Some Nicaraguan Lives: The
Impact of Revolution
• …in certain areas—especially in the realm
of gender and sexuality—the revolutionary
vision was sometimes quite myopic;
elements of the Sandinista block were in
serious disagreement over some feminist
goals (Lancaster 21)
Items
Look at the main themes of the
ethnography from an anthropological
point of view: form/content and
theory/method
Exercise questions
Review for first exam
Form/content and theory/method
• Interpretive anthropology: redirects ethnography
from causality to interpretation
• Impact on research methodology and
form/content:
• the subject matter (exotic) and the medium
(monograph)
• Experimental ethnographies: inclusive, many
voices
• Form as important as content
The Teaching of Don Juan
• Carlos Castaneda (1968)
• Experiencing otherness: hallucinogenic
drug: Peyote
• No ways of monitoring and evaluation
Ethn… need to be:
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Well research
Accountable to many audiences
Inclusive
Innovative, experimental
Novel
Convincing
Critical of traditional of shortcomings of the past
Lancaster’s theory and method
• Both traditional and innovative
• Traditional: old paradigm- Neo-marxist approach,
method: participant observation
• Innovative: multi-vocal and multi-form
• Challenges traditional marxist theory
• subjectivity
Main themes
• Collapse of the Sandinista Revolution
• The centrality of machismo and gender
relations
• Outside pressure and internal crisis
Machismo
• Production of machismo through a social
construction (cochon)
• Cross-cultural comparison: homosexual
versus cochon
• Desmoche: power and personal life
Methodology
• Experimental: form and content
• Subjective: experiential
• Interpretive: base on analysis, honest
Two main arguments
• Feminist:Sandinistas failed because they
ignored gender relations
• Gay studies: homophobia undermined the
revolution
Critique
• His reflexivity is only partial
Study Questions
What are the main themes running through “Life is Hard”?
Explain, give examples.
How can one represent a culture such as the
Nicaraguan without misrepresenting or exaggerating,
or reducing cultural practices to causality?
• How do you think one can evaluate or monitor the veracity
of the information presented in “Life is Hard?
• What are the main differences between the notion of
cochon in Nicaragua and the notion of homosexual in
North America? Why is it important to pinpoint such
differences?
Form and content
Items