This interesting volume is part of the World Anthropology collection which resulted from the IXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, held in Chicago in 1973. Fifteen papers submitted at large to the congress were grouped together by editor Elias Sevilla-Casas, into a single symposium honoring the 500th anniversary of the birth of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, the renowned scholar and “defender of the Indians.” Since the papers were not solicited, they follow no fixed format or specific themes. Rather, they are united by their general concern for a committed social science in which the social and political responsibility of the anthropologists to the Indian and peasant societies which they study is paramount.
After an introductory essay in which the editor asks his contributors and readership to emulate Las Casas in his intellectual commitment to participation and action, the volume divides into three sections. The first, on “General Theoretical Considerations,” describes the ideological and political positions of Las Casas (Sevilla-Casas), ethnocentrism in programs of cultural modification (Bodley), and the effects of forced cultural change, dominance, and environmental deterioration on native populations (Binder). A second section on “The Colonial Past in Spanish America” describes racial and caste segregation as represented in urban plans (Markman), baroque forms of rituals (Kelsey), indigenous tribute systems (Jácome and Llumiquinga), and the failure of Dutch colonial policies in the West Indies (Pope). The third and largest section, on “The Latin American Present,” includes articles on the effects of government land tenure policies and the territorial expansion of contemporary capitalist systems on the Araucanian Indians of Chile (Berdichewsky), the Canelos Quechua in Ecuador (Whitten), and the Jívaro of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian montaña (Siverts). Other papers focus on cultural aggression against the Emberá Indians of Colombia (de Friedemann), and on ethnic conflict among the Mazahua (Iwańska) and Chinantec (Barabas) Indians and Mexican Catholics. The book closes with an historical analysis of peasant mobilization and rebellions in Cuba (Huizer), and a rather general “call to arms” on peasant mobilization under systems of dependent capitalism in Latin America (Kowalewski).
This work provides a useful and important focus on the horrendous effects of unmitigated expansion onto Indian lands with the subsequent disruption of Indian cultures and societies. It is on less solid ground when it talks of emerging class consciousness and radical mobilization—rightfully decrying the effects of “savage capitalism,” but failing to adequately place its discussions of peasant and Indian mobilization within the limiting context of contemporary authoritarian states in Latin America. The lack of any discussion of the indigenous, peasant and squatter situations in Brazil is a serious lack in this regard. More importantly, perhaps, by not examining the diverse forms of alternate peasant and Indian organization which are currently gathering force in Latin America, the volume fails to respond to Sevilla-Casas’ eloquent call for disadvantaged Indian and mestizo populations throughout the continent.
