anthro history

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Book ReviewsAnthrohistory: Unsettling Knowledge,Questioning Discipline . Edward Mur- phy, David William Cohen, Chandra D.Bhimull, Fernando Coronil, Monica EileenPatterson, and Julie Skurski, eds., Ann Ar-bor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.

Laurent DuboisDuke University

As I walked along, I kept saying, like amantra, as the deer slid back and forth onmy back, its blood seeping through my shirt, my back and neck in agony: Fuckanthropology! Fuck anthropology! With

these lines, we join anthropologist PaulEiss as he experiences the eld in the Yu-catan,partofahuntingpartyduringwhichhis sense of his own dignity, and man-hood, gets deconstructed to the great hi-larity of hiscompanions (40).Elsewhere inthe piece, Eiss nds himself similarly fac-ing a scatological deconstruction of thearchive so dear to historians when, feel-

ing an intestinal infection coming on as hereads documents, he rushes to the bath-room and discovers that the toilet paperon offer is a stack of old papers from thearchives. Eiss essay, hilarious and heart-felt, is one of a series of remarkable jour-neys offered to us in this unruly, vital, andinspiring collection. There is a unique en-ergy to the essays herea willingness to

The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology , Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 131192. ISSN 1935-4932, online

ISSN 1935-4940. C 2012 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1935-

4940.2012.01194.x

experiment, a rare combination of hon-esty, humor, passion, and theoretical en-gagement. The book is a collective mem-oir, a manifestoattempting to install theterm Anthrohistory itself in institutionallexicon while resisting the temptation to

x or sacralize itand most of all an invi-tation to participate in a project energizedby the fragility of its own future.

Itwouldbe dishonest not tonote fromthe beginning that my reading of the workwas very mucha dialoguewith friends: likeall those whose work is presented in thevolume, I have a connection to the Inter-departmental Program in Anthropology

and History at the University of Michigan,where I received my Ph.D. in 1998. Thebookincludes essays byclose friends, com-rades from those years in graduate school,and concludes with a brilliant essay by my mentor, Fernando Coronilhaunting anddifcult to read now, several months af-ter his death in August of this year. But Ifeel pretty certain that the rich provoca-

tions offered in the book will register justas deeply for those who approach it froma less personal vantage point as well.

The book began as part of a confer-ence called Trans/Formations of the Dis-ciplines Evaluating the Project of Anthro-pology and History held at the Univer-sity of Michigan in 2004. That event itself was an opportunity to take stock of the

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Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges, and themany other thinkers and writers whoplayed in the mind of the now-departedFernando Coronil. In ve short pages (fol-

lowed by 11 owing pages of notes), hesketches out the dream of Anthrohistory asa project of this world but not at home init, as one that must roam in exileatleast for nowpursuing the task of exam-ining what has been recorded and un-cover what has been silenced, bringing tolight possible histories. In a vertiginousand stirring paragraphnumber 7 of the

piecehe begins thus: Imagine a discus-sion about truth in a Jorge Luis Borgesstory written by Italo Calvino and illus-trated by M.C. Esher. He then goes on toproduce a mapso imaginative,so distortedand unfamiliar, that it somehow brings usback, disheveled, to some kind of truth. Tosee how he does that, you will have to buy the book. Do.

Cajones de la memoria: La historia re-ciente del Per u a trav es de los retab-los andinos . Mar a Eugenia Ulfe , Lima:Fondo Editorial de la Ponticia Univer-sidad Cat olica del Peru, 2011. 310 pp.

Olga Gonz alezMacalester College

Cajones de la Memoria is a detailed ethno-graphic study of retablos , a well-knownform of Peruvian art. Written in closeconversation with the artists who createdthem, the main focus is on the transforma-tions these retablos carved and paintedwooden boxes with gures made of a mix-ture of plaster and potatoeshave under-gone in relation to their creators attemptsto represent memories of Perus violencefrom 1980 to 2000. This textured narrativeis based on 5 years of collaborative and of-

ten multisited ethnography in workshops,galleries, and shops in cities and peasantcommunities in Ayacucho, shantytowns,and upscale neighborhoods in Lima, and

in Naples, Florida in the United States.The ethnography is divided in twoparts and contains a total of eight chap-ters. In the rst part Ulfe pays attention tothe historical processes that contributedto the transformation of the cajones of San Marcosportable altars used in cattle-branding ceremonies in the Andesintoretablos . She argues that this popular art

developed in opposition to high art. Ulfethen examines the various relationshipsartists established with intellectuals, col-lectors, dealers and tourists, andconcludesthat the artists subvert the will of theteacher (59; all translations by the re-viewer). They thus ultimately create theirownartistic genre,reclaim citizenship, andgain recognition at the national level. By

presenting in chapter 2 a portrait of thelives and experiences of the artists negoti-atingtheiridentities,theirnotionsofplace,and their ideas on continuity and disconti-nuity, Ulfe stresses the importance of theiragency in the artworks production andcommodication. In chapters 3 and 4, sheconveys how this agency takes shape andinects the social life of the retablos inside

and outside the workshop. Together they offer a close examination of family work-shops, divisions of labor, and dialogueswith clients and intellectuals.

Chapter 4 closes with a discussion of what distinguishes an artistic retablo froma commercial one, as dened by its mak-ers. Whileaesthetic quality is of the utmostimportance, what seems to be essential tothe artists is the lived experience attachedto the retablos de arte, or retablos espe-ciales, and retablos de comentario so-cial, other categories the artists use to

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