Product Description
Designed to build Central American infrastructures, Mexico's Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) was launched in 2001 but collapsed hopelessly by 2003. A content analysis finds the Washington consensus severely at odds with indigenous cultures, while invoking the broader globalization-localization debate. The book also examines the fate many modern chief executives facing under similar circumstances. ... Read more

Product Description
The remarkable arts and culture of the Kuna of Panama are accessible as never before in this comprehensive, beautifully illustrated volume. From the familiar reverse appliquÈd molas to music, dance, and verbal arts, the Kuna live their values and bind their people together. This focus and strength has helped them to resist outside forces and maintain their culture and self-determination in the face of peoples and governments far more powerful. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Incredible information & photographs
I agree that this book is an authentic documentation of one of the world's most fascinating group of Indians.

WOW!
I bought this book from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

I have been fascinated with Native American tribes in South American for most of my life, particularly Panama and Colombia.This book is so thorough inexpressing all aspects of life for the Kuna (or Cuna) that I would almostsay this is the only book you would need to learn about the Kuna.It trulyis incredible in its information as well as its photographs.It is VERYwell done!Bravo Senorita Salvador! Espero ver mas libros de usted! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs, published by Latin American Data Base/Latin American Institute on October 29, 2009. The length of the article is 1033 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: PANAMA: INDIGENOUS DEMANDS FALL ON DEAR EARS.
Author: Unavailable
Publication: NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs (Newsletter)
Date: October 29, 2009
Publisher: Latin American Data Base/Latin American Institute


Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on April 1, 2010. The length of the article is 8425 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: In this article I attempt to shed light on the relationships between indigenous communities and bird populations through research on hunting in five neighboring villages in western Panama. Over eight months, 59 households captured 1,584 birds using rifles, slingshots, traps, and other methods, resulting in a total yield of 252 kilograms. Although hunters captured more than 125 avian species, just four species account for more than half of the total harvest. The most important game bird is the great curassow (Crax rubra), followed by the great tinamou (Tinamus major) and crested guan (Penelope purpurascens). The type and quantity of avifauna captured varies significantly according to habitat and hunting strategy. The spatial distribution of bird kill sites is highly concentrated, with 62 percent of the harvest by weight captured within just 1 kilometer of the participating households. Even the more vulnerable species are encountered close to home, suggesting that overhunting has not occurred. Keywords: avifauna, hunting, indigenous peoples, Panama, wildlife conservation.

Citation Details
Title: The harvest of rain-forest birds by indigenous communities in Panama.(Report)
Author: Derek A. Smith
Publication: The Geographical Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2010
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 100Issue: 2Page: 187(17)

Article Type: Report

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
"The appearance of ... THE KUNA GATHERING ... confirms my belief that meetings (finally) are beginning to emerge as an important topic of anthropological analysis ... [It is] one of the few full-scale ethnographies of a society examined from the standpoint of its meetings.... This is an important study because it provides us with the best example yet of what we can learn when we approach a cultural and social system through the events that participants use to both constitute and act within it."

--Helen Schwartzman, in THE MEETING: GATHERINGS IN ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITIES

"In THE KUNA GATHERING, Howe provides us with a vivid ... microview of Kuna village-level politics while at the same time judiciously attending to a broad range of issues of current concern in political anthropology and political science.[It is] a valuable study of politics in small-scale societies--and a pleasure to read."

--Philip Young, THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW ... Read more

Product Description
As in the myth of a phantom gringo boat receding into the mist, elusive promises of participatory democracy and a semi-autonomous forest reserve have spurred the Emberá Indians of Panama to leave their dispersed settlements in the Darién forests and become more involved with the outside world. Since the late 1960s, they have elected representatives to the national government and sought to equalize their political and economic relationships with neighboring blacks.

In this first full-length ethnography of the Emberá of Darién (also known, with the Wounaan, as the Chocó), Stephanie C. Kane investigates their use of myth and magic to interpret the changes that occurred in the mid-1980s after Manuel Noriega assumed command of the Panama Defense Forces. She reveals how magical discourse, founded on the ancient global practice of shamanism, is the language used to cross the gap between the known and the unknown. Approaching local history with shamanic logic and organizing each chapter around a set of interpretive dilemmas, Kane highlights the ways in which myth and magic relate integrally to Embed life, including ecology, economy, politics, health, constructs of race and gender, and memory.

Arguing that anthropology is both empirical and imaginative, Kane modifies the ethnographic gaze to include Indian views of the anthropologist and, more generally, Euro-Americans. Kane also presents analyses of indigenous women's land rights and the politics of rainforest development.

First published in 1994, this second edition of The Phantom Gringo Boat includes a new preface by the author, as well as two supplementary essays, "The Rise of Patriarchy in Emberá Indian Village Law" and "Emberá (Chocó) Medicinal Plant Use: Implications for Planning the Biosphere Reserve in Darién, Panama", and three reviews of the first edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Shamanic forces meet development in the Panama forest
Trying to study the Embera or Choco people of southern Panama (and also northwestern Colombia) was no joke.As I read the author's fieldwork story, I thanked my lucky stars that in India, I did my own work in a country without much direct US involvement, no anti-drug teams roaming about, where CIA-trained thugs were not in charge, where my country had not invaded, never mind created my host nation.How would my future have looked---in terms of anthropological research---if Washington had bombed New Delhi, killing thousands, and then arrested the Indian Prime Minister, imprisoning him in Florida on drug charges?Given that set of images, you have to admit that Kane has done an amazingly good job, weaving her way between Embera, white and black Panamanian settlers in the Darien forest, and Panamanian officialdom.

At first, I could not quite discern where the book was headed, though I liked its style, a kind of elliptical voice, a looking in many directions without a sharply focussed center.As I realized that this was her effort to replicate the shamanic style she wrote about, I began to admire the book more and more.The facts come together leisurely, not presented as a barrage from the start.The Embera had been pushed into establishing villages, having previously lived in scattered homesteads in the forest.Then they were encouraged to form a comarca, or autonomous region, requiring education, politics, and bureaucratic skills.Numbers of Indians and others crossed over the porous border between Panama and Colombia looking for a better life or escaping strife---the jungle grew more dangerous, but was being cut down as well.Shamans mediated between people and their precarious life situations.In the end you realize she has described Embera settlements as having a shamanic field in a dynamic relationship to the surrounding society.Disease and bad luck are interpreted in terms of that relationship.These evils empower the shamans because they `cure' them.Kane draws a parallel to state power, which `cures' such evils as undevelopment, crime, disasters, or illegal immigration.She says "by means of the social-shamanic dynamic, local culture struggles to press meaning on changes wrought by transnational forces so that they can be molded to local purpose." (pp.171-172)Though shamans could use their powers for evil, Kane finds that most do not.In my own work in Goa, there were two classes of such people, those who tried to harm others, and those who cured.Sometimes---and this was echoed in Richard Lieban's work on Cebuano sorcery---the two poles were represented in a single individual.Among the Embera, in the 1980s, "the shaman funneled anxieties and questions into the circuit of ritual power and returned them transformed."

I am not qualified to say if THE PHANTOM GRINGO BOAT represents Panamanian society very well.I have never set foot there.But as a book of anthropology, I found it well-written, original, and full of concern for the people studied.In the modern style, Kane tried to place herself in the ethnographic picture, not hide behind some doubtful curtain of "objectivity".A phantom gringo boat, bearing the fruits of development and change, always appeared to be just around the next bend in the river in Embera dreams.Meanwhile, the people were left with most of the problems.It seems to me that phantom gringo boats are sailing everywhere in this world.
... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 8921 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: KEY WORDS: CHIBCHAN TRIBES, BRIBRI, CABECAR, GUAYMI, HUETAR, TERIBE, Y CHROMOSOME, MICROSATELLITE LOCI, GENE DIVERSITY, MTDNA, DYS19, DYS389A, DYS389B, DYS390, DYS391, DYS393, DYS199, ALPHOID SYSTEM, ALU POLYMORPHISM, COSTA RICA, PANAMA.

Citation Details
Title: Genetic variation of the Y chromosome in Chibcha-speaking Amerindians of Costa Rica and Panama.
Author: Edward A. Ruiz-Narvaez
Publication: Human Biology (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 77Issue: 1Page: 71(21)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description

The Kuna of Panama, today one of the best known indigenous peoples of Latin America, moved over the course of the twentieth century from orality and isolation towards literacy and an active engagement with the nation and the world. Recognizing the fascination their culture has held for many outsiders, Kuna intellectuals and villagers have collaborated actively with foreign anthropologists to counter anti-Indian prejudice with positive accounts of their people, thus becoming the agents as well as subjects of ethnography. One team of chiefs and secretaries, in particular, independently produced a series of historical and cultural texts, later published in Sweden, that today still constitute the foundation of Kuna ethnography.

As a study of the political uses of literacy, of western representation and indigenous counter-representation, and of the ambivalent inter-cultural dialogue at the heart of ethnography, Chiefs, Scribes, and Ethnographers addresses key issues in contemporary anthropology. It is the story of an extended ethnographic encounter, one involving hundreds of active participants on both sides and continuing today.

Product Description
"Plants and Animals . . . documents Kuna culture, subsistence strategies, and traditional ecological knowledge while warning of the dangers of increased involvement in market economies. It does what many advocate but few accomplish by presenting indigenous views of ecology and culture. Written in large part by the Kuna for the Kuna, this book is one of the first comprehensive publications on ethnobiology that represents indigenous voices, giving ousiders a rare opportunity 'to eavesdrop, to listen as they exhort each other, to wake up, and to change.'"--Cultural Survival Quarterly"The earth is the mother of all things"; thus begins this original and accessible book on how the Kuna of Panama relate to the natural world. An integrative project involving Kuna traditional leaders and trained scholars, and fully illustrated by a Kuna artist, this translation of Plantas y animales en la vida del pueblo Kuna focuses on Kuna plant and animal life, social life, and social change as a means of saving traditional ecological knowledge and "returning" it to the community. The authors hope to preserve the Kuna environment not only by reviving traditional technologies but also by educating the Kuna as to what needs protection. While the Kuna have a tradition of living in harmony with the land, the intrusion of the market economy is eroding the very basis of their sustainable way of life. As a response to this crisis, this book seeks to develop native self-awareness and provide a model for collaboration. It will appeal to Latin Americanists, anthropologists, and ethnobotanists, as well as to a general readership in environmental issues. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highly recommended
What should books about indigenous peoples strive for - acceptance among academics or the native peoples themselves? If there is a way to strike a compromise, the authors of Plants and Animals in the Life of the Kuna, havefound a way to bridge the gap.

This book focuses on Panama's indigenousKuna people. The work, an environmental and artistic mosaic, is acollaboration among two Kuna biologists and a Panamanian colleague.Illustrations by Kuna artists Ologuagdi and Enrique Tejada provide a clearportal for curious outsiders.

The authors document a variety of factorsthat contribute to environmental degradation, including abuses of themarket economy, population growth, and careless practices. Being native toa region does not imply omnipotence.

"The Kuna, like the indigenouspeoples of North America who enthusiastically killed beaver so thatEuropeans could wear tall hats, have been drawn into a system vastly largerand more powerful than their own society," writes James Howe in thebook's forward. "If they are to survive as a people into the nextcentury, they must reconcile the subsistence and market economies as wellas protect the borers of their small enclave." ... Read more

Product Description
The Kuna Indians of Panama, probably best known for molas, their colorful appliqué blouses, also have a rich literary tradition of oral stories and performances. One of the largest indigenous groups in the South American tropics, the majority of them (about 70,000) reside in Kuna Yala, a string of island and mainland villages stretching along the Caribbean coast. It is here that Joel Sherzer lived among them, photographing and recording their verbal performances, which he feels are representative of the beauty, complexity, and diversity of the oral literary traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America. This book is organized into three types of texts: humorous and moralistic stories; myths and magical chants; and women's songs. While quite different from one another, they share features characteristic of Kuna literature as a whole, including appreciation of their environment and a remarkable knowledge of their plants and animals; a belief in spirits as an important component of their world in curing, magic, and aesthetics; and, especially, great humor and a sense of play. Vividly illustrated by a Kuna artist and accompanied by photographs that lend a sense of being present at the performances, the texts provide readers with a unique aesthetic perspective on this rich culture while preserving an endangered and valuable indigenous oral tradition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Stories... of the Kuna (Cuna) Indians
A people whose stories are for the most part, unknown.A people who protect their privacy even as cruise lines and passengers treat their towns like living museums.A people with stories, songs, chants, and lots and lots of in-jokes!The Cuna Indians of Panama.Though the majority of their stories are told visually, in the brilliant molas, or embroidered shirts, Cuna women wear, this book features word for word translations of stories by Cuna storytellers and songs sung by Cuna women.One page features the original language text, and the opposite page the text in English.Many indigenous peoples' stories and songs are being lost all over the world; this book, and others like it, preserve them.A helpful tool for anthropologists, I expect, but more for storytellers who look to help their audiences "meet" people from around the world, especially peoples whose lives, tales, and stories they could not have imagined.This is a great book with great explanations of the culture of a great people! ... Read more

Product Description
This sumptuous new book reveals more than 300 fabric "paintings" made and worn by the women of the Kuna, a tribe of indians that live on the coral islands off Panama's Atlantic coast. Lively, varied, original and full of humor, Mola art has an astonishing relationship with tradition but in many ways looks contemporary and is prized by museums and private collectors throughout the world. The lavish images reveal the setting, lifestyle, gestures and beauty of the Kuna women practising their art. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has praised Michel Perrin's brilliant demonstration of the links between Mola textile art and Kuna ritual and body decoration. Perrin depicts the significant events that took place during his field research and shares with us his discussions with the Kuna women and their opinions about techniques and aesthetics. The book also includes excerpts from myths and traditional accounts about the rituals, animals, plants, and objects that have stimulated the imagination and inspired the Kuna women to create these magnificent design
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the ultimate praise of kuna arts
My wife is a fiber artist and I am the webmaster of her site. We own nearly 4.000 books and we have gladly added Magnificent Molas by Michel Perrin to our collection. It is difficult to imagine that anyone could do better than Perrin. His Magnificent Molas is a remarkable book in every sense: illustrations, text, layout and printing are all of highest level and come together in a well documented and passionate praise of the magnificent textile art of the kuna indians and their culture. It is even well written, so it makes pleasure to read. This book is a must for those who are interested primitive and textile arts.
Gösta & Agostina Zwilling, Verona, Italy ... Read more