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Culturas imperiales: Experiencia y representación en América, Asia y África

2006; Duke University Press; Volume: 86; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2005-050

1527-1900

Fernando Purcell,

History and Politics in Latin America

Ricardo Salvatore did an excellent job on this ambitious volume that gathers the works of 12 renowned scholars from various disciplines to discuss issues regarding “imperial cultures” on three continents. The volume helps reconceptualize the relationship between imperialism and culture, and it is especially strong in repositioning the study of imperialism among historians, cultural critics, and social scientists in Latin America. For Latin Americanists, the book triumphs not only in its language of publication but also in its ambitious thematic approach. The compilation includes seven original essays and five works previously published between 1998 and 2002.The chapters are not organized in sections, even though the first four articles written by Renato Ortiz, Walter D. Mignolo, Gilbert M. Joseph, and Ileana Rodríguez share an interest for conceptualization. Of these four, readers may be familiar with Gilbert M. Joseph’s introduction to Close Encounters of Empire (Duke Univ. Press, 1999) and Walter D. Mignolo’s article in Indisciplinar las ciencias sociales (Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, 2002), which reassesses his previous ideas calling for the emergence of a “pensam-iento fronterizo” to leave aside Eurocentrism in studies about culture and empire. Renato Ortiz’s work questions cultural imperialism as an explanatory tool of analysis, due to processes of transculturation and the increasing influx of cultural goods in this globalized era. Ileana Rodríguez’s study of the “mayística” discusses how Mayanists engage in more self-reflection about themselves than about the culture they are studying; her essay borrows considerably from Edward Said’s notion of Orientalism, which makes her article less suggestive.The themes in the remaining essays are more varied. Zeynep Çelik reminds the reader about the importance of continuity in the intersections between colonialism and postcolonialism. Her wonderful analysis of Argel discusses the reassignment of meaning to sites of memory after the end of colonialism in both public and private spheres. Arcadio Quiñones, using symbolism to link culture and imperialism, explores the War of 1898 by stressing the importance of photography as a form of symbolic possession, in a process that transcended the war itself. He does not, however, explore much about the reception or consumption of photography in the United States. James R. Ryan also examines photography, reflecting on alternative uses of photography in imperial enterprises, showing specifically how Congo photographs were used both to propagate imperial ideology and (by Christian missionaries) to protest King Leopold’s imperial atrocities.This volume has several articles that will appeal to those interested in Latin Amer-ica’s relationship with the United States. Lauren Derby’s essay examines the 1990s chupacabras phenomenon, linking it to the economic changes after NAFTA. Oscar Terán’s literary analysis deals with Latin American intellectuals’ skepticism of U.S. imperial advances around 1900. Andrea Giunta examines how Nelson Rockefeller used exhibi tions and images to promote the Good Neighbor policy. The question not resolved in this article, however, is what the Latin American public thought of these exhibitions. Exploring a different vein, Ricardo Salvatore’s wonderful article explores the process of consumer conquest. North American businessmen and leaders linked to the Unión Panamericana became ethnographers who tried to capture the essence of Latin Ameri-can consumers by developing an imperial strategy where the consumption of technology became crucial for U.S. predominance in the region. This article reminds us how close imperial “metropolis” and dominated cultures usually are and how sensible informal empires must be about dominated cultures to be efficient in their nonmilitary enterprises. Like Ricardo Salvatore, John M. MacKenzie also puts an emphasis on travel guides, but published for the general public in an attempt to indicate and miniaturize the vast British Empire. Of particular interest are his considerations about the continuity of the imperial ethos expressed in these kinds of guides prior to the 1950s.Even though not all of the articles are suggestive and innovative, a good portion of them are, which helps make this work a valuable volume for Latin American scholars interested in culture and imperialism. Additionally, the writing is clear, with good translations by Ada Solari and Horacio Pons. However, photographs and illustrations are of poor quality, thus diminishing the quality of the book, especially in Zeynep Çelik’s and James R. Ryan’s chapters.Historians, despite their particular region and period of specialization, interested in imperialism, globalization, and their cultural aspects will find this volume very interesting, especially within the Spanish-reading audience. Specific articles of this volume may interest a broad range of scholars, including historians, anthropologists, literary critics, architects, and cultural geographers.