Writing theMestizo

José María Arguedas as Ethnographer

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2177883
AutoresEnrique Cortez, Enrique E Cortez (North-West State Technical University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen4
Número2
Páginas171-189
Fecha de publicación2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1744-2222 • E-ISSN: 1744-2230
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17442220902920101
OpenAlexW1984246729
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas15

At present, it is difficult to trace the history of ethnology in Peru without referencing the contributions of José María Arguedas. During his lifetime, however, his contemporaries in anthropology placed little importance on his work. In this article, I intend to identify the motives behind his belated and posthumous recognition as a contributor to anthropology. The main point I would like to argue is that the concept of mestizo that Arguedas works with in his ethnographies implies an in-depth critique of the dehistoricizing practices of dominant anthropology. By decisively intervening in a key debate in Latin American intellectual history, Arguedas questions early 20th-century Hispanist ideology, which understood the condition of mestizaje as a realization of a homogeneous, harmonic ideal. In retrospect, it can be argued that his formulation of mestizaje shares elements with contemporary cultural paradigms that place value on diversity and multiculturalism

Ethnography · Ethnology · History of anthropology · Ideology · Latin Americans · Multiculturalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Anthropology · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · History · Latin American Cultural Politics · Latin American history and culture · Philosophy