Starting from Quirpini

by Rockefeller, Stuart Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780253222107
• ISBN10: 0253222109
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-08
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

The people of Quirpini, a rural community in the Bolivian Andes, are in constant motion. They visit each other's houses, work in their fields, go to nearby towns for school, market, or official transactions, and travel to Buenos Aires for wage labour. In this rich ethnography, Stuart Alexander Rockefeller describes how these places become intertwined via circuits constituted by the movement of people, goods, and information. Drawing on the work of Henri LeFebvre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Nancy Munn, Rockefeller argues that by their travels, Quirpinis play a role in shaping the places they move through. This compelling study makes important contributions to contemporary debates about spatiality, temporality, power, and culture.

Author Biography

Stuart Alexander Rockefeller is Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Inscriptions
Introduction: Disorientations	p. 3
Places and History in and about Quirpini	p. 33
Facets of a Place
Bicycles and Houses	p. 66
The Geography of Planting Corn	p. 97
Carnival and the Spatial Practice of Community	p. 131
From Quirpini
Ethnic Politics and the Control of Movement	p. 167
Placing Bolivia in Quirpini: Civic Ritual and the Power of Context	p. 201
Where Do You Go When You Go to Buenos Aires?	p. 221
Conclusion: Coming Back to Quirpini	p. 251
Glossary	p. 271
Notes	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 299
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