Hispanic Culture through Anthropology

The first portion of this course will examine, from a socio-anthropological perspective, the contributions of indigenous civilizations to contemporary national cultures in Spanish America. Themes such as pre-Colombian societeis, the Spanish conquest, the awareness of indigenous identity as an instrument of power thorugh twentieth-century processes of organization and struggle, the design of a system of Intercultural Billingual Education, the indigenous uprisings of 1990, and other events will be analyzed in depth. Discussion will focus on the specific vantage point of Ecuadorean society- its socio-historical context and the struggles that have led to a re-thinking of indigenous and gendered identity today. The second thematic focus of the course will analyze the contributinos of cultures and peoples of African origin to the formation of mesitizo culture that characterizes Spanish America, the visibility of this population, and its representation today, both in the cultural and the socio-political arenas.

Required Texts Material in course pack form to be purchased at Middlebury.