Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the AndesWinner of the 2003 Senior Book Prize from the American Ethnological Society. Cholas and Pishtacos are two provocative characters from South American popular culture—a sensual mixed-race woman and a horrifying white killerwho show up in everything from horror stories and dirty jokes to romantic novels and travel posters. In this elegantly written book, these two figures become vehicles for an exploration of race, sex, and violence that pulls the reader into the vivid landscapes and lively cities of the Andes. Weismantel's theory of race and sex begins not with individual identity but with three forms of social and economic interaction: estrangement, exchange, and accumulation. She maps the barriers that separate white and Indian, male and female-barriers that exist not in order to prevent exchange, but rather to exacerbate its inequality. Weismantel weaves together sources ranging from her own fieldwork and the words of potato sellers, hotel maids, and tourists to classic works by photographer Martin Chambi and novelist José María Arguedas. Cholas and Pishtacos is also an enjoyable and informative introduction to a relatively unknown region of the Americas. |
Contents
City of Indians | 3 |
City of Women | 45 |
Sharp Trading | 83 |
Deadly Intercourse | 136 |
White Men | 179 |
The Black Mother | 219 |
Strong Smells | 259 |
Notes | 269 |
Works Cited | 291 |
Index | 311 |
Other editions - View all
Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes Mary Weismantel No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Andean anthropologist Arguedas Aymara berdache body Bolivia Buechler Cadena Chambi chicha chichería chola Chola Cuencana cholo clothing Colloredo-Mansfeld contrast costume Cuenca culture customers Cuzco described dirty domestic dressed economic Ecuador Ecuadorian elites estranged Ethnicity exchange father female feminine Freud gender Gose gringos Heloisa highlands identity Indian and white indigenous indio José María Arguedas kharisiri La Paz labor ladino Latacunga Latin American Lima live look male Mama Negra market vendors market women Martín Chambi masculine mestizo mother myth ñakaq nation nonwhite Otavalo Peru Peruvian photographs pishtaco stories plaza political pollera produce market Quechua Quito race racial rape relationship runa rural Salasaca says Seligmann sell sexual shawls Shukman skirts smell social society Sofía Spanish stranger streets symbolic Tayta tion tourists town uncanny unequal exchange University Press urban violence wealthy wearing Weismantel woman word working-class Zumbagua