Peoples of Latin America
Anthropology 3130: Fall 2012
CRN # 44158
Instructor:
Class Meets:
Location:
UTF:
Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin, PhD
TR 10:30-11:45
Old Main #115
Megan Pehrson
Office: Old Main #245E
Hours: TR 1:30-2:30 and W 9:30-10:30
e-mail: bonnie.glasscoffin@usu.edu
e-mail: meg.pehrson@usu.edu
Purpose of the Class:
1) To introduce the student to cultural diversity in Latin America and to explore this
diversity.
2) To see the people of Latin America as creative and productive, actively confronting
their problems and becoming a force on the global scene as we reflect upon the impact
that conquest, colonialism, and neo-colonialism has had on cultural expression and
resistance in Latin America.
3) To become aware of the long-standing economic, political, social, and cultural ties that
link the United States with other nations of the Americas.
4) To reflect upon the ways in which Latin Americans have been presented by
ethnographers and the ways in which these representations have contributed to and have
reflected anthropological theory and practice.
Readings: all students
Sanabria, Harry
2007 The Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean. Boston: Pearson, 416pp.
Other readings: TBA
Class Assignments and Assessment Guidelines:
1) Exams:
There will be two mid-term exams (worth up to 45 points each) over reading material and
a map-quiz (worth 10 points). These are meant to test your knowledge of reading
materials assigned during the term and will provide motivation to stay-up with
reading assignments. Missed exams can be "made-up" only with previous
permission from instructor and at instructor's discretion. (Total points = 100)
2) "In-the-news"
In the last several years, the world wide web, e-mail, and other "on-line" information
sources have completely revolutionized possibilities for "doing research" about
Latin America. On-line newspapers, "chat-room" discussions with Latinos living
in the US, topic centered newsgroups and list-servs, government and ngo reports
are all available on the internet. Any of these sources can be "tapped" into to get
a sense about how the topics we discuss in class are relevant to "real world
problems." This assignment requires you to compose and post on CANVAS a 3-4
page, double-spaced, briefing that summarizes a current event in Latin America
and that meaningfully relates it and discusses it in terms of the week's readings
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and lectures. Students must cite the week’s required readings in their paper and
show how these relate to the current-event under consideration in order to receive
full credit for this assignment. Students must also cite the web-sites from which
current-events research is drawn so that these can be consulted by the professor
during the grading process. Current events should be drawn from news that has
occurred in the last 6-12 months unless you have a topic that is still timely today,
even if it was reported on in the past. (Check with your instructor if you have
questions). Students write one such paper over the course of the term, to be posted
by the 5pm on the day BEFORE the “in the news briefing” is due on the week
most relevant to discussion of the topic. For instance, a student writing a paper
about how "English-Only" laws have affected Latino-Anglo relations in Utah
would post their paper the day before their presentation during Week 12. Each
paper is worth up to 25 points with up to 5 additional points for summarizing your
research orally on the day of discussion (3-5 minutes). To ensure good
representation of all issues, students will sign-up for topics to report on at the
beginning of the term. Depending on the number of students enrolled in the
course, there may be 2-3 “in the news” papers presented during EACH class
period of the term. Because these papers are used to stimulate on-line and in-class
discussion for all students, STUDENTS WHO DO NOT COMPLETE THEIR
PAPERS DURING THE WEEK THAT THEY HAVE SIGNED UP FOR
RECEIVE 0 POINTS FOR THE ASSIGNMENT.
3) Class discussion
Weekly on-line and in-class discussions (worth up to 10 points each) over relevant topics
will add to your understanding of how issues discussed in lecture and in the text
relate to the "real-world." You will be divided into groups at the beginning of the
term for the purposes of these discussions. To receive full credit for participation
in these in-class discussions, you will need to do 2 things. First, you read the “in
the news” article your classmate(s) have prepared and posted on Canvas. To earn
points for the on-line discussion portion of this grade, prior to the start of class on
the day of the discussion, post on Canvas two or three questions or comments
about a student submission that you would like to bring up during the discussion
(these postings, when they demonstrate critical thinking, understanding of the
article’s key points, and timely completion is worth up to 5 points). Second, you
come to class on the day of discussion and actively participate (your presence is
noted by the group-leader on a sign-up sheet that is turned in with the groupleader’s discussion paper and is awarded an additional 5 points). You must be
in-class on the day of the discussion to receive these points. No exceptions
can be made to this policy because these points are reflective of your in-class
participation in the discussion. Fifteen discussions are offered...students are
required to participate in 10 of these. Participation in additional discussions will
be counted as extra-credit. (100 points possible + up to 50 points extra credit)
4) Final paper
Students will choose a topic of interest to research and report on. Topics can be related to
the student’s “in the news” briefing and can use the cited sources of the “in the news”
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briefing as a starting point for research. Topics do not HAVE to be the same as the
briefing. These papers GO BEYOND the “in the news” briefing both in terms of scope
and history so that if a student chose to do his or her “in the news” on a current news item
about deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, the paper might give a history of
deforestation in the region as well as a discussion of how Brazilian rubber-tapping
contributes to or erodes environmental and cultural diversity in Latin America. Other
“sample” topics might include, b) the role(s) of Chilean women in speaking out for social
justice, c) US English Only laws and immigration politics, d) popular culture and
emerging identities among Puerto Ricans in New York, e) the role of liberation theology
in Guatemalan peasant uprisings , f) the changing roles/obligations of the anthropologist
as culture-broker/translator, g) the impacts of NAFTA on economic
growth/development/widening gaps between rich and poor in Mexico, h) indigenousrights movements: their origins and evolution (in Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, etc.), i) why
Che Guevara and other guerilla leaders continue to be romanticized as folk-heroes on the
streets of Lima, j) the appeal of evangelical Protestantism for Nicaraguan Catholics, etc.
As you will notice in these sample topics, papers must be located in terms of place, time,
and topic. . They must draw from topics presented in course discussions and readings but
must expand upon these in significant ways to add new knowledge and insight to class
discussions. Papers should be 10-15 pages in length (double-spaced) and must have at
least 5 citations ADDITIONAL TO the “in the news” citation(s) that were used in the
briefings if a student is choosing to do the paper as an “in-depth” follow up to that
exercise. Papers are worth up to 70 points and must be turned in by the last Friday of
class. Further details will be discussed in class.
Total points possible:
Exams:
100
Wkly disc
100
In the news
30
Final paper:
70
_______________
Total:
300
(Up to 50 extra credit points possible for participation in on-line, in-class discussion).
ADA and FERPA:
IN COOPERATION WITH THE DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER, reasonable
accommodation will be provided for students with disabilities. Please meet with the
instructor during the first week of class to make arrangements. Alternative format print
materials, large print, audio, diskette or Braille, will be available through the Disability
Resource Center.
The Family Education Right to Privacy Act prohibits grades, graded-essays, or any other
form of graded assignment from being released by phone or from being placed in a
public setting (e.g. outside the classroom, etc.) except with explicit written permission
from the student in question.
Anthropology assessment guidelines
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Content and skills students can expect to learn in this class (in accordance with
Anthropology Assessment guidelines posted on www.usu.edu/anthro) include the
following:
 Students become familiar with cultures of a major world region
 Students develop recognition of and respect for human diversity
 Students gain experience with oral and written communication
 Students engage in library research
 Students use a computer and do on-line research appropriate to course content
 Students think critically about issues requiring synthesis of perspectives
 Students gain expertise with critical reading and thinking skills
Week 1: Introduction: the Anthropology of Latin America Panoramas of place: the
portrait of a region
Required reading: Text: Ch. 1
Tues.: hand-out syllabus and go over course requirements, overview of anthropology
Thur: Methods in the study of culture as applied to Latin America, brief field-school
video, Yanomami video and “in the news” briefings.
Week 2: Panoramas of place: the portrait of a region
Required reading: Text: Ch. 2
Tues: Lecture: Panoramas of place and the “culture area” concept
Thur: Map quiz and discussion of “in the news” briefings.
Week 3: Encounters
Ancient Latin America
Required reading: Text: Chapter 3
Tue: Ancient Latin America, complex societies and brief video: Popul Vuh
Thu: “in the news briefings” and View video, Conquistadores
Week 4: Legacies of conquest and post-contact worlds
Required reading: Text: Chapter 4
Tue: Colonial worlds and resistance and Video: Apu Condor
Thu: Video: Columbus Didn't Discover Us and “in the news briefs”
Week 5: Cultural constructions of race and ethnicity:
Required reading: Text: Chapter 5
Tue: The cultural construction of race Video: Mirrors of the Heart and “in the news
briefs”
Thu: Midterm #1
Week 6: Cultural Constructions of Sex and Gender
Required reading Text: Chapter 6
Tue: Sex and gender: marianismo and machismo and “in the news briefs”
Thur: Video: Of Men and Gods
Week 7: Religion and Everyday Life
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Required reading: text, Chapter 7
Tue: :Instructor presentation: shamanism in northern Peru
Thu: Video: Miracles are Not Enough and discussion of “in the news” briefings
Week 8: Health and Illness in Latin America
Required readings, Text: Chapter 8
Tue: Medical Anthropology and “in the news briefings” and Video: Sastun
Thu: No class: FALL BREAK
Week 9: Extractive Economies, globalization and environmental woes in Latin
America
Required readings: Text: Chapter 10
Tue: Lecture...the politics of extraction
Thu: Between Midnight and the Rooster’s Crow and discussion of “in the news”
briefings.
Week 10: Guerillas and Social Movements/Military responses and cultures of terror
Readings: Text, Chapter 12 (34 pp)
Tue: Video: When the Mountains Tremble
Thu Civil War in Latin America and discussion of “in the news” briefings.
Week 11: Urbanization and poverty in Latin America
Required readings Winn, Ch. 6 and Rosenberg, Kinkead and Logan Ch. 5 (on reserve)
Tue: Lecture: urbanization and migration in Latin America: push and pull factors
and discussion of “in the news” briefings.
Thu: Midterm #2
Week 12: international migration and the lure of "El Norte"
Required readings: Selections from Rivera. On reserve: Rosenberg, Kincaid and Logan
Ch. 12 and Ch. 18 in Delgado and Stafancic.
Tue: Lecture on immigration policies and politics and “in the news” briefings
Thu: Student moderated guest panel with first generation immigrants
Week 13: Food, Ritual and family
Readings: Text, Chapter 9
Tue: Brief lecture, “in the news” briefings (and bring food to share)
Wed/Fri: No class...Thanksgiving Break
Week 14: The Chicano/a experience
Required readings: Ch. 4, 6 and TBA from Delgado and Stefancic
Tue: Film: Walk-Out
Thu: “In the News” briefings and discussion
Week 15: Popular culture: Latin American/Latino expressions of identity
Reading: Text, Chapter 11
Tue: Popular culture
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Thu: “In the news briefings” and course wrap-up
Final papers due by Tuesday, Dec. 11th, 1:30 pm
Sample of Web links that will help you with your current events research:
http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/hlashome.html
http://www.bloorstreet.com/300block/aborintl.htm#3
News sites of note
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/default.stm
http://lib.nmsu.edu/subject/bord/laguia/
http://www.oas.org/main/english/
http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AMERICAS
www.latinworld.com
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/
Indigenous issues:
http://abyayala.nativeweb.org/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Cultures_and_Groups/Indigenous_Peoples/
http://www.cs.org/
http://struggle.ws/zapatista.html
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/cfhr/chronology.htm
http://www.nativeweb.org/
Latin American heritage/legacies:
http://www.mnstate.edu/library/instruct/chicano.htm
http://www.chicano.org/
http://www.hispaniconline.com
Examples of other resources on Latin America in USU libraries:
Abbassi, Jennifer and Sheryl L. Lutjens, eds.
2002 Rereading women in Latin America and the Caribbean : the political
economy of gender. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Merrill Lib. HQ 1460.5
.R46 2002
Allen, Catherine
1988 The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community.
Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Press. Merrill Lib. F2230.2 .K4A45 1988
Barrios de Chungara
1978 Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, a woman of the Bolivian mines.
New York: Monthly Review Press. Merrill Lib: HQ 1537.B3771.3
Behar, Ruth
1993 Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story. Boston:
Beacon Press. Merrill Lib. HQ 1465.M63 B44 1993
Brown, Michael F.
1991 War of Shadows: The Struggle for Utopia in the Peruvian Amazon.
Berkeley: U. California Press. Merrill Lib. F3430.1.C3B76 1996
Carmack, Robert, ed. 1988. Harvest of Violence: The Maya Indians and the Guatemalan
Crisis. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Merrill Lib. F1435.3 .P7H37
1988.
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Chagnon, Napoleon
1992 Yanomamö. Fort Worth: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Merrill Lib. F
2520.1 .Y3 C42 1992
Chasteen, John Charles and Joseph S. Tulchin, eds.
1994 Problems in Modern Latin American History: A Reader. Wilmington: SR
Books. Merrill Lib. F1413.P76 1994
Conover, Ted, 1987. Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of Maerica's Illegal
Aliens. NY: Vintage Books. HD 8081 .M6 C65 1987
Davis, Shelton.
1977. Victims of the Miracle: Development and the Indians of Brazil. London:
Cambridge University Press. Merrill Lib. F2519.3 .G6 D38
Descola, Philippe
1996 The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle. New York:
The New Press. Merrill Lib. F 2230.2.J58 D47 1996
Dilke, Christopher, (translator). 1978. Letter to a King: A Peruvian Chief's Account of
Life Under the Incas and Under Spanish Rule by Huamán Poma (don Felipe
Huamán Poma de Ayala). N.Y.: E.P. Dutton. Merrill Lib. F3429 .P7813
Frye, David
1996 Indians into Mexicans: History and Identity in a Mexican Town. Austin:
University of Texas Press. Merrill Lib. F1219.1.S22 F79 1996
Galeano, Eduardo
1997 The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a
Continent. New York: Monthly Review. Merrill Library.HC 125 .G25313 1997
Guillermoprieto, Alma
1990 Samba. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Merrill Lib. GT 4233.R5 G85 1990
1994 The Heart that Bleeds: Latin America Now. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Merrill Lib. F1414.2.G77 1994
Jesus, Carolina Maria de
1962 Child of the Dark. New York: E.P. Dutton Merrill Lib: HN 290.S33J43
Lewis, Oscar, 1959. Five Families: Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty. N.Y.: Basic
Books. Merrill Lib. HQ562 .L4 1962
1963. Life in a Mexican Village: Tepoztlán Restudied. Urbana: University of
Illinois. Merrill Lib. F1391 .T3L41963
Nash, June and Helen Safa, eds.
1985. Women and Change in Latin America: New Directions in Sex and Class
Boston: Bergin and Harvey. Merrill Library. HQ1460.5 .W6 1985
Patai, Daphne. 1988. Brazilian Women Speak: Contemporary Life Stories. New
Brunswick (NJ): Praeger. Merrill Lib. HQ1542 .B73 1988
Redfield, Robert.
1930 Tepoztlán. Merrill Lib. F1391.T3 R31
1941. The Folk Culture of Yucatan.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Merrill
Lib. F1376.R4 1941
Rosenberg, Tina
1991 Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America. New York:
William Morrow and Company. Merrill Lib. HV6433.C6 M437 1991
Rubenstein, Steven
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2002 Alejandro Tsakimp: A Shuar Healer in the Margins of History. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press. Merrill Lib. F3722.1.J5T777 2002
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy
1992 Death Without Weeping . University of California Press. Merrill Lib.
HV1448.B72 N677 1992
Schlesinger, Stephen C. and Stephen Kinzer
1982 Bitter fruit : the untold story of the American coup in Guatemala N.Y. :
Doubleday Merrill Lib. F1466.5 .S34
Shoumatoff, Alex
1986 The Rivers Amazon. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. Merrill Lib:
F2546.S535
Sokolow, Jayme A.
2003 The Great Encounter: Native Peoples and European Settlers in the
Americas, 1492-1800. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Merrill Lib. E59.F53S65 2003
Todorov, Tzvetan, 1984. The Conquest of America. New York: Harper and Row. Merrill
Lib. E123 .T63 1985
Urton, Gary
1990 The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas. Austin:
U. Texas Press. Merrill Lib: F 3429.U88 1990
Weismantel, Mary J.:
2001 Food, Gender, and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes . Waveland Press.
F3721.3 .F7W45 1988
Whitten, Norman, 1985. Sicuanga Runa: The Other Side of Development in Amazonian
Ecuador. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Merrill Lib. F3722.1.C23 W48
1985.
Wolf, Eric:
1959 Sons of the Shaking Earth. University of Chicago Press. F1210 .W6x
Wright, Angus
1992 The Death of Ramon Gonzalez University of Texas Press. SciTech RC965 .
A5W75 1990
Wright, Ronald
1992 Stolen continents: the Americas through Indian eyes since 1492. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin. Merrill Lib. E59.F53 W75 1992
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