Book Reviews The Curse of Nemur: In Search of the Art, Myth, and Rit- narrative, Native voices, and periodic interpretations and ual of the Ishir. Tigio Escobar. Pittsburgh: University of digressions. Pittsburgh Press, 2007. 302 pp., illustrations, maps, photos, As is common in indigenous studies, Escobar ap- index. proaches the Ishir by assuming that Indigenous people are “great artists and poets, creators of worldviews, inventors of alternative ways and feelings and thinking in this world” FRANCI WASHBURN (p. 4), and that this cultural aesthetic is what helps them sur- University of Arizona vive with dignity and healing in a world of incursions. He uses a foundational text, which he calls the “Great Myth,” NANCY J. PAREZO to explain the origins of the world, morality, epistemology, University of Arizona and all aspects of culture and behavior from the Ishir point of view. But he does not treat this as a monolithic, stable As founder and former director of the Museo del Barrio in text. Escobar details dual versions of the Ishir creation story Asuncion,´ Paraguay, Tigio Escobar is uniquely qualified to along with related myths, and how that cosmology shapes write The Curse of Nemur, which offers insights into the nar- the art, aesthetics, and day-to-day lives of the Ishir. Peri- rative myths and art of the Ishir, a small, indigenous culture odically, Escobar presents theoretical notes, commentaries, living within Paraguay’s Great Chaco plain. Working with and interpretive sections to help the reader’s cross-cultural this group since 1986, Escobar states that he wrote the book understanding. because he was “driven by the interest to understand a dis- The Curse of Nemur also includes related contextual- quieting culture and to support their demands for land and izing and operationalizing material about the struggles of freedom of worship” (p. 6). His goal was to find the culture’s the Ishir to survive in the modern world and their expe- center as well as its inherent heterogeneity without falling riences with Euro-Western influences that did not always into the traps of romanticized primitivism or positing Ishir have the best interests of the Ishir in mind. An example of culture as a model for or an example of a theoretical con- the way myth and cosmology influence cultural practices, struct. There are no conclusions in this book, only creative cultural interpretations, and adaptation is evident in the possibilities. multiple meanings of color and design that the Ishir attach Escobar’s way of understanding the Ishtar is not to to feathers, body painting, and clothing worn in both their write an ethnography of their lifeways or to produce an eth- daily life and in their ceremonial practices. As an example nohistorical study of their reactions and adaptations to in- of the latter, Escobar analyzes the Ishir’s experiences with vasion, colonialism, modernity, and capitalism but, rather, Euro-Western influences, including information about the to understand how aesthetic sensibilities manifest them- necessity for them to earn their living by working for log- selves in three cultural dimensions—art, myth, and ritual— ging companies that are in the process of destroying both as an integrated, multivoiced but blurry, dynamic system. the cultural and geographic landscape of the Ishir. The book He approaches his task through the lens of art criticism and does not present a marginalized people grasping onto the its emphasis on multiple readings and by focusing on artis- last vestiges of a way of life, but it underlines the value of tic acts not “in terms of an integrated event, explainable in indigenous culture as “not only a site of dispossession and and of itself, but insofar as it intersects with other kinds of marginality but also as a place of creativity and ethnic self- acts and doings, lighting their way every so briefly” (p. 1). affirmation” (p. 4). He accomplishes this goal by approaching each dimension Escobar’s purposeful organization style can be discon- from three angles (religion, shamanistic magic, and history) certing at first. Those who choose to read this book would and by circling around and around concepts, intersecting, be best served to avoid reading the foreword by Michael pulling back, and reintersecting worldview and philosophy Taussig until the reader has progressed at least halfway about power, sacredness, and beauty. In the process he of- through the book. While Taussig’s foreword does provide fers raw data (field notes and observations), his place in the insights into the work and encourages readers to explore AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 591–613, ISSN 0094-0496, online ISSN 1548-1425. C 2009 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2009.01181.x American Ethnologist Volume 36 Number 3 August 2009 the material, his description of the book as “post-modern” cal implications of evangelicalism can be in different Latin (p. xi) may, in fact, discourage readers who may expect a American settings (see, e.g., David Stoll’s groundbreaking fractured narrative, delay of meaning, and closure that re- 1990 book Is Latin America Turning Protestant?), there have quires them to construct their own understanding of the been a number of undeniable consistencies throughout the text. While the book’s organizational style may not fit es- region, especially in terms of the outcomes of evangelical tablished forms of ethnographic writing, it is not postmod- conversion for women, the family, and the creation of alter- ern; it is clearly understandable, once one gets accustomed native masculine roles and identities. to the style, and, perhaps, more so because Escobar in- Smilde’s book, based on participant-observation and cludes field notes rather than simply drawing his narrative life history interviews, deals with the experiences of men from them, and personal anecdotes about his respondents, from Venezuela’s popular sectors within the years lead- the author’s personal reactions to their statements, and a ing up to the Chavez´ administration. He tackles the vexing wealth of other information, interspersed with interpreta- question: If conversion to evangelicalism in Latin America tion. The reader here is treated to a look at how an ethno- is so effective in solving people’s problems, why doesn’t ev- grapher progresses through his work, how she or he comes eryone convert? to understand the material available, and how that material In a compelling review of theoretical literature, Smilde then shapes the ethnographer’s future readings and conclu- lays the basis for viewing evangelicalism as a form of “imag- sions about that material. This is not a postmodern work inative rationality.” In this approach, he is attempting to but, rather, a text that uses what Escobar calls a wander- bridge the gap between interpretations of conversion fo- ing style of ethnographic writing “around an elusive theme cused solely on individual strategy and those based exclu- attempting multiple, lateral, occasionally intersecting, and sively on meaning and symbolism. generally unsystematic approaches” (p. 261), which, in this Smilde carefully documents and analyzes how his in- case, enhances understanding rather than limits it. formants use evangelical thinking to conceptualize what he While this book will be of general interest to most read- calls akrasia—a “weakness of will” underlying drug and al- ers who are fascinated with religion, art, aesthetics, and cohol addiction, or problems with gambling. Other trou- cultural meaning, it will be of specific interest for those bles plague Caraquenos˜ of the popular classes—street vio- readers who are concerned about the cultures and fates lence, the culebra (vendetta attacks), economic insecurity, of Central and South American Indigenous groups who emotional and health issues, and difficulties in marital and face rapid change and must of necessity adapt to this other relationships, and Smilde shows how the men he in- rapidly changing world in which they find themselves. terviewed make sense of these issues within an evangelical paradigm. Smilde, like many other observers of the move- ment, has documented that conversion can result in self- reform. But, for him, this conclusion leads to a second ques- tion: If the convert decides to believe (for pragmatic pur- Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American poses), doesn’t that erode the external validity of the belief Evangelicalism. David Smilde. Berkeley: University of Cali- system and, ultimately, the efficacy of belief to achieve these fornia Press, 2007. 262 pp. ends? Smilde offers a philosophical discussion of the nature of belief itself, drawing on the work of Jon Elster and histo- rian of religion Jonathon Smith, among others. He skillfully ELIZABETH BRUSCO and systematically uses interview and testimony data to in- Pacific Lutheran University form his argument and illustrate how memories of conver- sion emphasize God’s role and deemphasize the role of the Permissible questions in the study of evangelicals in Latin convert himself. America have shifted significantly since the movement first In a similar vein, Smilde’s meticulous attention to the started gaining scholarly attention in the late 1960s. Early words of his informants allows him to see that issues of on, scholars were primarily concerned about the impli- self and the family are not deemed (by Venezuelan evan- cations of an imported religious movement for the trans- gelicals) to exist outside of the realm of spirituality. Thus, formation of Latin American societies. Analysis was often projects of personal transformation that focus on them are framed within a discourse about Western imperialism, and not construed as “instrumental” within this conceptual sys- converts themselves were suspected of false consciousness. tem. The same cannot be said for business success and the Since then, greater attention has been given to the particu- prosperity gospel. larities of context as well as to the interpretations of evan- The section of the book on “relational imagination” gelicals themselves, with a resulting deeper understanding shifts to a consideration of how the imaginative reality that of the movement.