Spell of the Urubamba
Spell of the Urubamba

Author: Daniel W. Gade

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 3319208497

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This work examines the valley of the Urubamba River in terms of vertical zonation, Incan impact on the environment, plant use, the history of exploration and the notion of discovery, the idea of land reform, and cultural contact with the European world. Winding its path northward from the Andean Highlands to the Amazon, the valley has served as the stage of pre-Columbian civilizations and focal point of Spanish conquest in Peru. "Gade left behind not only a superb body of scholarly work, but a network of colleagues and students who remain indebted to his example. This book should serve as an inspiration for all scholars who wish to pursue the Sauerian, counter enlightenment or post development agendas of understanding and respecting particular places in all their historical and cultural complexity, including ambiguities and contradictions." -- The Geographical Review, American Geographical Society

Mourning El Dorado
Mourning El Dorado

Author: Charlotte Rogers

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2019-06-13

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0813942675

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What ever happened to the legend of El Dorado, the tale of the mythical city of gold lost in the Amazon jungle? Charlotte Rogers argues that El Dorado has not been forgotten and still inspires the reckless pursuit of illusory wealth. The search for gold in South America during the colonial period inaugurated the "promise of El Dorado"—the belief that wealth and happiness can be found in the tropical forests of the Americas. That assumption has endured over the course of centuries, still evident in the various modes of natural resource extraction, such as oil drilling and mining, that characterize the region today. Mourning El Dorado looks at how fiction from the American tropics written since 1950 engages with the promise of El Dorado in the age of the Anthropocene. Just as the golden kingdom was never found, natural resource extraction has not produced wealth and happiness for the peoples of the tropics. While extractivism enriches a few outsiders, it results in environmental degradation and the subjugation, displacement, and forced assimilation of native peoples. This book considers how the fiction of five writers—Alejo Carpentier, Wilson Harris, Mario Vargas Llosa, Álvaro Mutis, and Milton Hatoum—criticizes extractive practices and mourns the lost illusion of the forest as a place of wealth and happiness.

Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions in Latin America
Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions in Latin America

Author: Anna Friederike Busch

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 3662467704

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This book analyses the topic of protecting traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) in Latin America. It questions classic legal approaches and involves the interface of anthropology and law. The study analyses regional, national and local particularities of law on paper and law in reality. It includes personal fieldwork research in selected countries and puts light on the political, socio-economic and environmental dimension of the topic. Based upon these insights, the study gives recommendations for a more enhanced, interdisciplinary understanding and protection of TCEs. Latin America is (still) rich of cultural traditions and bio- and sociodiversity. This region is the cradle of the international discussion on protecting TCEs. The national situations are diverse and allow conclusive comparisons. Some countries have established concrete protection systems, like Panama, and made useful experiences. It is time to resume: What do TCEs really mean? Should they be protected by law and if so, how? What can we learn from the practical experiences made so far? The following is clear: The true test for any new legislation – in Latin America and elsewhere – is its impact on the everyday life.

Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature
Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature

Author: Verity Smith

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1997-03-26

Total Pages: 962

ISBN-13: 9780203304365

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A comprehensive, encyclopedic guide to the authors, works, and topics crucial to the literature of Central and South America and the Caribbean, the Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature includes over 400 entries written by experts in the field of Latin American studies. Most entries are of 1500 words but the encyclopedia also includes survey articles of up to 10,000 words on the literature of individual countries, of the colonial period, and of ethnic minorities, including the Hispanic communities in the United States. Besides presenting and illuminating the traditional canon, the encyclopedia also stresses the contribution made by women authors and by contemporary writers. Outstanding Reference Source Outstanding Reference Book

A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan
A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan

Author: Araceli Tinajero

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-02-09

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 303064488X

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Beginning in 1990, thousands of Spanish speakers emigrated to Japan. A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan focuses on the intellectuals, literature, translations, festivals, cultural associations, music (bolero, tropical music, and pop, including reggaeton), dance (flamenco, tango and salsa), radio, newspapers, magazines, libraries, and blogs produced in Spanish, in Japan, by Latin Americans and Spaniards who have lived in that country over the last three decades. Based on in-depth research in archives throughout the country as well as field work including several interviews, Japanese-speaking Mexican scholar Araceli Tinajero uncovers a transnational, contemporary cultural history that is not only important for today but for future generations.

A Socialist Empire
A Socialist Empire

Author: Louis Baudin

Publisher:

Published: 2011-08

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 9781614271536

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2011 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Many social scientists have attempted to lump the unique Inca society into modern political and economic categories. Louis Baudin argued that Incan society was socialistic. He claimed that the ayllu system is what classified the Inca as a system of state socialism. Baudin defines state socialism as being based on the idea of the regulative action of a central power in social relations. According to Baudin, the idea of private property in Europe had been in existence for centuries, but no such idea existed at the times of the Incas. He claims, that society in Peru rested on a foundation of collective ownership which, to a certain extent, facilitated its establishment, because the effacement of the individual within a group prepared him to allow himself to be absorbed. Baudin argued that the higher ranking Incas tried, and succeeded to an extent, to force a degree of uniformity on the common Inca. The Inca were forced to dress similarly, eat the same food, practice the same religion, and speak the same language, Quechua.

Seven Nights
Seven Nights

Author: Jorge Luis Borges

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 9780811218382

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The incomparable Borges delivered these seven lectures in Buenos Aires in 1977; attendees were treated to Borges' erudition on the following topics: Dante's The Divine Comedy, Nightmares, Thousand and One Dreams, Buddhism, Poetry, The Kabbalah, and Blindness.