Robert Wasserstrom
Biographic Data
| ID | 97129 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert Wasserstrom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Wasserstrom |
| SIGNATURE | WASSERSTROM R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Terra Group |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 136 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Fit to Kill?: Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill
Ch'ul Mut: Sacred Bird Messengers of the Chamula Maya
Where does traditional knowledge hide from prying eyes and a hostile world? Maruch Méndez Pérez and Diane Rus give us an answer: in women’s speech.Tsotsil-speaking Maya people in highland Chiapas, Mexico, are probably the best-documented Indigenous groups in Latin America. From 1957 into the 1990s, anthropologists from the Harvard Chiapas Project (HCP) produced a flood of studies about their beliefs, rituals, and way of life. Directed by Professo…
Upriver: The Turbulent Life and Times of an Amazonian People by Michael F. Brown
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in AmericaA Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America
Not long ago, early colonial New World history was largely a story about European manifest destiny. Of course, Cortéz beat the Aztecs; of course, Native Americans were almost annihilated; of course, white settlers helped themselves to Indigenous land. Over the past thirty years, though, this “victors’ history” has worn thin. Long periods of native resistance and colonial failure now complicate the picture. The old presumption of inevitability—his…
Slavery and Utopia: The Wars and Dreams of an Amazonian World TransformerThe Rise and Fall of the Amazon Rubber Industry: An Historical Anthropology
In 1915 an Indigenous leader named Juan Carlos Tasorentsi and several thousand followers laid waste to rubber estates across a large swathe of Peru’s Selva Central rainforest. Conservative journalists quickly defaulted to the civilization-versus-barbarism trope, but other writers were not so sure. For the previous at least twenty years, they noted, rubber barons had moved deep into the Peruvian Amazon. At first, many native groups had been willin…
Indigenous Agency in the Amazon: The Mojos in Liberal and Rubber-Boom Bolivia, 1842-1932
“On a hot day in May 1887, a group of Bolivian soldiers halted their march across a flat savanna laced by lakes and tributaries of the Amazon. They were taking ten indigenous prisoners back to their headquarters in Trinidad, the local capital, but stopped to administer several hundred lashes to each. The soldiers took special delight in whipping an eighty-year-old man before finishing him off with gunshots. They saw the old man, Andrés Guayocho, …
Sociedades indígenas de la Alta Amazonía: Fortunas y adversidades (siglos XVII-XX)
Until a few decades ago," begins María Susana Cipolletti in her fascinating book, "it was generally assumed that cultural change came late to lowland South America, during the Rubber Boom [1875-1930]. Thus native societies had supposedly lived in a sort of historical limbo for extended periods. . . . We now know that the emergence, revitalization and decline of indigenous cultures during the colonial period compel us to give up this idea forever.…
Lt;i>Yo fuí vendida ”: Reconsidering Peonage and Genocide in Western Amazonia
The Amazon Rubber Boom (1885-1930) has long been known by its worst outrage: Julio César Arana's brutal enslavement of 13,000 Indians around 1904 in Peruvian-held territory along the lower Putumayo River. In contrast, where indigenous people were not driven by the whip, researchers have argued that they remained largely unaffected by rubber collection. Archival evidence and a reexamination of older ethnographies suggest a different conclusion: de…
Introduction: Remembering William T. Vickers (1942-2016)
Bill Vickers' Modern Political Transformation
Etnicidad, trabajo forzado y poblaciones indígenas en la Amazonía ecuatoriana, 1822-2010
Anthropos , Seite 95 - 110
El Taller Tzotzil 1985-2002
The quarter-century before 1 January 1994 brought seismic upheavals to Chiapas, Mexico. For two generations, Tseltal and Tsotsil communities there had been ruled by government-appointed indigenous political bosses, trained in the 1940s as bilingual schoolteachers (maestros bilingües) by the National Indian Institute. Previously, most native towns had been run by ladino (mestizo) labor agents representing the state’s large coffee plantations. But …
Maldición de la abundancia,pueblos aislados y economía extractiva en Perú y Ecuador
En Ecuador y Perú, se incrementan los contactos entre los grupos indígenas aislados y la gente de afuera. Cuando menos en el pasado reciente, estos contactos ocurrieron principalmente a raíz de la exploración petrolera que se llevaba a cabo en varias zonas de la región amazónica. Sin embargo, es un error considerar a las empresas como principales protagonistas de los problemas surgidos en muchas zonas de la cuenca amazónica. Al contrario, aquí se…
Waorani Warfare on the Ecuadorian Frontier, 1885-2013
Este trabajo se enfoca en el boom cauchero y su impacto entre los grupos Waorani ubicados en la violenta frontera ecuatoriana. Antes de 1910, los Waorani a veces recolectaban caucho para intercambiar con los comerciantes en la cuenca baja del río Curaray. Pero el comercio pacífico terminó abruptamente. Después de 1930, con el colapso del boom, la mayor parte de los Waorani no optó por el aislamiento voluntario, sino que siguieron a los runa quien…
Ethnicity, Labor and Indigenous Populations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 1822-2010
According to most recent research, Indians in Ecuador’s Amazonian region (the Oriente) lived outside of modern markets and political systems until around 40 years ago. But this view obscures the essential role of indigenous labor in earlier cycles of extractivism and exploitation. Beginning in the 18th century, lowland Quichua and other ethnic groups were defined as much by their place within long-distance economic networks as they were by their …
Surviving the Rubber Boom: Cofán and Siona Society in the Colombia-Ecuador Borderlands (1875-1955)
In the 1960s and 1970s, anthropologists began modern ethnographic research in lowland Ecuador and Colombia. At the time, Cofán and Siona people there lived in apparently remote forests with a diverse subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing, and gardening. It was difficult to imagine that traditional indigenous territories often coincided with old rubber outposts, derelict haciendas, missionary stations, and abandoned oil camps. Nor did rese…
Anthropologists, Corporate Responsibility and Oil in Ecuador and Nigeria
State-owned national oil companies (NOCs) now control 90% of the world’s conventional petroleum resources. As a result, private companies have increasingly focused on projects located in marginal areas that are often inhabited by indigenous, tribal and minority groups. Drawing on 15 years of experience as advisors to international hydrocarbon companies, we present two case studies involving minority groups in Ecuador and Nigeria. Despite differen…
Undermining democratic capacity: Myth-making and oil development in Amazonian Ecuador
In 1967, Ecuador entered the world petroleum market when a significant oil discovery was made in the country's northeastern rain forest, known as the Oriente. Once again, Ecuadorians were faced with a question that had persisted since independence from Spain in 1822: how to incorporate the country's Amazonian territories. The oil boom, which began around Lago Agrio in 1972, seemed to provide a definitive answer (Schodt 1987, p. 107)
Nobody Knew Their Names: The Black Legend of Tetete Extermination
Alternately hunted and ignored while they were alive, the Tetete were a small group of Western Tucanoan speakers living in the Amazonian borderlands between Ecuador and Colombia. From 1877 through the 1920s, Ecuadorian rubber collectors shot or kidnapped Tetete people whenever they showed themselves. Unlike other groups, the Tetete chose resistance rather than accommodation or slavery. Sometime before 1940, most of the remaining Tetete were appar…
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Revisionism in Recent Mexican Historiography
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Class and Society in Central Chiapas
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Class and society in central Chiapas
Class and society in central Chiapas
Civil-religious hierarchies in central Chiapas: A Critical Perspective
Civil-religious hierarchies (cargo systems) have often formed the subject of anthropological research in Mesoamerica; indeed, it has been said that they play an essential role in structuring and organizing native communities. Using ethnohistorical evidence from highland Chiapas, however, we argue that such hierarchies emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to changes in the regional economy that placed new demands upon Indi…
Population growth and economic development in Chiapas, 1524-1975
Revolution in Guatemala: Peasants and Politics Under the Arbenz Government
The statement above, by the former rector of the National University of Mexico, which serves as an epigraph to this essay, expresses a position, the very point of view to which most sophisticated students of Indian affairs in Latin America are today accustomed to subscribe. During the past twenty-five years, social scientists throughout the world have asked themselves and one another why poverty, disease and illiteracy persist in Latin America, A…
Surviving the Rubber Boom: Cofán and Siona Society in the Colombia-Ecuador Borderlands (1875-1955)
In the 1960s and 1970s, anthropologists began modern ethnographic research in lowland Ecuador and Colombia. At the time, Cofán and Siona people there lived in apparently remote forests with a diverse subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing, and gardening. It was difficult to imagine that traditional indigenous territories often coincided with old rubber outposts, derelict haciendas, missionary stations, and abandoned oil camps. Nor did rese…
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
The Exchange of Saints in Zinacantan: The Socioeconomic Bases of Religious Change in Southern Mexico
Nobody Knew Their Names: The Black Legend of Tetete Extermination
Alternately hunted and ignored while they were alive, the Tetete were a small group of Western Tucanoan speakers living in the Amazonian borderlands between Ecuador and Colombia. From 1877 through the 1920s, Ecuadorian rubber collectors shot or kidnapped Tetete people whenever they showed themselves. Unlike other groups, the Tetete chose resistance rather than accommodation or slavery. Sometime before 1940, most of the remaining Tetete were appar…
Land and Labour in Central Chiapas: A Regional Analysis
Pesticide use and malaria resurgence in Central America and India
Waorani Warfare on the Ecuadorian Frontier, 1885-2013
Este trabajo se enfoca en el boom cauchero y su impacto entre los grupos Waorani ubicados en la violenta frontera ecuatoriana. Antes de 1910, los Waorani a veces recolectaban caucho para intercambiar con los comerciantes en la cuenca baja del río Curaray. Pero el comercio pacífico terminó abruptamente. Después de 1930, con el colapso del boom, la mayor parte de los Waorani no optó por el aislamiento voluntario, sino que siguieron a los runa quien…
Sociedades indígenas de la Alta Amazonía: Fortunas y adversidades (siglos XVII-XX)
Until a few decades ago," begins María Susana Cipolletti in her fascinating book, "it was generally assumed that cultural change came late to lowland South America, during the Rubber Boom [1875-1930]. Thus native societies had supposedly lived in a sort of historical limbo for extended periods. . . . We now know that the emergence, revitalization and decline of indigenous cultures during the colonial period compel us to give up this idea forever.…
Undermining democratic capacity: Myth-making and oil development in Amazonian Ecuador
In 1967, Ecuador entered the world petroleum market when a significant oil discovery was made in the country's northeastern rain forest, known as the Oriente. Once again, Ecuadorians were faced with a question that had persisted since independence from Spain in 1822: how to incorporate the country's Amazonian territories. The oil boom, which began around Lago Agrio in 1972, seemed to provide a definitive answer (Schodt 1987, p. 107)
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Coerced Consumption in Colonial Bolivia and Guatemala
Research Article| January 01 1983 Coerced Consumption in Colonial Bolivia and Guatemala Brooke Larson; Brooke Larson Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Robert Wasserstrom Robert Wasserstrom Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Radical History Review (1983) 1983 (27): 49–78. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-1983-27-49 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Pee…
Ethnology: Changement et continuité chez les Mayas du Mexique: Contribution a l'étude de la situation coloniale en Amérique latine. Henri Favre
Revolution in Guatemala: Peasants and Politics Under the Arbenz Government
The statement above, by the former rector of the National University of Mexico, which serves as an epigraph to this essay, expresses a position, the very point of view to which most sophisticated students of Indian affairs in Latin America are today accustomed to subscribe. During the past twenty-five years, social scientists throughout the world have asked themselves and one another why poverty, disease and illiteracy persist in Latin America, A…
Ethnology: Fields of the Tzotzil: The Ecological Bases of Tradition in Highland Chiapas. George A. Collier
Land and Labour in Central Chiapas: A Regional Analysis
The Exchange of Saints in Zinacantan: The Socioeconomic Bases of Religious Change in Southern Mexico
Population growth and economic development in Chiapas, 1524-1975
Civil-religious hierarchies in central Chiapas: A Critical Perspective
Civil-religious hierarchies (cargo systems) have often formed the subject of anthropological research in Mesoamerica; indeed, it has been said that they play an essential role in structuring and organizing native communities. Using ethnohistorical evidence from highland Chiapas, however, we argue that such hierarchies emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to changes in the regional economy that placed new demands upon Indi…
Ideology and Everyday Life: Anthropology, Neomarxist Thought, and the Problam of Ideology and the Social Whole. STEVE Barnett and Martin G. Silverman
Les Tzeltal de Bachajon: Habitat et Organisation Sociale
Class and society in central Chiapas
Pesticide use and malaria resurgence in Central America and India
Coerced Consumption in Colonial Bolivia and Guatemala
Research Article| January 01 1983 Coerced Consumption in Colonial Bolivia and Guatemala Brooke Larson; Brooke Larson Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Robert Wasserstrom Robert Wasserstrom Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Radical History Review (1983) 1983 (27): 49–78. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-1983-27-49 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Pee…
The Indian Christ, the Indian King: The Historical Substrate of Maya Myth and Ritual. Victoria Reifler BRICKER
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Revisionism in Recent Mexican Historiography
Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations
Class and Society in Central Chiapas
Nobody Knew Their Names: The Black Legend of Tetete Extermination
Alternately hunted and ignored while they were alive, the Tetete were a small group of Western Tucanoan speakers living in the Amazonian borderlands between Ecuador and Colombia. From 1877 through the 1920s, Ecuadorian rubber collectors shot or kidnapped Tetete people whenever they showed themselves. Unlike other groups, the Tetete chose resistance rather than accommodation or slavery. Sometime before 1940, most of the remaining Tetete were appar…
Anthropologists, Corporate Responsibility and Oil in Ecuador and Nigeria
State-owned national oil companies (NOCs) now control 90% of the world’s conventional petroleum resources. As a result, private companies have increasingly focused on projects located in marginal areas that are often inhabited by indigenous, tribal and minority groups. Drawing on 15 years of experience as advisors to international hydrocarbon companies, we present two case studies involving minority groups in Ecuador and Nigeria. Despite differen…
Undermining democratic capacity: Myth-making and oil development in Amazonian Ecuador
In 1967, Ecuador entered the world petroleum market when a significant oil discovery was made in the country's northeastern rain forest, known as the Oriente. Once again, Ecuadorians were faced with a question that had persisted since independence from Spain in 1822: how to incorporate the country's Amazonian territories. The oil boom, which began around Lago Agrio in 1972, seemed to provide a definitive answer (Schodt 1987, p. 107)
Surviving the Rubber Boom: Cofán and Siona Society in the Colombia-Ecuador Borderlands (1875-1955)
In the 1960s and 1970s, anthropologists began modern ethnographic research in lowland Ecuador and Colombia. At the time, Cofán and Siona people there lived in apparently remote forests with a diverse subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing, and gardening. It was difficult to imagine that traditional indigenous territories often coincided with old rubber outposts, derelict haciendas, missionary stations, and abandoned oil camps. Nor did rese…
Ethnicity, Labor and Indigenous Populations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 1822-2010
According to most recent research, Indians in Ecuador’s Amazonian region (the Oriente) lived outside of modern markets and political systems until around 40 years ago. But this view obscures the essential role of indigenous labor in earlier cycles of extractivism and exploitation. Beginning in the 18th century, lowland Quichua and other ethnic groups were defined as much by their place within long-distance economic networks as they were by their …
Maldición de la abundancia,pueblos aislados y economía extractiva en Perú y Ecuador
En Ecuador y Perú, se incrementan los contactos entre los grupos indígenas aislados y la gente de afuera. Cuando menos en el pasado reciente, estos contactos ocurrieron principalmente a raíz de la exploración petrolera que se llevaba a cabo en varias zonas de la región amazónica. Sin embargo, es un error considerar a las empresas como principales protagonistas de los problemas surgidos en muchas zonas de la cuenca amazónica. Al contrario, aquí se…
Waorani Warfare on the Ecuadorian Frontier, 1885-2013
Este trabajo se enfoca en el boom cauchero y su impacto entre los grupos Waorani ubicados en la violenta frontera ecuatoriana. Antes de 1910, los Waorani a veces recolectaban caucho para intercambiar con los comerciantes en la cuenca baja del río Curaray. Pero el comercio pacífico terminó abruptamente. Después de 1930, con el colapso del boom, la mayor parte de los Waorani no optó por el aislamiento voluntario, sino que siguieron a los runa quien…
History (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · Ethnology (14 works) · Geography (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Law (13 works) · History (12 works) · Politics (10 works) · Art (9 works)