Writing theMestizo

José María Arguedas as Ethnographer

Bibliographic Data

ID2177883
AuthorsEnrique Cortez, Enrique E Cortez (North-West State Technical University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume4
Issue2
Pages171-189
Publication date2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-2222 • E-ISSN: 1744-2230
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17442220902920101
OpenAlexW1984246729
LanguageEN
References cited15

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