Arnd Schneider

Contested Grounds: Fieldwork Collaborations with Artists in Corrientes, Argentina

Abstract This article represents an exercise in dialogical anthropology, based on a collaboration with contemporary visual artists in a specific fieldwork locale in Argentina. The deeper epistemic interest is in exploring contemporary ‘speaking terms’ (which James Clifford [1988] originally found characteristic of art-anthropology encounters in France in the 1920s and 1930s). The specific project under review involved a collaboration with contemporary visual artists from Corrientes, Northeast Argentina, and the making of a series of hybrid ‘works’ between art and anthropology. This included material participation in (rather than ‘observation of’) the performance of the procession of the patron saint of a nearby village, Santa Ana, i.e., making a new dress for the saints statue, producing a video, and field notes. The appropriation of and material intervention into a setting of popular religiosity raise questions about the epistemological status of art and anthropology collaborations as hybrid knowledge productions, where participants contest each others’ disciplinary assumptions. Extending on work by Nicolas Bourriaud, Grant Kester and Trinh T. Minh-Ha, this author concludes that it is precisely from such an uneven hermeneutic field and the recognition of dialogical difference that productive collaborations can develop.

A Black Box for Participatory Cinema: Movie-making with “Neighbors” in Saladillo, Argentina

This article explores the phenomenon of neighborhood cinema (Cine con vecinos) in Saladillo, Argentina. Since 1995 it has been appropriating screening and production spaces wrested from local television, and more generally challenging the hegemony of national TV and industrial cinema production. Cine con vecinos is analyzed here in terms of social agency, participation and sociality. It has democratized media production through films shot entirely with locals, and has also promoted a revival of local movie theaters. Finally, the prospects of this type of cinema are assessed in contrast to other types of participatory community cinema, and also in view of its recent project of making a future “community set,” or large-scale production site, for community cinema.

Beyond appropriation: Significant overlays in Guaraní-inspired designs:

The aim of this article is to investigate and theorise practices of appropriation from indigenous cultures among interior and accessories designers in Misiones province, northeast Argentina. In particular, the article intends to critically extend the notion of appropriation by introducing ‘overlay’ as a new concept to analytically grasp the uneven cultural traffic from the indigenous artisans to the designers and the majority society at large. It is argued that in this process the ‘meaning’ of the original Guaraní designs is suspended and ultimately short-circuited, as it is no longer available either to the Guaraní, who do not consume the final products, or to the customers, who are not provided with any information on the meaning of the patterns. However, the article does not insist on a presumed ‘loss of meaning’ for these objects. Rather, the article foregrounds notions of materiality, creativity and innovation in relation to the specific economic and working relations between Mbya Guaraní artisans and designers.

Organizing Ethnicity: Three Episodes in the Politics of Italian Associations in Argentina, 1947–1989

Abstract This study investigates the interface between national Argentine politics and those of Italian associations during specific periods after the Second World War period. The article suggests that a rhetoric of ethnic unity and cohesion, coupled with a corporatist structure of the main organization, FEDITALIA, was the expression of an internal leadership of accommodation rather than protest. This is evidenced in: (1) “reconciliation” between fascist and antifascist sectors of the Italian community; (2) Peróns speech to the federation of Italian associations in 1954; and (3) the Committee for a Just Peace which was sent to Italy in 1982 in order to influence that countrys position in the Falklands/Malvinas war.

‘Putting an ocean between them’: Gender relations among Italian immigrant families in twentieth‐century Argentina

The article starts from the premise that dominant research paradigms of both ‘melting pot’ and ‘multiculturalism’ have concentrated almost exclusively on the institutions of ethnic groups in the study of one of the twentieth centurys principal immigrant nations, Argentina. The article makes a case for refocusing the study of immigration in more individual categories. It takes as its example gender, and analyses the role of women in two Italian family networks who emigrated to Argentina. The findings demonstrate that womens roles changed significantly in the migratory process and that women were, in fact, crucial in offering the prospect of social mobility for newly immigrated men. The article concludes by advancing a view beyond the issues of gender on the continuities and discontinuities of political ideologies in the new society.

Book Reviews : Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 335 pp. £24.95 cloth

As a third theme, and in order to examine more closely the realities of American culture, James examines three elements of American life Negroes, women and intellectuals. He has something perceptive to say on all three constituents, and in many respects he anticipates in his reflections the civil rights and the feminist movements that were to emerge in the following decade. He stresses the realities of what was called the ’Negro question’ the racism which James personally experienced arguing that Black Americans were not seeking any special privileges, constitution or statehood Black Muslims were then still to emerge as a political force but simply basic human rights, to freedom and equality. His discussion of intellectuals focuses on American representatives of three intellectual currents existentialism, Catholic humanism and Marxism (Stalinism) and he offers some interesting and critical reflections on all three traditions.