70 The LATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 1(2)

I found the tools of description and analysis employed in this

study extremely powerful for representing Andean reality, but
ultimately I was frustrated with the book. For me, it reads too
much like a first-class doctoral dissertation while I suspect it
could easily be made into a classic study for undergraduate
students of change, gender, ethnicity, and the Andean area
among other topics. Of course, it is not fair to fault a work for
not being a work the author never intended. The audiences
I think it best reaches now are, not surprisingly, graduate
students and those interested in thegeographic area. Although
the first chapter lays the theoretical stage for what comes
afterward, it less draws a reader in than demonstrates to him
or her that the author sufficiently understands that area of
scholarship to be able to proceed. The theoretical material
contained in the three final chapters, particularly "Food in
Discourse," flows much more naturally and eloquently. I kept
imagining both more elegant and concise scholarly articles,
and another book, one that was designed to lure the less
sophisticated intothedelightsof anthropological understanding
with thisf ascinating and very human account. Let me reiterate
that I wish this excellent ethnographic account had been
written for a broader audience, because I found the work as
it was written so admirable adepictionof Ecuadorian indigenous
life.
In the Eyes of the Beholder: Leadership and the
Social Construction of Power and Dominance
among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon.
DAN ROSENGREN. Ethnological Studies, No. 39.
Gothenburg, Sweden: Goteborgs Etnografiska
Museum, 1987. 231 pp. n.p. (paper). ISBN 91-
87484-04-8, ISSN 0374-7530
WILLIAM T. VICKERS
Florida International University
According to the author, the two primary goals of this
monograph are to provide a detailed description of the
sociopolitical organization of the Matsigenka Indians of the
Peruvian montana, and to analyze the impact of an expanding
national society on their culture. Rosengren is largely
successful in meeting these aims. The study is organized as
a standard ethnography, with chapters on history and
geography, subsistence activities, gender, and social and
political organization. Special attention is given to the
definition and analysis of "traditional" and "modern" leadership
statuses among the Matsigenka, including shamans, several
forms of headmen, ct/racas (selected by foreign missionaries),
and presidentes (selected by popular vote within the modern
context of government recognized comunidades nativas).
Rosengren believes that imposed statuses such as those of
the curaca and presidenteoften fail because they do not mesh
with the subtle and consensual processes that establish
legitimate Matsigenka leaders. This discussion of the principles
of Matsigenka leadership is quite sophisticated and forms the
major contribution of the study.
Rosengren is to be commended for his clear and honest
discussion of the research conditions, including his limited
ability in the Matsigenka language, the intracultural variations
in myth, social organization and settlement that came to his
attention, and the sources of his information. He gives very
careful attention to the literature, particularly as it relates to his
major focus on social and political organization. At times,
however, the theoretical discussion becomes overly rhetorical
and seems to take precedence over the presentation of field
data. The discussion of the subsistence economy is weak in
specifics, and contains many unreliable statements about the
flora and fauna (e.g., quinine is confused with sarsaparilla,
peccaries are called "rodents," and guans are called "ducks").
The English text is generally well written, although a few
awkwardly phrased sentences can be found. This monograph
should be of interest to all anthropologists who specialize in
the indigenous cultures of lowland South America, as well as
many Andeanists and other scholars concerned with patterns
of leadership in simpler societies. It is worth the extra effort
required to order it from an overseas museum.
Enfermedad, Daflo e Ideologia: Antropologia m&dica
de los renacientes de Pindilig. CARMEN MUNOZ
BERNAND. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala,
1986. 213 pp. n.p. (paper).
LYNN HIRSCHKIND
Independent Researcher
This book is an impressive achievement and a
disappointment at the same time. It offers the results of
detailed ethnographic and archival research, and brings a
very broad command of relevant literature in French, Spanish
and English to bear on the analysis of the social, cultural,
historical and psychological bases of illness in the village of
Pindilig, in highland Cafiar Province, Ecuador. The central
point is that illness as a cultural phenomenon is closely tied to
diverse political, economic and environmental conditions.
Structural analysis is used to make a certain sense of local
knowledge regarding health and disease.
The authordazzles with meticulous ethnographic reporting.
She notes the subtle intent of enigmatic verbal expressions as
well as principal cultural themes, and places both in relation
to medical knowledge and practice. Ethnomedical data
include an extensive list of local medicinal herbs and their
uses, and entire chapters on the major local disease etiologies,
including those based on witchcraft. The author illuminates
her analysis with many verbatim testimonies from her
informants, and in this way amplifies the emic description of
illness. As thick description this book is admirable and
informative on a subject and a region not widely known.
It is because the overall quality of this work is so high that
the conceptual muddles, and ethnographic errors upon which
they are based, are so unsettling. The most serious problem
concerns the ethnic identity of thepeopleof Pindilig. According
to Munoz Bernand, they are descendants of a native Indian
population that she labels naturales or indigenas
interchangeably, and who have become "deculturated," lost
the Quichua language and acquired Spanish cultural traits.
From having lived in this area for eight years, I believe that
Pindiligenos would characterize themselves otherwise. They
participate in the national peasant culture, with its mixture of
native American and Spanish sociocultural traditions. They
never spoke Quichua and would probably find insulting the
reference to themselves as Indians. Moreover, if Pindiligenos
are "indigenous" in a broader sense than that of simply having
been born there, then who are the neighboring populations of
Quichua speaking, costume wearing, phenotypically native
people of Huairapongo, Colepato and central Cafiar?
Another basic emic concept misunderstood is "renaciente."
The author defines this term as referring to one born in or after
1960 (p.12), and goes on to attribute this sector of the
population with a series of diagnostic traits associated with
deculturation: residence in a marginal and forgotten village,
proliferation of disease, sterility of the soil, and dissolution of
kin and social ties. In fact, renacientes are the youths of each
generation, defined not with reference to a specific date, but
to each successive adult generation.
A second type of error is scattered throughout the book,
revealing the author's uncritical acceptance of informants'
testimony. In need of correction are certain place names
{Huangra, not Huangras, p.12), alleged differences between
"indigenous" and "white" beliefs (p. 138), the statement that
"diseases of the countryside" affect only the indigenous
(p.137), and that the high grassland (pa/on) is unused for
livestock and agriculture (p.154). This last erroneous statement
leads the author to define the pajon as "savage space," a
ready-made vehicle for the Levi-Straussian exercise she
practices upon local ideology.
These problems raise some doubts about fieldwork as a
research procedure. Despite two years residence, functional
integration into the community, cooperation of the main
authorities, a native command of the field language, a
demonstrated sensitivity to cultural nuance, and diligent work,
Mufioz Bernand still failed to grasp major and minor facts and
cultural concepts. This failure undermines the logic and
credibility of her argument, and consequently diminishes the
strength of her conclusions. The implications for fieldwork are
that thorough technique is not enough to ensure accurate
ethnography. Technique must be combined with long field
residence and with a concerted effort to discover one's own
cultural blinders.
Al Futuro Desde la Experiencia: Los Pueblos
Indfgenas y elManejo delMedio Ambiente. LESLIE
ANN BROWNRIGG. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones
Abya-Yala, 1986. 243 pp. n.p (paper).
LYNN HIRSCHKIND
Independent Researcher
This book is a revised and expanded translation of a report
done for the World Wildlife Fund, entitled The Once and
Future Resource Managers^ 980). Its basic argument is that
development strategies and projects in Latin America should
took to pre-Columbian subsistence systems for models to
guide project planning and execution. This argument is
supported by a large amount of ethnographic data drawn from
a wide variety of indigenous economic systems. Described at
The LATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 1(2) 71
length are agrarian techniques and technologies, together
with the cultigens and livestockthat evolved in native American
settings. The final chapter deals with native land tenure and
use patterns, and specifies the information needed to plan
development projects in accord with the principles suggested
in this book.
Pre-Columbian subsistence techniques are described as
having been ecologically sound, productive and efficient, in
contrast to many present day agrarian practices. Taking a
facile temporal and logical leap, the author claims that
contemporary "indigenous" Meso- and South Americans
innately strive to live in ecological harmony with nature and to
conserve natural resources. Native peoples are taken to be
modern noble savages, now refashioned as eco-savages.
Brownrigg states this position clearly when she sets out her
premises that "natives'" knowledge of natural resources is
superior to that provided by western science, and that most
"natives" want and are able to preserve and manage their
habitats in non-destructive ways (p. 133). Thus she
recommends that, for ancient techniques and technologies,
native management models be rehabilitated, and that modern
models be actively reinforced. She also emphasizes that
natives be enlisted as the advisors and administrators of such
programs. She does not address the problem of defining who
is a "native."
The author summarizes her recommended approach this
way: "A new science should be created that demands close
collaboration between natives and scientists, in order to attain
justice and a wise use of the environment" (p. 181, my
translation). While these aims are uncontestable, the proposals
in this study reveal a disturbing lack of attention to real
problems of development in Latin America. The author does
not reckon with such obstacles as the interests of local and
national elites, hierarchies of power, and bureaucratic thickets.
In sum, this book prescribes a currently popular approach
to development by calling for local level participation in the
planning and carrying out of projects, the assessment of
social and ecological impact, the use of appropriate technology
and the encouragement of traditional subsistence techniques.
I recommend the book as an ambitious and detailed attempt
to project this vision onto Latin America. However, while the
two goals of creating balanced, renewable resource-based
economies, and including local populations indecision-making
and implementation of development programs are surely
necessary, this book is not a practical or realistic guide to
these ends.
Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International
Migration from Western Mexico. DOUGLAS S.
MASSEY, RAFAEL ALARCON, JORGE DURAND,
and HUMBERTO GONZALEZ. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1987. x + 335 pp., maps, figures,
tables, bibliography, index. $37.50 (cloth). ISBN0-
520-06079-2
LEIGH BINFORD
Michigan State University