"The Strange Career of "Latin-American Studies

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9756846
AutoresRichard M Morse (Yale University, autor correspondente)
Ano1964
Volume356
Fascículo1
Páginas106-112
Data de publicação1964-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000271626435600114
OpenAlexW1983269263
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9

Whatever the recent progress of Latin-American studies in the United States, it is less evident to outsiders than to specialists in the field. Defects of our Latin-American pro grams are most noticeable at the liberal-arts core of humanities and the social sciences. Anthropology, in its present state, offers the best point of departure for examining Latin-American culture; literary and historical studies are especially weak. A drawback to Latin America as a field of study, in contrast to Asia or Africa, is that its culture is deceptively recognizable to Americans. Moreover, our inherited suspicion of the Catho lic world discourages study of its intellectual origins, and pre vents us from identifying its sociological and psychological foundations. Today the wholesale subsidizing of Latin-Ameri can studies threatens to cut them off further from our academic mainstream and to encourage mediocrity. The various causes for the poverty of our Latin-American programs may possibly relate to our submerged doubts about the wisdom of the original Protestant secession

Latin American studies · Latin Americans · Mainstream · Mediocrity principle · Political economy · Political science · Poverty · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · Latin American Cultural Politics · Law