Book Description
"Meisch is a master ethnographer of the postcolonial situation. When nobody remembers the faddish side of postcolonial studies, readers will still be poring over this book to find out how indigenous America threw the 'mestizo-white' establishment for a judo loop at the end of the twentieth century."
—Frank Salomon, Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin
Native to a high valley in the Andes of Ecuador, the Otavalos are an indigenous people whose handcrafted textiles and traditional music are now sold in countries around the globe. Known as weavers and merchants since pre-Inca times, Otavalos today live and work in over thirty countries on six continents, while hosting more than 145,000 tourists annually at their Saturday market.
In this ethnography of the globalization process, Lynn A. Meisch looks at how participation in the global economy has affected Otavalo identity and culture since the 1970s. Drawing on nearly thirty years of fieldwork, she covers many areas of Otavalo life, including the development of weaving and music as business enterprises, the increase in tourism to Otavalo, the diaspora of Otavalo merchants and musicians around the world, changing social relations at home, the growth of indigenous political power, and current debates within the Otavalo community over preserving cultural identity in the face of globalization and transnational migration. Refuting the belief that contact with the wider world inevitably destroys indigenous societies, Meisch demonstrates that Otavalos are preserving many features of their culture while adopting and adapting modern technologies and practices they find useful.
Customer Reviews:
A perfect follow-up for a visit to Ecuador.......2006-11-11
Upon the recommendation of the owner of the mountain lodge where we stayed in Otavalo, Ecuador, I ordered Andean Entrepreneurs following our return home. Lynn Meisch has written a highly readable book about the people and commerce of that region, well-researched and full of interesting detail. It is warm and human, reflecting her love of the Otavaleños, with whom she lived for long periods of time. It was fascinating to learn so much about the music, the style of dress, customs, families, entrepreneurial spirit, and long-standing skill with weaving and textiles among these kind people with whom I had enjoyed an interesting visit. This book will be quite valuable for anyone contemplating a visit to Ecuador, or who has returned from time spent there.
Book Description
The people of Taquile Island on the Peruvian side of beautiful Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the Americas, are renowned for the hand-woven textiles that they both wear and sell to outsiders. One thousand seven hundred Quechua-speaking peasant farmers, who depend on potatoes and the fish from the lake, host the forty thousand tourists who visit their island each year. Yet only twenty-five years ago, few tourists had even heard of Taquile. In Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth, and Culture on an Andean Island, Elayne Zorn documents the remarkable transformation of the isolated rocky island into a community-controlled enterprise that now provides a model for indigenous communities worldwide.
Over the course of three decades and nearly two years living on Taquile Island, Zorn, who is trained in both the arts and anthropology, learned to weave from Taquilean women. She also learned how gender structures both the traditional lifestyles and the changes that tourism and transnationalism have brought. In her comprehensive and accessible study, she reveals how Taquileans used their isolation, landownership, and communal organizations to negotiate the pitfalls of globalization and modernization and even to benefit from tourism. This multi-sited ethnography set in Peru, Washington, D.C., and New York City shows why and how cloth remains central to Andean society and how the marketing of textiles provided the experience and money for Taquilean initiatives in controlling tourism.
The first book about tourism in South America that centers on traditional arts as well as community control, Weaving a Future will be of great interest to anthropologists and scholars and practitioners of tourism, grassroots development, and the fiber arts.
Book Description
Contributors to Native Pathways ponder questions about American Indians' participation in the broader market U.S. market highlighting how indigenous peoples have simultaneously adopted capitalist strategies and altered them to suit their own distinct cultural beliefs and practices. Including contributions from historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, Native Pathways offers fresh viewpoints on economic change and cultural identity in twentieth-century Native American communities.
Contributors:
David Arnold
William J. Bauer
Tressa Berma
Jessica R. Cattelino
Duane Champagne
Clyde Ellis
Chris Paci
Lisa Krebs
David LaVere
Kathy M'Closkey
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Paul C. Rosier
Jeffrey P. Shepherd
Book Description
The vital intersection of Islamic history and Indian Ocean history has stimulated considerable scholarly debate. Merchants and Faith is a much-needed overview of the growing historical research in social and economic topics and makes this literature far more accessible to students and other interested readers.
Book Description
"It is hard for me to praise this book sufficiently. . . . It is a major contribution to the field of Oaxacan/Mexican studies, as well as economic anthropology and the study of tourism and crafts."
—Arthur Murphy, Georgia State University, coauthor of
Social Inequality in Oaxaca: A History of Resistance and Change
Since the mid-1980s, whimsical, brightly colored wood carvings from the Mexican state of Oaxaca have found their way into gift shops and private homes across the United States and Europe, as Western consumers seek to connect with the authenticity and tradition represented by indigenous folk arts. Ironically, however, the Oaxacan wood carvings are not a traditional folk art. Invented in the mid-twentieth century by non-Indian Mexican artisans for the tourist market, their appeal flows as much from intercultural miscommunication as from their intrinsic artistic merit.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Michael Chibnik offers the first in-depth look at the international trade in Oaxacan wood carvings, including their history, production, marketing, and cultural representations. Drawing on interviews he conducted in the carving communities and among wholesalers, retailers, and consumers, he follows the entire production and consumption cycle, from the harvesting of copal wood to the final purchase of the finished piece. Along the way, he describes how and why this "invented tradition" has been promoted as a "Zapotec Indian" craft and explores its similarities with other local crafts with longer histories. He also fully discusses the effects on local communities of participating in the global market, concluding that the trade in Oaxacan wood carvings is an almost paradigmatic case study of globalization.
Customer Reviews:
The Story Behind the Story.......2003-11-16
This book is for everyone whose appreciation for Oaxacan woodcarvings goes beyond the sinewy shapes and pretty colors. If you have ever wished you could go to Oaxaca to meet the carvers in person, this book is for you. If you have ever wondered how your favorite carvers work, wanted to know what their toolkits look like, or wished you could watch them paint, then this book is for you. Yes, this is a serious book written by an anthropology professor for an academic audience. But it also offers the collector a welcome glimpse into the lives of the carvers and their families. No, this book does not romanticize the Oaxacan woodcarvers or the "history" of their craft. But it does describe how a people who lived in poverty were able to improve their lot in life by using their hands to create folk art that is sold to customers in a high-tech world thousands of miles away.
I admit I was almost scared off when in Chapter One the author mentioned Lenin, since I would be more likely to read a book that quotes John Lennon than Vladimir Lenin. Fortunately I read on, for this book took me where I've wanted to go for some time - to Oaxaca. In Chapter Four the author takes you into the woodcarving villages and in Chapter Five he tells you how carving families have benefited financially in varying degrees from their participation in the woodcarving process. Chapter Six is all about how it's done - the nuts and bolts (or branches and sandpaper, so to speak) of how a carving goes from a copal tree to a finished carving in the hands of the carving families. (As a woodcarver myself, this was fascinating.) The chapter on Specialization was very interesting - and the following chapter on How Artisans Attain Success was also intriguing. Again, these chapters offered a look inside the Oaxacan woodcarving craft that most people would never see. The chapters on sales in Oaxaca and the United States were unexpectedly worthwhile reading as well.
One reviewer compared this book to a magician walking onstage and telling you how the trick is done. For me, however, the "magic in the trees" has always been the magical energy that sparked the Oaxacan woodcarvers to use their creativity to make something that can be appreciated for its artistic beauty but that can also bring a better quality of life to the carvers and their families in the woodcarving villages.
Buy the Shepard Barbash book (Oaxacan Woodcarving - the Magic in the Trees) for its pictures and alluring text. Buy this book (Crafting Tradition by Michael Chibnik) for the story behind the story. Both books are indispensable to anyone who has a passion for Oaxacan woodcarvings.
Making a neat thing very mundane.......2003-10-18
This very bland book attempts to apply economic theory to explain the success and failures of the
artisans and the people who sell alebrijes. What Barbash did for Oaxacan woodcarving this
university professor has undone with a book filled with criticism and forced interviews. Imagine a
magician wowing you on stage and then after word a man comes onto the stage and explains
how each trick was done and why you shouldn't be impressed because he certainly wasn't.
Chibnik's odd obsession with the Barbash book is mentioned in every chapter and makes one
question the motivation for this book. Written from 94-99 this collection of notes really sings a
professors justification for vacationing in one part of Mexico and getting his University to pay for it.
The book is devoid of interesting photos. The very few are either pictures of his own pieces or
black and white. The author also chooses a very narrow group of artists for his focus. The ones
he does focus on he mentions as "the best" or "most expensive". He praises the work of Miguel
Santiago as being the most talented and most expensive when there are others like Medina or
Aurelio Zarate that take Migel's stiff looking work up a couple of notches.
The author tries to sound very factual about things he's really only making an observation of. For
instance he mentions Maria Jimenez as the only female carver where in fact Roberta Angeles,
Christina Ibanez, and Bertha Cruz are also well known women artists. The distances he
mentions to get to villages from the city are a bit off. To get to San Pedro Cajonos the author
states it's two hours where in fact it's about eight. These little things add up and about halfway
through they demotivate you from wanting to read further.
The author takes a hard jab at wholesalers and dealers. He describes them as people who could
have easier ways to make a living other than importing folk art. Sad but true. The prices he
assumes these dealers pay for reflect 1994 and certainly not 2003 when the book is published.
He pokes fun of various catalog descriptions and websites for doing the things they naturally do
to make something interesting to buy. Ironically in the Epilogue he alerts the reader that Clive
Kincaid the largest wholesaler in his book will no longer be carrying woodcarvings. Clive is
mentioned as saying "shop owners and museum curators where just walking past our booth".
A hard blow to the hundreds of Oaxacan artists that have grown with him over the years.
Well if Clive read Chibniks book there wouldn't be any surprise as to why.
Art Socioeconomics.......2003-05-20
Anyone interested in Mexican folk art will have noticed the brightly-painted animals, people, and alebrijes (fantastic imaginary critters) featured in many Mexican-oriented gift shops. Michael Chibnik's book is an excellent introduction to the socioeconomics of the craft. These figures are produced in only four villages, all in central Oaxaca. The people who make them have varying degrees of Zapotec heritage, but are mostly Spanish-speaking. They are now used to dealing with international buyers; this is a global age, and the sight of a rich, sophisticated buyer in an adobe-and-pole home in a remote Oaxaca village occasions no surprise. Chibnik follows items on their odyssey from such homes to the elite art stores of Oaxaca and the United States.
Chibnik stresses the newness of the craft. True, but Oaxaca has a very old tradition of superb and imaginative woodcarving, previously applied to shrines, masks, and local utility goods. It not only produced the skills, it provided an existing market structure. This Chibnik fails to address.
Some points in the book deserve expansion. First, aid and development workers interested in small enterprise development should very definitely read it. It chronicles, very thoroughly, a spectacularly successful bit of local initiative and creativity. The villagers not only invented this craft; they have kept improving it steadily. Woodworking expands, diversifies, and gets more creative; meanwhile, the people themselves get rapidly more sophisticated in business. Chibnik provides very detailed accounts of the economics of the craft, from the price of wood (fortunately, a common sort of tree is used) to the markups in Tucson and Los Angeles art galleries.
This sort of value-added bootstrapping is rare in Mexico (and elsewhere). It should be encouraged. Thousands of well-meant development initiatives, pushed by outsiders, have failed; here we have an excellent study of one that was strictly local initiative and that succeeded. Chibnik does not explicitly target small enterprise development experts, but they are the people who really should be reading this book with great care.
Second, this is good art. Chibnik quotes, without much comment, some sadly snobbish statements to the effect that this stuff is "commercial" and thus automatically low. As if Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Monet weren't commercial artists! Come on, scholars--good art is usually made with at least one eye toward an audience willing to pay for it. Chibnik is generally silent on the quality of pieces and why it matters, though he does make some judgements. Yet, discussion of quality--why people really like some pieces and find others dull--should be a natural part of an economic study. Anthropologists and economists tend to be skeptical (or downright cynical) about quality judgements, but such judgements are a fact of life, and do structure the market. They should be directly addressed.
As noted by an earlier reviewer, this book is rather underillustrated. Given that there is only one other book about the craft (and it rather short), one would hope that, some day, a full art-critical study of the carvings will be produced.
The same earlier reviewer found the style dry. I disagree. Maybe I'm just used to academia, but I find this a very well-written and readable book. It is mercifully free from the jargon usual in economic studies and art criticism. I found it engaging and hard to put down. Highly recommended to anyone with a serious interest in the socioeconomic side of folk art.
Interesting Read (but not much to look at).......2003-03-25
Crafting Tradition succeeds in giving a thorough look at the economics, history and marketing of Oaxacan wood carvings. Be forewarned, however, that there are only 16 pages of color reproductions in the book. Those pieces that are shown in color are not necesarily the most exciting Oaxacan carvings I've ever seen so in the "art book" category this book fails to give the reader much to look at. But if you are interesting in learning about how the carving market developed, how the artists and sellers fit into the overall scheme, and how Oaxacan carvings are sold to buyers and collectors, this is an interesting read. It's written in a dry, scholarly tone, and feels like an economics text book. But the "behind-the-scenes" information is something that isn't addressed too often. So while I like the information, I wished the style of writing were livlier and would have liked many more examples (in color) of Oaxacan art. Recommended for those with a deep interest in Oaxacan wood carving tradition, not recommended for those looking for a catalog of Oaxacan art to look at.
Customer Reviews:
Printed in 1997 -- and it shows........2001-01-08
A word of caution: This book is not terribly useful for business travel in India. I spent 2 months in Delhi and didn't bother to check the publication date of this book. It is dated, to put it lightly.
There are a few useful tips in this little book (mostly about business/social interaction). However, I found that the main cultural differences in business were clear after the first week of being there--no book could have prepared me. India is an incredibly vast and varied country; no one general guide can smooth the transition.
If you're going to India to travel, the lonely planet or eyewitness guides will do you some good (really good if you're planning to visit out-of-the-way places). If you're going to India on business, then I'd suggest simply chatting with your Indian co-workers before or upon your arrival. Most likely they'll give you a better idea of what to expect; also, their advice will be tailored to your type of business and, more specifically, to the people with whom you'll be working.
As with all people and places--we're unique. Allow your Indian experience to be unique too.
Not too helpful!.......2000-03-02
Since India has a distinct culture from the US, I expected to receive some useful guidance from this book. It is very elementry - just remember to be polite and you will do better than you would by following this book's suggestions. Not worth the money or the weight in my luggage.
Book Description
During the 1960s, in such works as Man the Hunter, scholars constructed a model of cultural evolution in which men were characterized as "cooperative hunters of big game." Women fit neatly into this model, such books as Woman the Gatherer explained
Book Description
On August 15, 1947, the day of India's independence from Britain, Ram Dass and his family were Untouchables--lowest of the low in an apparently unchanging caste system, landless serfs bonded to a feudal village lord in a remote part of Uttar Pradesh deep in the heart of Hindu India. Fifty years later as the country celebrated its half-century of independence, Ram Dass's family still suffered poverty and oppression--this despite their efforts and despite the changes which have transformed the face of independent India. This book is their story, and the story of modern India. Told through the voices of several generations, it takes the reader on a journey into the reality of Asian poverty--the powerlessness, the sickness, the illiteracy and all the other deprivations which enmesh the poor. Gradually we learn to understand not simply the human reality of what it means to be poor, but also the central paradox of modern India: half a century of democracy, economic growth and constitutional commitment to social justice has not lessened the acute, mass poverty of the country. This vivid account draws its readers into an unforgettable understanding not just of the personal experience of poverty but of the intractable reasons for its continuance.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, thought-provoking and moving. A real eye-opener........1998-09-09
This is a work in the genre of Orwell's "Down and out in Paris and London." Immensely readable, despite the very serious nature of the work, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in development issues, untouchablity and in learning about how it must be to live in abject poverty. Kudos to the author for this fine contribution to the few works that exist on the subject.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on March 1, 1990. The length of the article is 546 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: American Indian culture at risk. (Cherokee anthropologist Robert Thomas reports language and culture loss among Native Americans)
Publication:
The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 1990
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v24
Issue: n2
Page: p53(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Multinational Monitor, published by Essential Information, Inc. on July 1, 1995. The length of the article is 2399 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the supplier: The encroachment of large fish ponds and rice paddies by well-funded shrimp farming companies in India has endangered the source of income of Indians living in remote villages. This conversion of farm land to aquaculture, whiuch is sanctioned by the Indian government, has detrimental effects in the environment and the social conditions of the poor. Moreover, foreign investors tend to benefit more from such activities than the local people.
Citation Details
Title: Aquaculture floods Indian villages. (India: Open for Business)(Cover Story)
Author: Gary Cohen
Publication:
Multinational Monitor (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1995
Publisher: Essential Information, Inc.
Volume: v16
Issue: n7-8
Page: p22(2)
Article Type: Cover Story
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Canar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador
Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador
From Cuenca to Queens: An Anthropological Story of Transnational Migration
Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador (American Encounters/Global Interactions)
The Andean Cocaine Industry
