After Interculturalism in Bolivia. A Review of Bret Gustafson’s <em>New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia</em> (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009.)

Authors

  • José Antonio Lucero University of Washington—Seattle

Keywords:

Indigenous people, Bolivia, resurgence, politics of knowledge

Abstract

Gustafson has written a magisterial book on Indigenous politics in Bolivia that should be required reading for all graduate students interested in Indigenous politics, decolonization, and political ethnography. That said, my heart goes out to those students who read Gustafson’s first book in hopes of finding a model for their dissertations. As they look for clues on how one actually does “engaged anthropology” in Latin America, they will find that Gustafson has raised the bar substantially for anthropologists (and for those of us non-anthropologists who think we do ethnography).  To follow his example in writing this book, students will learn that they should not only become fluent in Spanish and conversant in anthropological and social theory, but also spend time working with Mayan linguists in Guatemala, study Aymara in the Andes, then spend years (fourteen in Gustafson’s case!) acquiring fluency in Guarani and working closely with Guarani and karai (non-Guarani) intellectuals.

Author Biography

José Antonio Lucero, University of Washington—Seattle

José Antonio Lucero es profesor asociado de estudios internacionales y estudios latinoamericanos en la Universidad de Washington (Seattle). Se doctoró en ciencias políticas en Princeton University (2002) y es especialista en movimientos sociales, sociedad civil y luchas indígenas en Ecuador, Bolivia y Perú. Su libro Struggles of Voice: The Politics of Indigenous Representation in the Andes fue publicado por University of Pittsburgh Press en 2008.

Published

2012-01-31

How to Cite

Lucero, J. A. (2012). After Interculturalism in Bolivia. A Review of Bret Gustafson’s <em>New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia</em> (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009.). A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 9(2), 458–467. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/252

Issue

Section

Reviews: Culture and Politics in the Southern Cone