I’m still working through the reading; as other people noted, it’s pretty long. However, I think this reading is a really important one since it traces the roots of “popular culture” in Latin America back to the cultural practices of native tribes prior to colonization. This is a cool concept since the term “pop culture” is associated in my mind with much more contemporary times. However, this reading reminds me that 1492 was once considered “contemporary” and there were popular aspects of culture then just as there are today.
Right near the beginning on page 52, Rowe and Schelling write “…it is important, when considering the ways in which the past is used as a resource for imagining an alternative future, to bear in mind that the peasant population of the Andes… do not hold standard Western notions of time and history. Their ideas are imbedded in everyday life, and it is on this level that we need to look if we are to appreciate how Andean conceptions of the world are experienced and passed on.” This reminds me of the Ben Highmore reading we looked at, which emphasized that culture is normal; phenomenon we consider foreign about other people’s cultures to them may simply be aspects of their everyday lives they don’t think twice about. Another example of this is in the lack of translations for certain Spanish words, such as art pieces that are neither “popular art” nor “folk art” but posses more cultural significance than “handicrafts” (page 68).
It also seems like the antagonism that we discussed last class in relation to populism has existed in Latin America dating back to the arrival of the colonists in 1492. I feel like this reading has given me a sense that there has always been an ongoing struggle by some group of oppressed people for adequate representation. For Evita Peron, the struggle was between the corrupt in power and the populists. In this reading, the oppressed people started out as the groups of Incan, Mayan, Andean, and Aztec people struggling against the white colonists. The reading also describes how, over time, the people became more assimilated to European culture and industrialization progressed. Conflict emerged between those pushing capitalism in the cities cities and the poor rural laborers and those left unemployed in the midst of urbanization.
Same here, haven’t worked through the full reading. But what you take out of the beginning really rings true for me. If I took one thing away from taking ANTHRO 100 last term it’s the importance of understanding that other cultures have entirely different perspectives of the world that can teach one as much about their own culture as it does about the ‘other.’ Looking at culture is interesting in that way, it’s one of the reasons I find myself in this class. But recognizing the differences in perceiving space-time between North American and Latin American cultures (broadly speaking) is a two way street. To them, it would appear that I have a different perception of space-time, and that is fascinating.
I totally agree. It seems that to understand “popular country” you also have to have a grasp of the past.
I totally agree with what you said in the last paragraph: “there has always been an ongoing struggle by some group of oppressed people for adequate representation”. I feel that rings true for every culture/country/region. Back in the Middle ages until the 19th century, the differences between opposing groups were starker: the Andean natives vs Europeans/Spanish colonialists or white colonialists/British vs Africans/Indians, the African-Americans vs. White Americans, so on and so forth. Today, the differences are a little murkier but, at the end of the day, it’s the same struggles. It makes the reading very relevant to today’s times too.