and conclusion offer suggestions on table tour de force providing an exhaustive how to incorporate Aymara cultural be- account on the Aymara from 20th century liefs into these same programs to integrate scholars, yet readers expecting an ethnog- them into the local ecology. raphy of present-day Chilean Aymara A thread that emerges from this work will be disappointed. Despite the author’s on Aymara state relations shows the role claims to provide an assessment of natural of practices of dissimulation and deceit resources from an Aymara perspective, we in state-making, which connects to Krupa are instead given detailed descriptions of and Nugent’s volume. In a case reminis- a lifestyle unchanged since time immemo- cent of Nugent’s manipulation of demo- rial through the documentation of ethno- graphics, the national Chilean census of graphers most of whom published their 2002 recorded about 96,000 Aymara, a fig- work in the 1980s. Further, no explana- ure that Aymara leaders stated fell signif- tion is given on why the fieldwork for this icantly short of their own estimates based study took place from 1998 to 1999 and the on knowledge of the actual residents in the results were not published until fourteen region that add to a number greater than

Film Review 205 290,000. Eisenberg hints that the question- ignored Aymara claims for compensation. able accuracy of the census might be due to ThelistoftransgressionsthatEisenberg the state’s wish to downplay ongoing ten- documents is lengthy and sobering. A few sions over Aymara pasturelands and water of the most notable ones are the destruc- sources appropriated by the government tion and defacing of archaeological fea- in the 1960s with the creation of an inter- tures and remains that the Aymara con- national nature reserve. The Chilean state, sider heritage. Yet another is the fact that she explains, has systematically deployed the state refuses to remove landmines left a discourse and fantasy of environmental by the Pinochet regime on Aymara sacred management that led to the creation of lands at the Chilean border due to the cost policies asking the Aymara to corral their of the operation. camelids and cease their traditional agri- To comprehend the levels of state ne- cultural and irrigation practices in the re- glect and high-handedness to the Aymara, serve. The Aymara whom Eisenberg spoke Eisenberg explains how Chilean author- to retorted that their camelids are killed by ities had a mandate up to the middle pumas and other predators who, as they of the twentieth century to “Chilenize” are now are protected species, cannot be the Aymara through forced acculturation controlled and that their agricultural tra- and education in nationalist doctrines. ditions tend the receding swamps that are This assimilationist process included abol- thesolesourceofmoistureinthebarren ishing communal land ownership, desig- highlands. We see here a case of state for- nating much of it as state property and mation through discourse and dissimula- allotting the remainder as individual sub- tion akin to that discussed by Fabricant, sistence lots. Further, the Chilean state where there is strong sense of neglect from supplanted indigenous administrative sys- the state. tems with a new generation of local ed- When discussing the Colombian An- ucated bureaucrats who, reminiscent of des, Tate posits that the periphery is often Krupa’s cadastral movement in Ecuador, the site of violent confrontations to control implemented a record-keeping mecha- key natural resources. This phenomenon nism meant to order and control the also seems to be the case for the disen- far-flung Aymara through surveillance. franchised Chilean Aymara, as illustrated Indeed, the constant presence of these ad- by Eisenberg’s narrative of the construc- ministrators also did much to establish a tion of Highway 11 that connects Chile state presence in the region. to Bolivia. This road has cut through Ay- Given this historical background and mara territory with utter disregard for this the emphasis made by Eisenberg on Ay- people and the delicate ecology of their mara notions of community, I was con- region. The road has brought an influx founded by the fact that very little is of tourism that leaves little to no revenue said of how Chile’s Aymara relate with with the area residents while disturbing their Bolivian Aymara neighbors, partic- and polluting the environment in an area ularly in an age of social media and of with no sewage system or other infras- brisk and continuous trading that she her- tructure. The Aymara’s reduced flocks of self describes at the border of these two camelids suffer from frequent hit-and-run countries. More surprisingly, in the few accidents due to proximity to the highway. references she makes to Evo Morales, “the State authorities have negated this fact and Aymara President of Bolivia,” the reader

206 J ournal of L atin A merican and C aribbean A nthropology is given a narrow, two-dimensional image ciopolitical transformations. The volume of Morales as environmental champion by Krupa and Nugent will be a delight to based on his declarations about the sacred- scholars of the state across disciplines and ness of water resources (222). Eisenberg, its diverse chapters can be used at both ad- however, omits Morales’ international no- vanced undergraduate courses and grad- toriety for his repeated efforts to facili- uate seminars to open a conversation on tate extractivism in the Bolivian Amazon its formation using ethnographic and his- while advancing a rhetoric of indigenous torical lenses. Eisenberg’s book, despite its sustainability, a double standard uninter- ethnographic flaws, is a powerful contri- ruptedly protested by lowland indigenous bution to development studies and schol- groups through his second mandate (Pos- arship on the Ande. The state, as Fernando tero and Goodale 2013:26). Furthermore, Coronil has argued, is analogous to magic Eisenberg fails to mention the growing in that it “alludes to an extraordinary re- presence of indigenous political actors in ality as well as to the selective elements Chile that is part of a regional shift in rep- that create the illusion of its existence” resentative demographics in the Andes, as (1997:3). The two volumes reviewed here confirmed in Krupa and Nugent’s volume. have attempted to isolate and examine the This failure to engage with current devel- selective elements employed by govern- opments in indigenous political and so- ments in the Andes to adapt, construct, cial regional affairs is the greatest gap in and support their claims to rule and for Eisenberg’s work. Nevertheless, her con- the most part, have been successful in scientious summary of Aymara customs doing so. Grounding these contributions lays the groundwork for her powerful cri- in the lives and experiences of Andeans tique of state and international interven- is what largely contributes to their suc- tion in the Aymara ecosystem to promote cess given that the omnipresence and om- development programs that, she success- nipotence of the state is created through fully argues, harm this marginalized and agreement and negotiation with its vulnerable population. people. In answer to Krupa and Nugent’s ques- tion about the relevance of the perception of peripheral indigenous and state rela- References Cited tions, I would say the answer lies in that understanding how processes of state for- Arextaga, Begona.˜ 2003 “Maddening mation take place and continue to develop States.” Annual Review of Anthropol- can be extremely valuable for the discern- ogy 32(1): 393–410. ment of social and political patterns. This Coronil, Fernando. 1997. The Magical knowledge can be particularly telling in State: Nature, Money, and Modernity cases, such as those of Chile’s Aymara, in Venezuela. Chicago, IL: University where there is an urgent need to correct the of Chicago Press. ravages created by fallacious state develop- Postero, Nancy Grey, and Mark Goodale. ment and environmental policies. More- 2013. Neoliberalism Interrupted: So- over, the discussions in all of the Andean cial Change and Contested Gover- sites featured in this review seem to point nance in Contemporary Latin Amer- to a future where peripheral actors will ica. Stanford, CA: Stanford University continue to play an important role in so- Press.

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