This course provides students with
a foundation in anthropological literature on Mexican cultures and society as
well as an overview of the history of applied anthropology in Mexico. Mexico has long been a hub of anthropological
studies as well as something of a social scientific laboratory for testing out
state-sponsored strategies for the incorporation, assimilation, and education
of indigenous, frequently non-Spanish speaking populations. Beginning after the Mexican Revolution many
anthropologists worked in the dual capacity of researchers and employees of the
state. Using Mexico as a case study,
students will review literature spanning both “development anthropology” and
the “anthropology of development” as we consider the relationship between
social scientific practice and state development policies from the
revolutionary era through to the present. Students will be asked to think
critically about the ways that social scientific literature can shape the ways
we think about nations, regions, and communities, for good or for ill.
In the second half of the course we
will be reading two full-length ethnographies written about contemporary
communities in Mexico. We will compare
the style, content, and analytic goals of these texts with the materials from the
first half of the semester with the following questions in mind: 1) How do
these accounts, produced by American anthropologists with no direct
governmental affiliation, differ in scope and focus from the account produced
by Mexican anthropologists embedded in the government? 2) What are the pros and
cons of applied/engaged anthropology more broadly? 3) What kinds of partnerships might be
desirable between governments and social scientists, and between researchers
and the communities they study?
- Teacher: Rose Maio