MEMORY, HISTORY AND
MACHISMO IN N ICARAGUA
• Nicaraguan cultural practices afford numerous
mnemonic techniques for preserving,
remembering, and binding people together in the
face of adversity. And if the sandinista position
has remained stronger than many analysts
predicted in the wake of its electoral defeat,
memory and resilience may owe more to
compadrazgo than is immediately apparent
(Lancaster, 1992: 68).
Important Details
• Nicaraguan population (5 to six million
approximately).
• Nicaraguan size (128,875 km2).
• Sandino: A Nicaraguan hero who fought guerrilla
warfare against the US Marines (late 1920’s to
early 1930’s). Sandinista movement named after
him.
• Somoza Garcia: Founder of the Somozan
dynastic dictatorship in Nicaragua.
Key words
• AGENCY is the notion that all members of
a society retain a capacity to make a
difference in the ongoing course of social
and cultural events.
• MACHISMO: A system (like capitalism)
of productive relations, Gender relations in
which men have the upper hand.
Today’s goals
• Introduce Lancaster’s unique study of Nicaragua
by looking at the effects of war and machismo in
social relations in Nicaragua
• Examine the construction of anthropological
knowledge in Nicaragua by looking at the
reflexive and self-reflexive nature of lancaster’s
ethnographic representation
Anthropology and Historicism
Reinforcing this mentality through
representation (National Geographic video):
• Detaches people from historical events and
systems of economic and social structures
of inequality
• Reinforces condescending attitudes toward
less powerful peoples
AGENCY
• is the notion that all members of a society,
even if in a social or cultural structure of
inequality, retain a capacity to make a
difference in the ongoing course of social
and cultural events.
Lancaster’s theoretical and
methodological approach
• Neo-marxist tradition
--critique of power relations from the point of
view of the disadvantaged
--working and lower--middle classes
--analysis of power structures
Effects of war in social relations
• People under military and economic attack
--constant threat of military invasion
--economic hardship
--collapse of real wages
• Particular conjunctures of the sandinista
revolution
--internal contradictions between the left and the
right wing sectors of the country
-- appearance of widespread social discontent
Coping strategies
•
•
•
•
Sharing: fictive kin (compadrazgo)
Principle of reciprocity
Not purely economic transaction
Social safety net
COMPADRAZGO
• is the traditional ritual practice of coparenting. An infant’s parents select a
compadre (cofather) and a comadre (comother) for the child’s baptism; the
compadres (co-parents) act as sponsors at
the baptism and enter into a long-term
relationship with the child (Lancaster, 1992:
63).
Provides people with two
benefits
• Perpetual exchange of goods
-- distribution of goods in communities
• Mutual benefits
--Securing patronage
--securing services
The Social impact of Machismo
• Structures the Nicaraguan family
--more social opportunities for men
--privilege
--more social agency
--more sexual and reproductive freedom
• Machismo produces social capital
-
According to Lancaster
• Machismo no less than capitalism, is a system.
Like racism, homophobia, and other forms of
arbitrary power, arbitrary stigma, machismo is
resilient because it constitutes not simply a
form of "consciousness,” not “ideology” in the
classical understanding of the concept, but a
field of productive relations (19)
Structuring of social relations
• Defines gender relations by naturalizing
them:
--men control women’s bodies in their
sexuality
--threats of using physical violence
With the Revolution two sets of
values coexist
• Cult to aggressive masculinity
--Sexual conquest, irresponsibility
• The concept of the New man
--fidelity, sharing
Second Goal
• Construction of anthropological knowledge in
Nicaragua:
--ethnographic reflexivity
--points of view dialogue
Process of self-discovery:
--participation in everyday activities
--cross-cultural dialogue
Anthropology inside-out
• Presenting to his informants a picture of his
country
• Double reflexive proposition
--a reading of their reading of the
anthropologist’s culture
Study Questions
• According to Roger Lancaster how is machismo a field of
productive social relations? Provide examples from his
ethnography.
• What is the relationship between culture and history, how are
culture and history linked in the lives of the protagonists of
“Life is Hard”? Provide details and examples from the first four
chapters.
• Why are nonkin social ties important in places like Nicaragua?
Provide examples of nonkin transactions from Lancaster’s
book.
• Compare and contrast the plight of Nicaraguan women within
the system of machismo with your situation in North American.
• Is Lancaster’s theoretical and methodological anthropological
approach a good way of understanding cultures and situations
such as those of Nicaragua?