Exits from the Labyrinth Culture and Ideology in the Mexican National Space [Hardcover]

Can we address the issue of nationalism without polemics and restore it to the domain of social science? Claudio Lomnitz-Adler takes a major step in that direction by applying anthropological tools to the study of national culture. His sweeping and innovative interpretation of Mexican national ideology constructs an entirely new theoretical framework for the study of national and regional cultures everywhere. With an analysis of culture and ideology in internally differentiated regional spacesin this case Morelos and the Huasteca in MexicoExits from the Labyrinthlinks rich ethnographic and historical research to two specific aspects of Mexican national ideology and culture: the history of legitimacy and charisma in Mexican politics, and the relationship between the national community and racial ideology.

Claudio Lomnitz-Adleris Associate Professor of Anthropology at New York University.Tepoztl?n: Politics, Culture, and Anthropology, a revised English language version of his earlierEvoluci?n de un socieded rural(1982), is soon to be published.

One of the most original and comprehensive treatments of the topic of Mexican nationalism that exists. . . . No book combines the theoretical breadth and the empirical depth of this one. Henry A. Selby, University of Texas, Austin

Rich, detailed, and sophisticated, the analyses of the Huasteca and especially the Morelos are at once excellent introductions to the regions, commentaries on existing ethnography in them, and advances in ethnographic analysis. William Roseberry, New School for Social Research