Intimate Indigeneities

"Andrew Canessa makes superb use of more than twenty years of ethnographic experience with Andean villagers of Wila Kjarka to give us a beautifully detailed and intellectually stimulating account of the changing meanings of 'indian' and 'indigeneity' in Bolivia. His focus on the intimate and the public spaces of everyday life, and on the local and the translocal flows of people, ideas, and things, provides a wonderfully engaging picture of how villagers in the Andes think of themselves and others. His deep commitment to the people of the village gives us a refreshing and important perspective on the concept of 'indigeneity,' which is too often taken for granted in the context of contemporary identity politics. Intimate Indigeneities will prove very attractive to students and scholars alike."—Peter Wade, author of Race and Sex in Latin America
"Focused on topics of great interest to contemporary readers—race, inequality, gender, sexuality, social and political change, education, military service, and domestic violence—and written with verve and style, Intimate Indigeneities draws on long-term, detailed ethnographic work that is impressive and rarely achieved. Andrew Canessa presents unique, novel knowledge about a place, a time, and a people."—Mary Weismantel, author of Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes
"Using telling case histories, Andrew Canessa explores how indigeneity appears in the local and national arena, what it means to be indigenous in contemporary Bolivia, and why the villagers he has studied for more than twenty years reject this term. This is a major contribution, a splendid example of a twenty-first-century ethnography."—Jean E. Jackson, coeditor of Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America
[Canessa] “This book is a masterful synthesis of 20 years’ ethnographic fieldwork in one Bolivian community, the Aymara-speaking Andean settlement of Wila Kjarka….this book is a delight to read, both in terms of the author’s clear and engaging style, which frequently blends humour and pathos, and in the non-judgemental approach which testifies to an eagerness to understand others on their own terms. … [it] is a profoundly honest, subtle and wide- ranging study that is sure to inspire scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.” -- Charles M. Pigott * AlterNative *
“Overall, Canessa is an astute observer of Bolivian rural life, and he possesses an engaging sense of humor: the book often makes one think and laugh at the same time.” -- Robert I. Smale * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“Canessa’s excellent book…. Provides a wide-ranging yet rooted ethnographic analysis of contemporary forms of belonging in Bolivia, which is the book’s great strength….This book would be a wonderful addition to many courses… It is readable, compelling, and moving.” -- Kate McGurn Centellas * Journal of Anthropological Research *
“[P]oignant and deeply insightful…. Intimate Indigeneities is at the top of my reading list for my graduate and undergraduate classes, not only for courses on matters Andean or Latin American, but also for lower level introductory courses to anthropology and upper level theory courses.” -- Linda J. Seligman * Anthropological Quarterly *
“Andrew Canessa has written a longed-for book that consolidates his position as one of the most engaging contemporary scholars of Andean  anthropology. . . . Intimate Indigeneities is a major contribution to our understanding of indigeneity, race and sex in contemporary Bolivia and, I would argue, the most important and engaging anthropological work on Andean Bolivia written in recent years.” -- Anders Burman * Journal of Latin American Studies *
“Valuable for any study of modernity, indigeneity, or interpersonal relations as it provides a poignant look at a community in the midst of a convoluted, contradictory, continuous march to modernity." -- Naomi Glassman * NACLA Report on the Americas *
“This wonderful book is highly recommended for all those who are interested in indigeneity, racism, gender, and nation-building.” -- Emma Cervone * American Anthropologist *
"In this finely detailed ethnography, anthropologist Andrew Canessa explores the meaning of indigeneity for the people of Wila Kjarka, an Aymara-speaking community located in the northern Andean highlands of Bolivia….[T]he rich, and at times poignant, ethnographic detail and the complex and nuanced argumentation speak to the anthropologist’s longstanding commitment to this community and to these important issues." -- Krista E. Van Vleet * Anthro Forum *