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Streets, Bedrooms, and Patios
Diversity characterizes the people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Within this city of half a million, residents are rising against traditional barriers of race and class, defining new gender roles, and expanding access for the disabled. In this rich ethnography of the city, Michael Higgins and Tanya Coen explore how these activities fit into the ordinary daily lives of the people of Oaxaca. Higgins and Coen focus their attention on groups that are often marginalized—the urban poor, transvestite and female prostitutes, discapacitados (the physically challenged), gays and lesbians, and artists and intellectuals. Blending portraits of and comments by group members with their own ethnographic observations, the authors reveal how such issues as racism, sexism, sexuality, spirituality, and class struggle play out in the people's daily lives and in grassroots political activism. By doing so, they translate the abstract concepts of social action and identity formation into the actual lived experiences of real people.
Militants and Citizens
Brazils democracy has frequently been described as unconsolidated, its citizens as apathetic and uninterested in politics. But in Porto Alegre, a host city to the World Social Forum, thousands of ordinary citizens participate in local governance, making binding decisions on urban policy on a daily basis. While there has been immense attention paid to the practice of participatory democracy in Porto Alegre, this is the first book to examine the politics, culture, and day-to-day activities of its citizens. Drawing on the rich tradition of urban ethnography and political theory, the book argues that Porto Alegres importance may lie not just with its effective governance, but with its new political logic, namely a greater access to government functions and government officials for traditionally disenfranchised citizens. In an age characterized by seemingly strong voter apathy, this study has global implications. The author shows that in the discussions on the failings of democracy in industrialized countries like the United States, most people may be missing what is central to civic engagement--unimpeded access to government.
Fixing Men
Most studies on reproductive rights make women their focus, but this work illuminates what men in the Mexican state of Oaxaca say and do about contraception, sex, and AIDS. It reveals how these men and the women in their lives make decisions about birth control and how they cope with the plague of AIDS.
The AIDS Pandemic in Latin America
Of the more than 40 million people around the world currently living with HIV/AIDS, two million live in Latin America and the Caribbean. In an engaging chronicle illuminated by his travels in the region, Shawn Smallman shows how the varying histories and cultures of the nations of Latin America have influenced the course of the pandemic. He demonstrates that a disease spread in an intimate manner is profoundly shaped by impersonal forces. In Latin America, Smallman explains, the AIDS pandemic has fractured into a series of subepidemics, driven by different factors in each country. Examining cultural issues and public policies at the country, regional, and global levels, he discusses why HIV ...
Gender and the Boundaries of Dress in Contemporary Peru
Set in Arequipa during Peru's recent years of crisis, this ethnography reveals how dress creates gendered bodies. It explores why people wear clothes, why people make art, and why those things matter in a war-torn land. Blenda Femenías argues that women's clothes are key symbols of gender identity and resistance to racism. Moving between metropolitan Arequipa and rural Caylloma Province, the central characters are the Quechua- and Spanish-speaking maize farmers and alpaca herders of the Colca Valley. Their identification as Indians, whites, and mestizos emerges through locally produced garments called bordados. Because the artists who create these beautiful objects are also producers who ca...
Historic Cities of the Americas [2 volumes]
With rare maps, prints, and photographs, this unique volume explores the dramatic history of the Americas through the birth and development of the hemisphere's great cities.
Historic Cities of the Americas [2 volumes]
With rare maps, prints, and photographs, this unique volume explores the dramatic history of the Americas through the birth and development of the hemisphere's great cities. Written by award-winning author David F. Marley, Historic Cities of the Americas covers the hard-to-find information of these cities' earliest years, including the unique aspects of each region's economy and demography, such as the growth of local mining, trade, or industry. The chronological layout, aided by the numerous maps and photographs, reveals the exceptional changes, relocations, destruction, and transformations these cities endured to become the metropolises they are today. Historic Cities of the Americas provides over 70 extensively detailed entries covering the foundation and evolution of the most significant urban areas in the western hemisphere. Critically researched, this work offers a rare look into the times prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492 and explores the common difficulties overcome by these European-conquered or -founded cities as they flourished into some of the most influential locations in the world.
Runaway Daughters
Against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Oaxaca City, Kathryn Sloan analyzes rapto trials--cases of abduction and/or seduction of a minor--to gain insight beyond the actual crime and into the reality that testimonies by parents, their children, and witnesses reveal about courtship practices, generational conflict, the negotiation of honor, and the relationship between the state and its working-class citizens in post colonial Mexico. Unlike the colonial era where paternal rule was absolute, Sloan found that the state began to usurp parental authority in the home with the introduction of liberal reform laws. As these laws began to shape the terms of civil marriage, the courtroom played a more significant role in the resolution of familial power struggles and the restoration of family honor in rapto cases. Youths could now exert a measure of independence by asserting their rights to marry whom they wished. In examining these growing rifts between the liberal state and familial order within its lower order citizens, Sloan highlights the role that youths and the working class played in refashioning systems of marriage, honor, sexuality, parental authority, and filial obedience.
Days of Death, Days of Life
Kristin Norget explores the practice and meanings of death rituals in the popular culture of poor urban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca. Norget's work offers an original perspective on the significance of the Day of the Dead and other Oaxacan ritual practices in shaping people's values and social identities. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Oaxacan neighborhoods, Norget includes vivid descriptions of Day of the Dead rituals.
