Books by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
Beautiful Politics of Music, 2017
"An exploration into the history and practice of trova, a genre of music that is the soul of Yuca... more "An exploration into the history and practice of trova, a genre of music that is the soul of Yucatán.
Yucatecan trova is a music genre comprising a type of romantic song that is considered “the soul of Yucatán and Yucatecans.” This first book on Yucatecan trova offers an insider’s view of the history and practice of a treasured cultural heritage. A central theme of Gabriela Vargas-Cetina’s ethnography is what she refers to as the “beautiful politics of music” practiced by Yucatecan trova patrons and organizations, which is a way of asserting the importance of groups and issues through nonconfrontational means." From the back cover.
Los cristianos han afirmado desde sus orígenes que son una comunidad. La profusa reflexión teológ... more Los cristianos han afirmado desde sus orígenes que son una comunidad. La profusa reflexión teológica suscitada por esta convicción pareciera dar por supuesto que cualquier sabe qué es comunidad. Pero ese es justamente un problema nodal. Por un lado, existe una amplio consenso entre biblistas e historiadores de la Iglesia, de la carencia de una forma única de organizar a los creyentes que pudiera remitirse al Nuevo Testamento. Por otro, una amplia gama de filósofos y analistas sociales han expuesto en las últimas décadas cómo la noción de comunidad es sumamente estrecha, inestable e ideológica; pues el imaginario que comúnmente le acompaña evoca una forma romántica de asociación que dista mucho de las formas concretas de socialidad realmente existentes.
"Anthropology and the Politics of Representation examines the inherently problematic nature of re... more "Anthropology and the Politics of Representation examines the inherently problematic nature of representation and description of living people, specifically in ethnography and more generally in anthropological work as a whole.
In Anthropology and the Politics of Representation volume editor Gabriela Vargas-Cetina brings together a group of international scholars who, through their fieldwork experiences, reflect on the epistemological, political, and personal implications of their own work. To do so, they focus on such topics as ethnography, anthropologists’ engagement in identity politics, representational practices, the contexts of anthropological research and work, and the effects of personal choices regarding self-involvement in local causes that may extend beyond purely ethnographic goals.
Such reflections raise a number of ethnographic questions: What are ethnographic goals? Who sets the agenda for ethnographic writing? How does fieldwork change the anthropologist’s identity? Do ethnography and ethnographers have an impact on local lives and self-representation? How do anthropologists balance longheld respect for cultural diversity with advocacy for local people? How does an author choose what to say and write, and what not to disclose? Should anthropologists support causes that may require going against their informed knowledge of local lives?
Contributors
Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz / Beth A. Conklin
/ Les W. Field / Katie Glaskin / Frederic W.
Gleach / Tracey Heatherington / June C.
Nash / Bernard C. Perley / Vilma Santiago-
Irizarry / Timothy J. Smith / Sergey
Sokolovskiy / David Stoll / Gabriela Vargas-
Cetina / Thomas M. Wilson"
"El libro explora temas relacionados con la imagen de Yucatán tal como proyectada a las y los yuc... more "El libro explora temas relacionados con la imagen de Yucatán tal como proyectada a las y los yucatecos, como al resto del país y del mundo. El contenido del libro es el siguiente:
Introducción: Antropología y las imágenes e imaginación de lo yucateco, por Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz y Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 1. La Isla que no se parece a otra: La narrativa yucateca entre el deseo y la imaginación, de Margaret Shrimpton Manson; Capítulo 2. Libros de cocina: La representación de lo yucateco en la imaginación culinaria, de Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz; Capítulo 3. Imágenes de Yucatán y 'lo yucateco' en textos sobre la canción yucateca, 1944-2007, de Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 4. Yucatán y lo yucateco en el mercado turístico: Autorrepresentaciones desde la fotografía, de Francisco Fernández Repetto; Capítulo 5. Racismo y representaciones: 'Lo yucateco' en la televisión local, de Eugenia Iturriaga; Capítulo 6. Staging the Mestiza Subject in Recent Yucatan Theathre, de Tamara Underiner; y Capítulo 7. Imágenes identitarias y su representación paratextual: Editoriales, periódicos y revistas de Yucatán, de María Dolores Almazán Ramos."
"Este libro es el resultado de una investigación colectiva sobre organizaciones de capital social... more "Este libro es el resultado de una investigación colectiva sobre organizaciones de capital social en Chiapas. En él se examinan tres tipos de organización: cofradías indigenas coloniales, organizaciones agroecológicas y organizaciones artesenales contemporaneas. Estas organizaciones interpretadas como formas culturalmente específicas, son entendidas como parte de los movimientos económicos y culturales globales. Este libro es una exploración exploración etnográfica de las paradojas implícitas en estas organizaciones locales de capital social.
INDICE
INTRODUCCION. ORGANIZACIONES Y TEORIA ORGANIZACIONAL EN ANTROPOLOGIA
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CAPITULO I. UNA MIRADA AL PASADO: LAS COFRADIAS COLONIALES ENTRE LOS TZOTZILES Y TZELTALES DE CHIAPAS
María Dolores Palomo Infante
CAPITULO II. ACCION COLECTIVA, CAPITAL SOCIAL Y RECURSOS NATURALES: LAS ORGANIZACIONES AGROECOLOGICAS DE CHIAPAS
Ronald Nigh Nielsen
CAPITULO III. GLOBALIZACION Y ARTESANIAS: ORGANIZACIONES ARTESANALES EN CHIAPAS
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CONCLUSIONES: ORGANIZACIONES EN CHIAPAS, ENTRE LO PRIVADO Y LO PUBLICO
Gabriela Vargas Cetina"
"Los autores de este libro exploran, mediante el análisis de experiencias etnográficas propias, l... more "Los autores de este libro exploran, mediante el análisis de experiencias etnográficas propias, las formas locales de apropiación de la forma cultural moderna. En vez de asumir que existe una sola y única modernidad, este libro muestra que existen distintas formas de ser modernos en el mundo y entre grupos sociales diversos. Así, los autores ponen en cuestión la ya desgastada oposición entre lo moderno y lo tradicional.
"El trabajo de campo a través de la observación participante implica el reconocimiento de la arbi... more "El trabajo de campo a través de la observación participante implica el reconocimiento de la arbitrariedad de lo que aparece como socialmente natural. Esta experiencia, que además de vivirla la tratamos de narrar después en algún tipo de orden y dentro de parámetros más o menos teóricos, nos permite examinar nuestras propias creencias y formas de ver el mundo desde un nuevo afuera, que a veces es percibido en nosotros incluso por la gente con la que nos relacionamos cotidianamente.
Este libro ofrece una serie de miradas en el sentido de que describe situaciones específicas desde posiciones y enfoques específicos. Todas estas miradas aparecen aquí puestas más allá de las fronteras nacionales mexicanas. Son miradas de gente que nos ganamos la vida entrando y saliendo (y quizá viendo y ayudando a entrar y salir a la gente con la que hacemos amistad) de sociedades diferentes. Por tanto son, en más de un sentido, 'miradas hacia afuera'. Al mismo tiempo, como el aparato teórico desde el que realizamos los trabajos no siempre se apoya en metodologías o teorías desarrolladas en México, surge la interrogante que se manifiesta en el título: ¿Hasta qué punto hemos mirado hacia afuera o desde afuera?"
Papers by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
Tourism is one of the most important revenue sources for Yucatán and Quintana Roo, two of the thr... more Tourism is one of the most important revenue sources for Yucatán and Quintana Roo, two of the three states comprising the Yucatán peninsula. Quintana Roo is on the Caribbean Sea, one of the most transparent bodies of water washing sandy beaches that are among the whitest and most inviting in the world. Th rough beach tourism and resort infrastructure, Quintana Roo is one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, visited by over six million tourists every year. 1 Th e state of Yucatán, instead, focuses tourism advertising campaigns on its natural and cultural resources, including pink fl amingos, archaeological sites and local folk culture, and its available infrastructure for conference tourism. Over a million people visited Yucatán each year between 2000 and 2006, and the designation of Chichén Itzá in 2007 as one of the 'seven modern wonders of the world' , is expected to raise the numbers of tourists coming into the state. Yucatecan folk culture is advertised as one of the main regional attractions. Along with regional cuisine and the welcoming attitude of Yucatecans toward tourists, music is promoted as an inviting feature of Yucatecan life. In the city of Mérida, in particular, the type of music known as 'Yucatecan trova' is promoted as the authentic urban music of Yucatán, suitable not only for locals' but also for tourists' consumption. State and municipal authorities sponsor weekly events where trova occupies a central place. Th is special status of Yucatecan trova in publically-funded recreational activities may appear as 'natural' because it is known nation-wide and throughout the Caribbean as an important musical style native to Yucatán. However, as I will show here, today's special status of trova as 'the' music of Yucatán is the result of complex,
Current Anthropology, Apr 1, 2011
Focusing on shepherds' cooperatives in Sardinia, Italy, I show how cooperatives have borrowed inc... more Focusing on shepherds' cooperatives in Sardinia, Italy, I show how cooperatives have borrowed incessantly from other types of businesses, including private capital businesses, and have provided models for those businesses and other organizations. In order to highlight the place of these organizations within a common institutional environment, "corporations" here are corporate bodiesincluding firms, trade unions, and political parties-and the cooperatives are also a type of corporation. The Italian state and the market are key institutions in the organizational context and climate within which cooperatives in general, and Sardinian cooperatives in particular, function. The emergence and consolidation of the European Community has added a new layer of complexity to the organizational environment as it tries to regulate in all European countries the ways in which capitalist businesses and cooperatives operate.
American Anthropologist, Jun 1, 1999
Anthropology News, Apr 1, 2006
American Ethnologist, Feb 1, 2008
Berghahn Books, Dec 31, 2022
Berghahn Books, Dec 31, 2022
Review of International American Studies, 2020
Juárez Huet, Nahayelli Beatriz. Dos narizones no se pueden besar. Trayectorias, usos y prácticas ... more Juárez Huet, Nahayelli Beatriz. Dos narizones no se pueden besar. Trayectorias, usos y prácticas de la tradición Orisha en Yucatán, Publicaciones ciesas, 2019. -- a book review by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
Review of International American Studies, 2020
The world in which we live is crisscrossed by multiple flows of people, information, non-human li... more The world in which we live is crisscrossed by multiple flows of people, information, non-human life, travel circuits and goods. At least since the Sixteenth Century, the Americas have received and generated new social, cultural and product trends. As we see through the case studies presented here, modern literature and dance, the industrialization of food and the race to space cannot be historicized without considering the role the Americas, and particularly the United States, have played in all of them. We also see, at the same time, how these flows of thought, art, science and products emerged from sources outside the Americas to then take root in and beyond the United States. The authors in this special volume are devising conceptual tools to analyze this multiplicity across continents and also at the level of particular nations and localities. Concepts such as cosmopolitanism, translocality and astronoetics are brought to shed light on these complex crossings, giving us new ways...
The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity, 2021
Dialectical Anthropology, Dec 1, 1993
Cooperatives are promoted by national and regional governments around the world because of their ... more Cooperatives are promoted by national and regional governments around the world because of their perceived potential for heightening efficiency in the manufacturing and commercialization of small producers' output, and also because the cooperative concept itself rings with an overtone of social solidarity and democracy. 1 Oftentimes, however, cooperatives fail to live up to the planners' expectations, since they do not achieve any of the objectives initially set out for them. Richard Huntington suggests, 2 reflecting on development programs that have been implemented in Africa over the years, that those projects which aim to promote and sustain cooperative associations have failed because they are simultaneously antithetical to traditional cultural systems, marginal to the market economic system, and incidental to the functioning government bureaucracy. 3 This paper focuses on the shepherds' production cooperative, Su Cuile Mannu, in Sardinia, Italy. 4 Here, I want to re-take Huntington's idea in a reverse manner to suggest that Su Cuile Mannu has succeeded exactly because it is seen by government officials as being antithetical to traditional cultural systems (that is, to pastoralist production as practiced in the last couple of centuries in Sardinia, so that there has been great political interest on the part of the government to make it work, even at times when sheep's cheese prices are depressed in the international market. Unlike the planners' perception, the cooperative does, in fact, rest on cultural understandings about work and behavior that prevail outside the association itself. The shepherds in Su Cuile Mannu are
The Annals of Anthropological Practice, 2020
Here I argue that anthropologists, whether we want it or not, affect the localities and the peopl... more Here I argue that anthropologists, whether we want it or not, affect the localities and the people at our fieldwork sites. These effects can be short, medium or long-term, depending on the place and the circumstances. Short term help may mean helping to pick up fruit or vegetables for dinner or lend a hand during the harvest. Mid-term engagement may mean to set up a school for local teachers wanting to learn anthropological methods or participate over the years in a single project helping with help, funds, or both. Long-term projects may include setting up museums and helping support them through foreign donations or working with locals through the mediation of a foreign or worldwide institution such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations. There are specialty areas, such as medical anthropology, which could seem to have the in-built purpose of achieving long-term effects, but most other anthropological work does not fall within these categories and anthropologists can choose when and how to commit to local welfare depending on their circumstances and those of their hosts. Here I discuss the ways in which different anthropologists have chosen to engage with locals during and after fieldwork.
In 1994 the Zapatista National Liberation Army re- bellion in Chiapas, Mexico set in motion many ... more In 1994 the Zapatista National Liberation Army re- bellion in Chiapas, Mexico set in motion many political and social processes, including demands for the improvement of living con- ditions, health and education for the indigenous people of Chiapas and the rest of the country. Regarding education, many indigenous communities began to demand a new type of formal education, suited to the everyday life of their hamlets and villages. This pa- per, from the point of a participant observer, explores how the movement for the New Indigenous Education, as articulated by the Union of Teachers for the New Education (UNEM) is drawing on ethnic politics to present local concerns in global terms. This paper focuses on the New Education movement cur- rently taking place in the state of Chiapas, Mexico and its place within the larger order of global-local politics. This movement is spearheaded by the Union of Teachers for a New Education 135
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Books by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
Yucatecan trova is a music genre comprising a type of romantic song that is considered “the soul of Yucatán and Yucatecans.” This first book on Yucatecan trova offers an insider’s view of the history and practice of a treasured cultural heritage. A central theme of Gabriela Vargas-Cetina’s ethnography is what she refers to as the “beautiful politics of music” practiced by Yucatecan trova patrons and organizations, which is a way of asserting the importance of groups and issues through nonconfrontational means." From the back cover.
In Anthropology and the Politics of Representation volume editor Gabriela Vargas-Cetina brings together a group of international scholars who, through their fieldwork experiences, reflect on the epistemological, political, and personal implications of their own work. To do so, they focus on such topics as ethnography, anthropologists’ engagement in identity politics, representational practices, the contexts of anthropological research and work, and the effects of personal choices regarding self-involvement in local causes that may extend beyond purely ethnographic goals.
Such reflections raise a number of ethnographic questions: What are ethnographic goals? Who sets the agenda for ethnographic writing? How does fieldwork change the anthropologist’s identity? Do ethnography and ethnographers have an impact on local lives and self-representation? How do anthropologists balance longheld respect for cultural diversity with advocacy for local people? How does an author choose what to say and write, and what not to disclose? Should anthropologists support causes that may require going against their informed knowledge of local lives?
Contributors
Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz / Beth A. Conklin
/ Les W. Field / Katie Glaskin / Frederic W.
Gleach / Tracey Heatherington / June C.
Nash / Bernard C. Perley / Vilma Santiago-
Irizarry / Timothy J. Smith / Sergey
Sokolovskiy / David Stoll / Gabriela Vargas-
Cetina / Thomas M. Wilson"
Introducción: Antropología y las imágenes e imaginación de lo yucateco, por Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz y Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 1. La Isla que no se parece a otra: La narrativa yucateca entre el deseo y la imaginación, de Margaret Shrimpton Manson; Capítulo 2. Libros de cocina: La representación de lo yucateco en la imaginación culinaria, de Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz; Capítulo 3. Imágenes de Yucatán y 'lo yucateco' en textos sobre la canción yucateca, 1944-2007, de Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 4. Yucatán y lo yucateco en el mercado turístico: Autorrepresentaciones desde la fotografía, de Francisco Fernández Repetto; Capítulo 5. Racismo y representaciones: 'Lo yucateco' en la televisión local, de Eugenia Iturriaga; Capítulo 6. Staging the Mestiza Subject in Recent Yucatan Theathre, de Tamara Underiner; y Capítulo 7. Imágenes identitarias y su representación paratextual: Editoriales, periódicos y revistas de Yucatán, de María Dolores Almazán Ramos."
INDICE
INTRODUCCION. ORGANIZACIONES Y TEORIA ORGANIZACIONAL EN ANTROPOLOGIA
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CAPITULO I. UNA MIRADA AL PASADO: LAS COFRADIAS COLONIALES ENTRE LOS TZOTZILES Y TZELTALES DE CHIAPAS
María Dolores Palomo Infante
CAPITULO II. ACCION COLECTIVA, CAPITAL SOCIAL Y RECURSOS NATURALES: LAS ORGANIZACIONES AGROECOLOGICAS DE CHIAPAS
Ronald Nigh Nielsen
CAPITULO III. GLOBALIZACION Y ARTESANIAS: ORGANIZACIONES ARTESANALES EN CHIAPAS
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CONCLUSIONES: ORGANIZACIONES EN CHIAPAS, ENTRE LO PRIVADO Y LO PUBLICO
Gabriela Vargas Cetina"
Este libro ofrece una serie de miradas en el sentido de que describe situaciones específicas desde posiciones y enfoques específicos. Todas estas miradas aparecen aquí puestas más allá de las fronteras nacionales mexicanas. Son miradas de gente que nos ganamos la vida entrando y saliendo (y quizá viendo y ayudando a entrar y salir a la gente con la que hacemos amistad) de sociedades diferentes. Por tanto son, en más de un sentido, 'miradas hacia afuera'. Al mismo tiempo, como el aparato teórico desde el que realizamos los trabajos no siempre se apoya en metodologías o teorías desarrolladas en México, surge la interrogante que se manifiesta en el título: ¿Hasta qué punto hemos mirado hacia afuera o desde afuera?"
Papers by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
Yucatecan trova is a music genre comprising a type of romantic song that is considered “the soul of Yucatán and Yucatecans.” This first book on Yucatecan trova offers an insider’s view of the history and practice of a treasured cultural heritage. A central theme of Gabriela Vargas-Cetina’s ethnography is what she refers to as the “beautiful politics of music” practiced by Yucatecan trova patrons and organizations, which is a way of asserting the importance of groups and issues through nonconfrontational means." From the back cover.
In Anthropology and the Politics of Representation volume editor Gabriela Vargas-Cetina brings together a group of international scholars who, through their fieldwork experiences, reflect on the epistemological, political, and personal implications of their own work. To do so, they focus on such topics as ethnography, anthropologists’ engagement in identity politics, representational practices, the contexts of anthropological research and work, and the effects of personal choices regarding self-involvement in local causes that may extend beyond purely ethnographic goals.
Such reflections raise a number of ethnographic questions: What are ethnographic goals? Who sets the agenda for ethnographic writing? How does fieldwork change the anthropologist’s identity? Do ethnography and ethnographers have an impact on local lives and self-representation? How do anthropologists balance longheld respect for cultural diversity with advocacy for local people? How does an author choose what to say and write, and what not to disclose? Should anthropologists support causes that may require going against their informed knowledge of local lives?
Contributors
Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz / Beth A. Conklin
/ Les W. Field / Katie Glaskin / Frederic W.
Gleach / Tracey Heatherington / June C.
Nash / Bernard C. Perley / Vilma Santiago-
Irizarry / Timothy J. Smith / Sergey
Sokolovskiy / David Stoll / Gabriela Vargas-
Cetina / Thomas M. Wilson"
Introducción: Antropología y las imágenes e imaginación de lo yucateco, por Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz y Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 1. La Isla que no se parece a otra: La narrativa yucateca entre el deseo y la imaginación, de Margaret Shrimpton Manson; Capítulo 2. Libros de cocina: La representación de lo yucateco en la imaginación culinaria, de Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz; Capítulo 3. Imágenes de Yucatán y 'lo yucateco' en textos sobre la canción yucateca, 1944-2007, de Gabriela Vargas Cetina; Capítulo 4. Yucatán y lo yucateco en el mercado turístico: Autorrepresentaciones desde la fotografía, de Francisco Fernández Repetto; Capítulo 5. Racismo y representaciones: 'Lo yucateco' en la televisión local, de Eugenia Iturriaga; Capítulo 6. Staging the Mestiza Subject in Recent Yucatan Theathre, de Tamara Underiner; y Capítulo 7. Imágenes identitarias y su representación paratextual: Editoriales, periódicos y revistas de Yucatán, de María Dolores Almazán Ramos."
INDICE
INTRODUCCION. ORGANIZACIONES Y TEORIA ORGANIZACIONAL EN ANTROPOLOGIA
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CAPITULO I. UNA MIRADA AL PASADO: LAS COFRADIAS COLONIALES ENTRE LOS TZOTZILES Y TZELTALES DE CHIAPAS
María Dolores Palomo Infante
CAPITULO II. ACCION COLECTIVA, CAPITAL SOCIAL Y RECURSOS NATURALES: LAS ORGANIZACIONES AGROECOLOGICAS DE CHIAPAS
Ronald Nigh Nielsen
CAPITULO III. GLOBALIZACION Y ARTESANIAS: ORGANIZACIONES ARTESANALES EN CHIAPAS
Gabriela Vargas Cetina
CONCLUSIONES: ORGANIZACIONES EN CHIAPAS, ENTRE LO PRIVADO Y LO PUBLICO
Gabriela Vargas Cetina"
Este libro ofrece una serie de miradas en el sentido de que describe situaciones específicas desde posiciones y enfoques específicos. Todas estas miradas aparecen aquí puestas más allá de las fronteras nacionales mexicanas. Son miradas de gente que nos ganamos la vida entrando y saliendo (y quizá viendo y ayudando a entrar y salir a la gente con la que hacemos amistad) de sociedades diferentes. Por tanto son, en más de un sentido, 'miradas hacia afuera'. Al mismo tiempo, como el aparato teórico desde el que realizamos los trabajos no siempre se apoya en metodologías o teorías desarrolladas en México, surge la interrogante que se manifiesta en el título: ¿Hasta qué punto hemos mirado hacia afuera o desde afuera?"