“Assimilating the Primitive”: Parallel Dialogues on Racial Miscegenation in Revolutionary MexicoPosted in Anthropology, Books, Caribbean/Latin America, History, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Mexico, Monographs on 2010-03-23 20:17Z by Steven |
“Assimilating the Primitive”: Parallel Dialogues on Racial Miscegenation in Revolutionary Mexico
Peter Lang Publishing Group
2004
179 pages, 4 tables
Hardback ISBN: 978-0-8204-6322-3
Kelley R. Swarthout, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish
Colgate University, New York
This book examines the Mexican nationalist rhetoric that promoted race mixing as a cultural ideal, placing it within its broader contemporary polemic between vitalist and scientific thought. Part of its analysis compares the attitudes of anthropologist Manuel Gamio and educator José Vasconcelos with those of the European primitivist D. H. Lawrence, and concludes that although Gamio and Vasconcelos made lasting contributions to the construction of popular notions of mexicanidad, their paradigms were fatally flawed because they followed European prescriptions for the development of national identity. This ultimately reinforced the belief that indigenous cultural expression must be assimilated into the dominant mestizo culture in order for Mexico to progress. Consequently, these thinkers were unsuccessful in resolving the cultural dilemma Mexico suffered in the years immediately following the Revolution.
Table of Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Theory
- Primitive as a Western Construct
- Science, Race, and the Nation
- The Vitalist Opposition to Science
- Chapter 2: The History
- Mestizaje: Mexico’s National Myth
- The Emergence of Racial Hybridity
- Envisioning a Mestizo Middle Class
- The Birth of Mexican Cultural Nationalism
- Chapter 3: The Dialogue
- Scientificism vs. Vitalism in Revolutionary Mexico
- Manuel Gamio and Scientific Indigenism
- Jose Vasconcelos and the Spiritual Renovation of Mexican Culture
- D.H. Lawrence’s American Journey: A Pilgrimage to the “Indian Source”
- Epilogue: Toward a Postmodern Mexican Identity
- Bibliography
- Index