Carla Guerrón-Montero

Racial democracy and nationalism in Panama

In spite of having more fluid and flexible racial boundaries than other regions of the world, Latin America continues to have racially hegemonic practices. Panama has a myth of racial egalitarianism, yet an inability to perceive that racial inequality is pervasive. This is illustrated with the paradox of race relations between Afro-Antilleans and the indigenous peoples in the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro. Intermarriage in the region and the notion that there is no racial inequality contrasts with the constant recognition of differences. Race relations and ethnic identity in this region have their origins in the competition between British, North American, and Central American interests, and have been shaped in relation to Panamanian nationalism.

Tourism and Afro-Antillean Identity in Panama

Throughout its history as a nation, Panama has emphasised its Spanish roots. Having become a postcolonial state, Panama now exploits its multiculturalism for the purpose of attracting tourists. In this context, Afro-Antilleans in the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro – historically marginalised and considered temporary migrants – are developing gendered and racialised identities for tourist consumption, in response to the states tourism promotion and in pursuit of a complex cultural politics. Tourism provides an occasion for Afro-Antilleans to reposition themselves within the Panamanian nation, vis-à-vis the state and other ethnic groups. ‘Panamanian’ Afro-Antillean identities are also transnational, African and Caribbean; these constructions of difference in the touristic context are inevitably contradictory, at once national and diasporic. This paper explores these complexities and their complex origins: nationalism, regional and trans-Atlantic migration, and tourism. It concludes that so-called globalisation, in this setting, results in a proliferation of conflicting differences rather than in homogenisation.

Speaking of hunger and coping with food insecurity: experiences in the Afro-Ecuadorian highlands

Using examples from an Afro-Ecuadorian community, we analyze indicators of household food insecurity and discuss them in terms of household structure and different time frames. We found that perceptions of hunger vary independently over time and are expressed differently in different types of households. We also found that definitions, although variable within the population, can be framed in five conceptual categories: a) an experience filled with anguish or despair; b) hunger as an economic issue; c) a concern over child welfare; d) an experience of the physical body; e) hunger as the experience of not having any food rather than not having variety in what is eaten; and f) those individuals who indicated they had never experienced hunger. We also learned that individuals act and react in a variety of ways to food insecurity. Our study highlights the way people attempt to adjust to fluctuations in food and resources, how they can feel helpless and alienated, and how they attempt to do the best they can with dignity and hopefulness.

Household Structure and Dietary Patterns in the Afro-Ecuadorian Highlands

Dietary patterns in contemporary societies have been a primary focus of nutritional and anthropological research. Class, occupation, income, and gender have been studied when analyzing dietary patterns and the roots of malnutrition and hunger; however, the effects of household structure have received less attention. The main purpose of our study was to obtain information on the diet of a highland Afro-Ecuadorian community and examine the relationship between household structure and dietary patterns. Survey questionnaires, in-depth questionnaires, and participant observation were utilized to examine how women in female-headed households compare with women in male-headed households in meeting the dietary needs of their families. There was no significant difference in food-acquisition patterns. Weekly expenditures for food in the two types of households were similar, despite different income levels. However, female-headed households had higher food-group scores and consumed more meals per day.

Afro-Antillean Cuisine and Global Tourism

Around the world, foods are both eaten and avoided in the name of racial or ethnic identity. Food is also intimately linked to political and economic power. In the case of Caribbean Panama, an Afro-Antillean cuisine has been highly praised by Afro-Antilleans as a marker of a unique identity in a country that emphasizes its Spanish origin in response to United States “protectorate” claims. With the onset of tourism as a fundamental component of the Panamanian economy and identity of the country, cuisines that have not been considered part of the “typical” Panamanian cuisine tradition, are beginning to be recognized. This paper concentrates on the development of Afro-Antillean cuisine in the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro. I argue that Afro-Antillean cuisine is a highly gendered and racialized experience that exemplifies how the globalizing phenomenon of tourism interacts with and encourages a local experience. I also discuss how a localized tradition becomes internationalized with tourism. Finally, I discuss the role of the state in the development of an Afro-Antillean culinary tradition.

Once a Development Project: Lessons from Applied Anthropology

Development has been widely discussed and analyzed world-wide. Nonetheless, development is ambiguous in both its meaning and its practice. The term can be used descriptively or normatively to portray a current condition or to contemplate a beneficial alternative; it can refer either to the ends or to the means of social change. It is also an ambivalent practice: at times it implies westernization, at others its antithesis (Goulet, Denis, Development: Creator and Destroyer of Values, in World Development, Vol. 20 (3): 467-475. 1992). What it actually means in practice can only be determined ethnographically, through anthropological field methods.