Selected Articles and Book Chapters by Brooke Larson
Indios redimidos, cholos barbarizados: Imaginando la modernidad neocolonial boliviana (1900-1910)
Visiones de fin de siglo
p??gina dedicada a la investigaci??n cientifica pluridisciplinaria de la zona andina de america d... more p??gina dedicada a la investigaci??n cientifica pluridisciplinaria de la zona andina de america del sur (peru, bolivia, colombia y ecuador).
La formación de América Latina, 1992
Forging the Unlettered Indian
Histories of Race and Racism, 2011
Latin American Research Review, 2019
As both a focus and locus of vibrant scholarly work, the field of Bolivian studies burst onto the... more As both a focus and locus of vibrant scholarly work, the field of Bolivian studies burst onto the international scene, carving a distinctive niche for itself within the larger fields of Andean and Latin American studies over the past twenty-five years. Bolivia went from being the hemisphere’s “least studied” country, according to a 1984 LASA Forum survey, to becoming a beacon of intercultural dialogue, vanguard scholarship, and postcolonial debate. This essay traces Bolivian studies’ coming of age. Plotting the field’s developments and dialogues across history, anthropology, and ethnohistory, it argues that a dual process of academic decentering and epistemic reinvention unfolded in Bolivia at the height of its indigenous and popular mobilizations during the 1990s and early 2000s. The article closes by identifying five thematic clusters of recent research and briefly reflects on the place of Bolivian scholarship in the wider purview of Andean studies.
Colonial Latin American Review, 2019
Thomas Abercrombie succumbed to liver cancer in the prime of his scholarly life. Having invested ... more Thomas Abercrombie succumbed to liver cancer in the prime of his scholarly life. Having invested almost two decades in research and writing his second major monograph, Tom's new book, Passing to América: Antonio (née María) Yta's transgressive, transatlantic life in the twilight of the Spanish Empire (2018), appeared only months before he died. Waiting in the wings was another massive book project, tentatively entitled, 'Silver Leviathan' : geo-biosocial entanglements in the global city. Mountain and heritage site of Potosí (Bolivia), 1545-2018. And, as if those projects were not enough to keep this prodigious researcher occupied for decades at a time, Tom had started a new research project on a Spanish wine-growing region that recovered its 'virtual commons' (sense of cultural heritage and locality) against the atomizing forces of the global economy. This astonishing new body of work is, if I may be allowed a pun, vintage Abercrombie. All three projects sit at the intersection of Anthropology, History, and Theory. His ethnographic work plumbs the cultural depths of his Andean and Spanish subjects, while his historical horizons encompass the trajectories of transatlantic journeys, Potosí's silver mining economy, and commodity capitalism over five centuries. And, in the grand tradition of the Chicago school of symbolic Anthropology, Tom's granular approach to his subjects was enriched by his deep immersion in theory and methodology. The reader would be delighted by Tom's vivid depictions of plebeian life in the colonial mining town of Oruro; or Doña María's strange life and escape from the convent; or the intricacies of colonial mining technology. But the reader would also be privy to Tom's engagement with Bourdieu's concepts of habitas, schema, and field; or cultural theories on the interplay between 'narrativity and performativity,' or the 'intersectionality of sex and gender.' There were always many layers of meaning to excavate-to the delight of students in graduate seminars. But Tom's books were also infused with thick description-vivid stories based on deep archival research that grounded his occasional flights of theory. It was this rare interdisciplinary combination, and the interplay of genres of analysis and writing, that perhaps most distinguished Tom's scholarly contribution to Andean Ethnohistory. Long before he embarked on those three research projects, Tom Abercrombie made an indelible mark on the field of Andean Studies with the publication of his first book, Pathways of memory and power: ethnography and history among an Andean people (1998). Dropping his ethnographic anchor in the K'ulta villages of rural Oruro, Tom set out to study how the Aymara-speaking people of that region understood and represented their collective past of oppression and survival under almost 500 years of Spanish colonialism and republican domination. The research journey took Tom into the field, where he began work by studying the K'ulta's ritual forms of communal life and local statecraft. After a year or so in the field, Tom embarked on another year of archival research. What might have been a standard ethnography of Andean ritual life among the K'ulta grew into a monumental ethnohistorical study that explored the reciprocal interplay between Andean and European traditions of power and memory in dynamic, power-laden contexts over almost 500 years of colonial and postcolonial domination. As always, Tom pursued an underlying theoretical agenda, which tried to navigate
Bolivian Studies Journal/Revista de Estudios Bolivianos, 2020
Latin American Research Review
A recent diagnosis of the health of Latin American studies in the United States reveals that Boli... more A recent diagnosis of the health of Latin American studies in the United States reveals that Bolivia is among the forgotten or ignored countries. U.S. scholarship on Mexico, Brazil, and Peru vastly outranks research on Bolivia. Following the Bolivian Revolution of 1952, U.S. universities turned out a host of dissertations and books on Bolivia, but since that time, the U.S. community of Bolivianists has declined. Yet anthropological and historical research on this southern Andean country seems to be flourishing. Although some political scientists attracted to problems and prospects for reform created by the Revolution have turned their attention elsewhere, Bolivia still fascinates scholars interested in the deeper currents of historical change and the remarkable resilience of rural Andean peoples in their struggle to preserve their cultural integrity.
Formaciones de indianidad. Articulaciones raciales, mestizaje, y nacion en America Latina. Ed., Marisol de la Cadena, 2007
Desde que el crítico literario Ángel Rama fundió por primera vez las ideas de escritura, poder im... more Desde que el crítico literario Ángel Rama fundió por primera vez las ideas de escritura, poder imperial y urbanismo en una metáfora-"ciudad letrada"-, los intelectuales han es-tado fascinados con el papel que jugó lo letrado en la colonización cultural y espacial de las Américas (Rama 1996). Este ensayo revisita los discursos, ansiedades, y politicas raciales del la oligarchia en relacion a la "amenaza" del indio letrado y el sufragio popular en Bolivia a comienzos del siglo XX.
Latin American Research Review , 2019
This essay tracks developments, debates, and dialogues in History, Anthropology, and Ethnohistory... more This essay tracks developments, debates, and dialogues in History, Anthropology, and Ethnohistory that have shaped the contours of Bolivian Studies through political events and social transformations over the past twenty-five or so years.
A study of the ways that colonial labor regimes shaped new hierarchies of status and class within... more A study of the ways that colonial labor regimes shaped new hierarchies of status and class within Andean peasant society.
This paper explores the idioms and images of race, culture, and nation in the work of four promin... more This paper explores the idioms and images of race, culture, and nation in the work of four prominent indigenistas writers in the early 20th century.
An essay on popular mobilizations and potential threats in the transition to rule under Evo's MAS.
A gendered study of the Bolivian state's neo-civilizing and assimilationist discourses and progra... more A gendered study of the Bolivian state's neo-civilizing and assimilationist discourses and programs in the field of rural educational reform.
A reflective essay on the combative history and redemptive memory of this Aymara community school... more A reflective essay on the combative history and redemptive memory of this Aymara community school that flourished in rural Bolivia during the 1930s.
The Hispanic American Historical Review, 1980
This 1988 Latin American Research Review essay provides a benchmark for thinking retrospectively ... more This 1988 Latin American Research Review essay provides a benchmark for thinking retrospectively about advances in research on Bolivia that came out of the 1970s and 1980s -- on the threshold of the "cultural turn" and escalating indigenous rights movement during the 1990s.
Books by Brooke Larson
Published in 2017, this reedited Spanish-language edition of the original book, is part of the ed... more Published in 2017, this reedited Spanish-language edition of the original book, is part of the editorial project, Biblioteca del Bicentenario de Bolivia. The edition includes the 1998 essay, "Cochabamba. (Re)construyendo una Historia," as well as a long introductory reflection on the significance of this book, and its historiographical context, by the historian Huascar Rodriguez.
Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes. At the Crossroads of History and Anthropology.
Co-edited by Brooke Larson and Olivia Harris, with Enrique Tandeter, this volume of articles chal... more Co-edited by Brooke Larson and Olivia Harris, with Enrique Tandeter, this volume of articles challenges established stereotypes of the Andean society. It explores how indigenous people adapted their complex traditional economies, cultures, and identities to the pressures and opportunities afforded by colonial and republican markets and polities.
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Selected Articles and Book Chapters by Brooke Larson
Books by Brooke Larson