Long live Atahualpa : indigenous politics, justice, and democracy in the Northern Andes /

The politicization of ethnic identities has received a significant amount of academic attention over the past several decades. Anthropologist Cervone (Johns Hopkins Univ.) arrived in the Tixan parish of Ecuador's central highland province of Chimborazo in the aftermath of a massive 1990 indigenous uprising to conduct field research for her dissertation on this topic. For two years, she worked with the local organization Inca Atahualpa. Except for a final chapter and conclusion that focuses on national-level political developments, this lengthy book presents a local ethnography of one community in the midst of that turmoil. The 1990 uprising informed an entire genre of academic studies (see Amalia Pallares, From Peasant Struggles to Indian Resistance, CH, Jun'03, 40-5975; Suzana Sawyer, Crude Chronicles, CH, Apr'05, 42-4812; Marc Becker, Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous Movements, CH, Dec'08, 46-2253; and Robert Andolina et al., Indigenous Development in the Andes, CH, Jan'11, 48-2859, among others), and this book falls within that tradition. Ecuador's political landscape has shifted dramatically in the intervening years, and one senses a missed opportunity to reinterpret the significance of indigenous challenges to state power in the early 1990s through the lens of recent events. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. M. Becker Truman State University