Millennial Ecuador : critical essays on cultural transformations and social dynamics /

Bringing together research by anthropologists, historians, and indigenous scholars, this welcome collection offers an overview of social and political dynamics in contemporary Ecuador. Contributors document concrete practices of Andean, Amazonian, and Afro-Ecuadorian peoples as they struggle to address pressing issues in their personal lives. The volume's main focus is the "empowerment" of traditionally disenfranchised people with attention to their competing representations of social and political realities. Whitten (anthropology and Latin American studies, Univ. of Illinois) envisioned this collection as a sequel to his Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador (1981). But this collection focuses more on issues of globalization, modernity, and millennialism. The editor puts papers in context by providing a preface, a thorough introduction, and an epilogue updating the Ecuadorian political situation to 2003. He also includes a glossary and a useful appendix containing background information on Ecuador. The chapters by Rachel Corr, William Vickers, Michael Uzendoski, and David Guss are outstanding. While primarily intended for area specialists, the volume will also interest anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists seeking to understand the dynamics of global power. ^BSumming Up:: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. S. D. Glazier University of Nebraska--Lincoln