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By Subject: Anthropology (General)

By Area: Latin America and the Caribbean

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Published September 2025
A Long Journey Home

Losing and Remaking Home following Conflict and Displacement

Pérez Murcia, L. E.

A Long Journey Home examines the experiences of those whose sense of home has been disrupted by decades of conflict and violence. It highlights the profound feelings of loss and the enduring struggle of living without a home – an experience that can last for years or even decades.

Subjects: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General)
eBook available Published October 2024
Subjectivity at Latin America's Urban Margins

Kopper, M. & Richmond, M. A. (eds)

Subjectivity at Latin America's Urban Margins investigates how margins are actively produced, upheld, and challenged through the process of subject-making and margin-drawing by a multiplicity of actors affecting Latin American cities today.

Subjects: Urban Studies Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
eBook available Published October 2023
The Amazonian Puzzle

Ethnic Positionings and Social Mobilizations

Boyer, V.

By examining the multiple cultural and ethnic threads that traverse this landscape, The Amazonian Puzzle sets out to show how the category of caboclo (a powerful spiritual entity to some, and to others a despised peasant of mixed ancestry) reveals deep currents of ethnic recompositions, religious interpenetration, and social hierarchy.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Sociology

Hb
eBook available Published September 2023
Between the Forest and the Road

The Waorani Struggle for Living Well in the Ecuadorian Oil Circuit

Bravo Díaz, A.

During the past two decades Ecuadorians have engaged in a national debate around Buen Vivir (living well). This ethnography discusses one of the ways in which people experience well-being or aspire to live well in Ecuadorian Amazonia. Waponi Kewemonipa (living well) is a Waorani notion that embraces ideas of good conviviality, health and certain ecological relations.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Political and Economic Anthropology Environmental Studies (General) Sustainable Development Goals

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published August 2023
The Feeling of the Fall

An Ethnographic Writing Experiment between the Belize Barrier Reef and the Edges of Toronto, Ontario

Taccone, I.

As an inquiry into engagements with forces of loss and threat, this work explores experimental ways to write about climate crisis in anthropology. From Belize to Ontario and back, this ambitious piece of ethnographic writing set during a time “beyond ruin” in a fictional, ecotourist community in the year 2040.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Environmental Studies (General) Urban Studies

Hb
eBook available Published July 2023
Romani Chronicles of COVID-19

Testimonies of Harm and Resilience

Blasco, P. G. y & Fotta, M. (eds)

A ground-breaking volume that gathers the testimonies of NGO workers, street vendors, activists, scholars, health professionals, and creative writers to chronicle the devastating impact of COVID-19 on Romani communities globally.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Sociology Medical Anthropology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published June 2023
Creation and Creativity in Indigenous Lowland South America

Anthropological Perspectives

Halbmayer, E. & Goletz, A. (eds)

Investigating local Indigenous processes of creation and creativity, this book uses ethnographic and comparative anthropological perspectives to enquire about creative transformative practices in lowland South America.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
Published October 2022
Living on a Time Bomb

Local Negotiations of Oil Extraction in a Mexican Community

Schöneich, S.

Providing a holistic understanding of extensive oil extraction in rural Mexico, this book focuses on a campesino community, where oil extraction is deeply inscribed into the daily lives of the community members. The book shows how oil shapes the space where it is extracted in every aspect and produces multiple uncertainties.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Environmental Studies (General) Sustainable Development Goals

Paperback available
eBook available Published April 2022
Nurturing the Other

First Contacts and the Making of Christian Bodies in Amazonia

Grotti, V.

Combining archival research, oral history and long-term ethnography, this book studies relations between Amerindians and outsiders such as American missionaries through a series of contact expeditions that led to the 'pacification' of three native Amazonian groups in Suriname and French Guiana.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Colonial History Anthropology of Religion

Hb
eBook available Published November 2021
Good Enough Mothers

Practicing Nurture and Motherhood in Chiapas, Mexico

López, JM

Motherhood in Mexico is profoundly shaped by the legacy of colonialism. This ethnography situates motherhood in a critical global health analysis of maternal health inequalities and interventions in the southeast state of Chiapas.

Subjects: Gender Studies and Sexuality Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published March 2020
The Children of Gregoria

Dogme Ethnography of a Mexican Family

Kristensen, R. & Adeath Villamil, C.

The Children of Gregoria portrays a struggling Mexico, told through the story of the Rosales family. This book highlights their voices and allows them to tell their own stories in an accessible, literary manner without prejudice, persecution or judgment.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Theory and Methodology Media Studies

Hb
Published March 2020
After the Pink Tide

Corporate State Formation and New Egalitarianisms in Latin America

Gold, M. & Zagato, A. (eds)

The left-wing Pink Tide movement that swept across Latin America seems to now be overturned, as a new wave of free-market thinkers emerge across the continent. This book analyses the emergence of corporate power within Latin America and the response of egalitarian movements across the continent trying to break open the constraints of the state.

Subjects: Political and Economic Anthropology Anthropology (General)

Paperback available
eBook available Published February 2020
On the Nervous Edge of an Impossible Paradise

Affect, Tourism, Belize

Little, K.

On the Nervous Edge of an Impossible Paradise is a collection of seven stories about local lives in the fictional village of Wallaceville. They turn rogue in the face of runaway forces that take the form and figure of a Belize beast-time, which can appear as a comic mishap, social ruin, tragic excess, or wild guesses.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Literary Studies

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published January 2020
Fifty Years of Peasant Wars in Latin America

Binford, L., Gill, L., & Striffler, S. (eds)

Informed by Eric Wolf’s Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, published in 1969, this book examines selected peasant struggles in seven Latin American countries during the last fifty years and suggests the continuing relevance of Wolf’s approach.

Subjects: Political and Economic Anthropology Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published November 2018
Non-Humans in Amerindian South America

Ethnographies of Indigenous Cosmologies, Rituals and Songs

Rivera Andía, J. J. (ed)

Drawing on fieldwork from diverse Amerindian societies, and presenting ethnographies of non-human entities emerging in ritual, oral tradition, cosmology, shamanism and music, this book offers new insights into the indigenous constitutions of humanity, personhood, and environment characteristic of the South American highlands and lowlands.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published October 2018
Competing Power

Landscapes of Migration, Violence and the State

Halstead, N.

Drawing from ethnographic material based on long-term research in Guyana, Competing Power shows how the local is occupied and re-occupied by various powerful and powerless people and entities (“big ones” and “small ones”), and how it becomes the site of intense power negotiations in relation to external ideas of empowerment.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Refugee and Migration Studies

Hb
eBook available Published September 2018
Edges, Fringes, Frontiers

Integral Ecology, Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability in Guyana

Henfrey, T. B.

Based on an ethnographic account of subsistence forest use by Wapishana people in Guyana and developing an original analytical framework, Edges, Frontiers, Fringes examines the social, cultural and behavioral bases for sustainability and resilience in indigenous resource use.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Environmental Studies (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published September 2018
Barter and Social Regeneration in the Argentinean Andes

Angé, O.

Drawing on ethnographic data from fairs in the Southern Andes involving highland herders and lowland cultivators, Barter and Social Regeneration in the Argentinean Andesadvances an anthropology of the practice of barter, contributing to a fuller understanding of how social groups create themselves through material circulation.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Political and Economic Anthropology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published January 2018
Island Historical Ecology

Socionatural Landscapes of the Eastern and Southern Caribbean

Siegel, P. (ed)

Island Historical Ecology addresses Caribbean island ecologies from the perspective of social and cultural intervention, focusing on selected islands between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. This volume goes on to compare these ecologies with well-documented patterns in the Mediterranean and Pacific islands, placing the Caribbean into a larger context of island historical ecology.

Subjects: Archaeology Environmental Studies (General) Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published November 2017
Vital Diplomacy

The Ritual Everyday on a Dammed River in Amazonia

Nahum-Claudel. C.

Focusing on the major ceremonial cycle of the Enawene-nawe people, Vital Diplomacy sheds new light on classic Amazonian themes such as manioc cultivation and cuisine, predatory relations with non-humans, and the interplay of myth and practice, and to consider dynamics of kin, clan, and gender relations, the meaning of productive work, and practices of foreign diplomacy.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published September 2017
Power in Practice

The Pragmatic Anthropology of Afro-Brazilian Capoeira

González Varela, S.

Considering the concept of power in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian ritual art form, Varela describes ethnographically the importance that capoeira leaders (mestres) have in the social configuration of a style called Angola in Bahia, Brazil.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Performance Studies

Hb
eBook available Published September 2017
House of the Waterlily

A Novel of the Ancient Maya World

Carmean, K.

House of the Waterlily is a historical novel set in the world of the Late Classic Period Maya of the Southern Lowlands. Through the story of Lady Winik, a young Maya noble girl, the reader is immersed in the everyday world of the Maya

Subjects: Archaeology Literary Studies Memory Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published August 2017
A Goddess in Motion

Visual Creativity in the Cult of María Lionza

Canals, R.

Shedding light on the role of visual creativity in religion, Canals explores the current practice of the cult of María Lionza, one of the most important and yet unexplored religious practices in Venezuela.

Subjects: Anthropology of Religion Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published July 2017
Transborder Media Spaces

Ayuujk Videomaking between Mexico and the US

Kummels, I.

Transborder Media Spaces offers a new perspective on how various media forms have been appropriated by Mexican indigenous people in the light of transnational migration and ethnopolitical movements. Within new media spaces, the Ayuujk people carve out their own visions of development, modernity, gender, and indigeneity in the twenty-first century.

Subjects: Media Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published June 2017
Indigeneity and the Sacred

Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas

Sarmiento, F. & Hitchner, S. (eds)

This important contribution presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation of sacred natural sites in the Americas. The book explores how struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reformed as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

Subjects: Environmental Studies (General) Development Studies Anthropology (General) Heritage Studies

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published December 2016
The Imbalance of Power

Leadership, Masculinity and Wealth in the Amazon

Brightman, M

The Imbalance of Power demonstrates that the indigenous societies of the Guiana region of Amazonia do not fit conventional characterizations of ‘simple’ political units with ‘egalitarian’ political ideologies and ‘harmonious’ relationships with nature.

Subject: Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published May 2016
Ownership and Nurture

Studies in Native Amazonian Property Relations

Brightman, M., Fausto, C. & Grotti, V. (eds)

Through ethnography of the Amazonia region, Ownership and Nurture sets new and challenging terms for debates about the classic anthropological theme of property. This volume demonstrates that property relations are of central importance in Amazonia despite portrayals of the region as the antithesis of Western, property-based, civilization.

Subject: Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published January 2016
Tourism and Informal Encounters in Cuba

Simoni, V.

Based on a detailed ethnography, this book explores tourism in Cuba, drawing attention to challenges that tourists and local people face in establishing meaningful connections with each other. Comparing a wide array of these experiences, the author uses tourism to offer a new understanding of how relationships across difference and inequality are imagined and understood.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Travel and Tourism

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published January 2016
In Search of Legitimacy

How Outsiders Become Part of the Afro-Brazilian Capoeira Tradition

Griffith, L. M.

Every year, young adults from Western nations travel to Brazil to train in the dance/martial art of capoeira. This ethnography uses the concept of apprenticeship pilgrimage—studying with a local master at a historical point of origin—to explore how non-Brazilians learn their art and claim legitimacy within capoeira communities.

Subjects: Performance Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published September 2015
The Living Ancestors

Shamanism, Cosmos and Cultural Change among the Yanomami of the Upper Orinoco

Jokic, Z.

This ethnography focuses on Yanomami shamanism, especially in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the “part is equal to the whole.” This book fills a gap in the study of Yanomami people and enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Anthropology of Religion

Hb
Paperback available
Published June 2014
Dignity for the Voiceless

Willem Assies's Anthropological Work in Context

Salman, T., Marti i Puig, S., & Haar, G. van der (eds)

“This is a fascinating body of work…I was most impressed by his balance of "hard" political-science analysis and the softer socio-cultural interpretations and by the balance of theory and applied work (scholarship speaking to real world contemporary problems).” · Edward Fischer, Vanderbilt University

Willem Assies explored the messy, often untidy daily lives of people, with their inconsistencies, irrationalities, and passions, but also with their hopes, sense of beauty, solidarity, and quest for dignity. This collection brings together some of Willem Assies’ best, most fascinating, and still highly relevant writings.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Development Studies

Hb
eBook available Published May 2014
Intellectuals and (Counter-) Politics

Essays in Historical Realism

Smith, G.

“A cutting edge discussion between anthropology and the disciplines of history and geography, all through the lens of the politics of intellectual work. A paradigm of sensitive ethnographic work fused with broadly social/political theory, this book will pull in a lot of people looking to find their way out of a certain rabbit hole of recent academia.” · Neil Smith, Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Gavin Smith suggests a research agenda designed to maximize the political leverage of ordinary people faced with ever more remote states and technologies that make capitalism increasingly rapacious. He tackles the political conundrums of our times and asks what roles intellectuals might play therein.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Political and Economic Anthropology

Hb
Paperback available
Published November 2012
Central America in the New Millennium

Living Transition and Reimagining Democracy

Burrell, J. L. & Moodie, E. (eds)

Subject: Anthropology (General)

Hb
eBook available Published September 2012
Playing with Languages

Children and Change in a Caribbean Village

Paugh, A. L.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Educational Studies Sociology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published August 2012
Animism in Rainforest and Tundra

Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia

Brightman, M., Grotti, V. E., & Ulturgasheva, O. (eds)

Subjects: Anthropology of Religion Environmental Studies (General) Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published July 2012
Environment and Citizenship in Latin America

Natures, Subjects and Struggles

Latta, A. & Wittman, H. (eds)

Subjects: Environmental Studies (General) Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published January 2012
Foodscapes, Foodfields, and Identities in the YucatÁn

Ayora-Diaz, S. I.

Subjects: Food & Nutrition Anthropology (General)

Hb
eBook available Published October 2011
Crude Domination

An Anthropology of Oil

Behrends, A., Reyna, S. P. & Schlee, G. (eds)

Subjects: Peace and Conflict Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published October 2011
Diasporic Generations

Memory, Politics, and Nation among Cubans in Spain

Berg, M. L.

Subjects: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General) Memory Studies

Hb
eBook available Published October 2010
Unsafe Motherhood

Mayan Maternal Mortality and Subjectivity in Post-War Guatemala

Berry, N.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Medical Anthropology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published November 2009
Virtualism, Governance and Practice

Vision and Execution in Environmental Conservation

Carrier, J. C. & West, P. (eds)

Subjects: Environmental Studies (General) Development Studies Anthropology (General) Applied Anthropology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published July 2009
A Walk to the River in Amazonia

Ordinary Reality for the Mehinaku Indians

Stang, C. D.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General) Sociology

Hb
Paperback available
eBook available Published April 2009
Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia

Contemporary Ethnoecological Perspectives

Alexiades, M. N. (ed)

Subjects: Environmental Studies (General) Refugee and Migration Studies Mobility Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published December 2008
Against Machismo

Young Adult Voices in Mexico City

Ramirez, J.

Subjects: Gender Studies and Sexuality Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General)

Hb
eBook available Published October 2008
Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society, and the Neo-liberal State in Latin America

Fischer, E. F. (ed)

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Sociology Political and Economic Anthropology

Pb
eBook available Published December 2007
Fetishes and Monuments

Afro-Brazilian Art and Culture in the 20^th Century

Sansi, R.

Subjects: Heritage Studies Museum Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published June 2006
Green Encounters

Shaping and Contesting Environmentalism in Rural Costa Rica

Vivanco, L. A.

Subjects: Environmental Studies (General) Anthropology (General) Development Studies Sustainable Development Goals

Hb
Paperback available
Published December 2004
Day of the Dead

When Two Worlds Meet in Oaxaca

Haley, S. & Fukuda, C.

Subjects: Anthropology of Religion Anthropology (General)

Pb
Published March 2004
An Earth-colored Sea

'Race', Culture and the Politics of Identity in the Post-Colonial Portuguese-Speaking World

Vale de Almeida, M.

Subjects: Colonial History Anthropology (General) Sociology

Hb
Paperback available
Published January 2001
Ethnoarchaeology of Andean South America

Contributions to Archaeological Method and Theory

Kuznar, L. A. (ed)

The papers in this volume present detailed studies of highland and lowland pastoralists and horticulturalists in Andean South America, including taphonomy and sacred landscapes. This volume will be of use to anyone who studies human adaptations to highland or arid environments, and to those interested in pastoral societies, as well as Andean South America.

Subjects: Archaeology Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published September 1997
Indigenous Rights and Development

Self-Determination in an Amazonian Community

Gray, A.

Subjects: Development Studies Anthropology (General)

Hb
Paperback available
Published March 1997
The Last Shaman

Change in an Amazonian Community

Gray, A.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Anthropology of Religion Development Studies Literary Studies

Hb
Paperback available
Published September 1996
Mythology, Spirituality, and History

Gray, A.

Subjects: Anthropology (General) Anthropology of Religion Development Studies Literary Studies

Hb
Paperback available