Mexican Memoir: A Personal Account of Anthropology and Radical Politics in Oaxaca / Edition 1

by Howard Campbell

Overview

Ensconced in the tight kinship network of a local household in Oaxaca, Mexico, the author embarked on a challenging study of a radical ethnic political movement, COCEI. An anthropologist who married a Zapotec Women, the author chronicles his fieldwork in this memoir. His research is interwoven with his personal experiences, addressing the political and ethical dilemmas of contemporary ethnography. Campbell's informants are internationally known politicians, poets, and painters who live in Juchitán, a large city controlled by indigenous activists.

While adopting aspects of the postmodern critique of ethnography, the author proposes and illustrates a collaborative form of research based on partisan political commitment. Through a candid and intimate account, he portrays his informants and research site, and his direct involvement in Zapotec society. The book is both a highly readable ethnography of Southern Mexico and a contribution to debates about current anthropology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897897815
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

HOWARD CAMPBELL is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas-El Paso./e

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
An Anthropologist in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
Fieldwork in Juchitd'an and San Blas
Zapotec Community and Family Life
COCEI Radical Politics
Zapotec Culture Movement
An End and a Beginning
Epilogue
Bibliography