The course explores social history, and ethnic and gender relations through a geographical focus on the main regions of Ecuador: Amazon, Highlands, and Coast. Students will analyze the ethnic, gender, religious, and geographical diversity of the country concentrating on indigenous people of the Highlands and the Amazon, Afro-Ecuadorians, and the historical formation and culture of the Creole upper class, an important and understudied theme essential to grasp power relations and politics in the country.
Prerequisites:
Previous coursework in Anthropology or Sociology or permission of instructor. Advanced Spanish Level.
Additional requirements:
Almeida, José, ed. Sismo étnico en el Ecuador. Quito: CEDIME, 1993.
Clark, Kim. La obra redentora. El ferrocarril y la nación en Ecuador. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 2004.
Descola, Philippe. La selva culta. Simbolismo y praxis en la ecología de los Achuar. Quito: Abya Yala, 1988.
Garcés, Chris. “Exclusión constitutiva: las organizaciones pantalla y lo anti-social en la renovación urbana de Guayaquil.” Iconos 20. September 2004.
Guerrero, Andrés. Los Oligarcas del Cacao. Quito: Conejo, 1980.
Prieto, Mercedes. Liberalismo y temor: Imaginando los sujetos indígenas en el Ecuador post-colonial. Quito: FLACSO y Abya Yala, 2004.
Rival, Laura. “State Schools Against Forest Life: The Impact of Formal Education on the Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador.” Key Issues in Educational Development: Oxford Studies in Comparative Education. Terry Allsop and Colin Brock, eds. Wallingford: Triangle Books, 1993.
Striffler, Steve. In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company, Popular Struggle and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002.
Walsh, Catherine y Juan García. “El pensar del emergente movimiento afro-ecuatoriano. Reflexiones desde un proceso.” Estudios y otras prácticas intelectuales latinoamericanas en cultura y poder. Daniel Mato, ed. Caracas: CLACSO, 2002.
Weismantel, Mary. Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Weismantel, Mary. Food, Gender and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,1998
Whitten, Norma. Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and Adaptation of Ecuadorian Jungle Quichua. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.
Method of presentation:
Brief lectures with discussion, student presentations, and guest speakers.
Required work and form of assessment:
Students are required to read before class and be prepared to discuss and participate. Final grades are based on the following: Class participation (10%); in-class presentations based on assigned readings (10%); 4- to 5-page mid-term essay (25%); 4- to 5- page final essay (25%); 10-page research paper connecting class readings with participant observation of Ecuadorian reality and interviews with informants (30%). The topic of the research paper should be connected to the themes of the course and approved by the instructor.
content:
Session 1: Distribution of the syllabus and introduction to the course.
I. Social History and Cultural Geography of the Amazonian Region
Session 2: Muratorio, The Life and Times, Introduction, Chapters 5-6.
Session 3: Muratorio, The Life and Times, Chapters 7, 8, 10.
Session 4: Muratorio, “Identidades.”
II. Social History and Cultural Geography of the Highlands A. Interethnic relations
Session 5: Burgos, Introduction, Chapter 5.
Session 6: Burgos, Chapter 6.
Session 7: Guest speaker Juan Illicachi, indigenous bilingual-bicultural teacher from Chimborazo, member of the Indigenous movement of Chimborazo and M.A. in ethnic studies from FLACSO, Ecuador. Burgos, Chapter 7.
***Distribution of questions for mid-term bibliographical essay on ethnic identity and inter-ethnic relations in the Amazon and Highlands.***
Session 8: Mid-Term Essay Due.
B. The Creole upper class of the highlands
Session 9: Guerrero, selected chapters. Barsky.
Session 10: Guest speaker Professor Felipe Burbano or Prof. Fernando Bustamante on “Political Culture
of the Ecuadorian Upper Class.”
C. Recent interpretations of the indigenous movement of Ecuador
Session 11: Martínez. Santana.
Brief abstract of intended theme of research paper due.
Session 12: García. Bretón and García.
Session 13: Guest speaker Luis Macas, Nina Pacari, or Blanca Chancoso on the history, achievements, and problems of the indigenous movement of Ecuador.
D. Gender in the Ecuadorian Highlands
Session 14: Stolen, Chapters 3-4.
Session 15: Guest speaker Lolita Valladares, lawyer and member of the women’s movement of Ecuador on gender legislation and political participation of women in Ecuador. Stolen, Chapters 5-6.
III. Social History and Cultural Geography of Afro-Ecuadorians and the Ecuadorian Coast A. Afro-Ecuadorians, ethnography, history, and gender relations
Session 16: Whitten, selected chapters.
Session 17: Fernandez-Rasines, selected chapters.
B. Transnational corporations, coastal bourgeoisie, and export-oriented agriculture.
Session 18: Striffler. Chiriboga.
IV. The Religious Diversity of Ecuador
Session 19: Rubenstein. Lyons.
Session 20: Juratorio, “Protestantismo, etnicidad y clase.” Andrade.
Required readings:
Andrade, Susana. “Participación política de los indígenas protestantes.” Iconos 22. 2005.
Barsky, Osvaldo. “Iniciativa terrateniente en la reestructuración de las relaciones sociales en la sierra ecuatoriana: 1959-1964.” El problema agrario en el Ecuador. M. Chiriboga, ed. 1988.
Bretón, Victor. “Desarrollo rural y etnicidad en las Tierras Altas de Ecuador.” V. Bretón and F. García. Estado, Etnicidad y Movimientos sociales en América Latina: Ecuador en Crisis. 2003.
Chiriboga, Manuel. “Ganancias y acumulación de la plantación cacaotera.” Manuel Chiriboga. El problema agrario en el Ecuador. 1988.
Fernandez-Rasines, Paloma. Afrodescendencia en el Ecuador: Raza y género desde los tiempos de la colonia. 1999.
García, Fernando. “Política, Estado y Diversidad Cultural: a propósito del movimiento indígena ecuatoriano.” V. Bretón and F. García. Estado, Etnicidad y Movimientos sociales en América Latina: Ecuador en Crisis. 2004.
Guerrero, Andrés. Haciendas, capital y lucha de clases andina. Quito: el Conejo, 1983.
Lyons, Barry. “Liberation theology and indigenous identity in Chimborazo, Ecuador.” Latin American Research Review. 1999.
Martínez, Carmen. “Los misioneros salesianos y el movimiento indígena de Cotopaxi.” Ecuador Debate n. 63. 2004.
Muratorio, Blanca. “Identidades de mujeres indígenas y política de reproducción cultural en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana.” Etnicidades. A. Guerrero (ed.). Quito: FLACSO, 2000.
Muratorio, Blanca. The Life and Times of Grandfather Alonso: Culture and History in the Upper Amazon. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991. (We will use Spanish version of this book).
Muratorio, Blanca. “Protestantismo, etnicidad y clase en Chimborazo.” Evangelización y protesta en Ecuador. Quito: CIESE.
Rubenstein, Steve. “Shaman.” Rubenstein. Alejandro Tsakimp: A Shuar Healer in the Margins of History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
Santana, Roberto. “Cuando las elites indígenas giran en redondo.” Ecuador Debate. 2004.
Stolen, Kristi Anne. A media voz: relaciones de género en la sierra ecuatoriana. 1987.
Striffler, Steve. “Clase, género e identidad: la United Fruit Company, Hacienda Tenguel y la reestructuración de la industria del banano.” Ecuador Debate 51. 2000.
Whitten Jr., Norman. Black Frontiersmen: Afro-hispanic Culture of Ecuador and Colombia. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1974. (We will use Spanish version of this classic).
The course explores social history, and ethnic and gender relations through a geographical focus on the main regions of Ecuador: Amazon, Highlands, and Coast. Students will analyze the ethnic, gender, religious, and geographical diversity of the country concentrating on indigenous people of the Highlands and the Amazon, Afro-Ecuadorians, and the historical formation and culture of the Creole upper class, an important and understudied theme essential to grasp power relations and politics in the country.
Previous coursework in Anthropology or Sociology or permission of instructor. Advanced Spanish Level.
Brief lectures with discussion, student presentations, and guest speakers.
Students are required to read before class and be prepared to discuss and participate. Final grades are based on the following: Class participation (10%); in-class presentations based on assigned readings (10%); 4- to 5-page mid-term essay (25%); 4- to 5- page final essay (25%); 10-page research paper connecting class readings with participant observation of Ecuadorian reality and interviews with informants (30%). The topic of the research paper should be connected to the themes of the course and approved by the instructor.
Session 1: Distribution of the syllabus and introduction to the course.
I. Social History and Cultural Geography of the Amazonian Region
Session 2: Muratorio, The Life and Times, Introduction, Chapters 5-6.
Session 3: Muratorio, The Life and Times, Chapters 7, 8, 10.
Session 4: Muratorio, “Identidades.”
II. Social History and Cultural Geography of the Highlands
A. Interethnic relations
Session 5: Burgos, Introduction, Chapter 5.
Session 6: Burgos, Chapter 6.
Session 7: Guest speaker Juan Illicachi, indigenous bilingual-bicultural teacher from Chimborazo, member of the Indigenous movement of Chimborazo and M.A. in ethnic studies from FLACSO, Ecuador. Burgos, Chapter 7.
***Distribution of questions for mid-term bibliographical essay on ethnic identity and inter-ethnic relations in the Amazon and Highlands.***
Session 8: Mid-Term Essay Due.
B. The Creole upper class of the highlands
Session 9: Guerrero, selected chapters. Barsky.
Session 10: Guest speaker Professor Felipe Burbano or Prof. Fernando Bustamante on “Political Culture
of the Ecuadorian Upper Class.”
C. Recent interpretations of the indigenous movement of Ecuador
Session 11: Martínez. Santana.
Brief abstract of intended theme of research paper due.
Session 12: García. Bretón and García.
Session 13: Guest speaker Luis Macas, Nina Pacari, or Blanca Chancoso on the history, achievements, and problems of the indigenous movement of Ecuador.
D. Gender in the Ecuadorian Highlands
Session 14: Stolen, Chapters 3-4.
Session 15: Guest speaker Lolita Valladares, lawyer and member of the women’s movement of Ecuador on gender legislation and political participation of women in Ecuador. Stolen, Chapters 5-6.
III. Social History and Cultural Geography of Afro-Ecuadorians and the Ecuadorian Coast
A. Afro-Ecuadorians, ethnography, history, and gender relations
Session 16: Whitten, selected chapters.
Session 17: Fernandez-Rasines, selected chapters.
B. Transnational corporations, coastal bourgeoisie, and export-oriented agriculture.
Session 18: Striffler. Chiriboga.
IV. The Religious Diversity of Ecuador
Session 19: Rubenstein. Lyons.
Session 20: Juratorio, “Protestantismo, etnicidad y clase.” Andrade.