This beautifully written book weaves reflections on anthropological fieldwork together with evocative meditations on a spectacular landscape as it takes us to the remote indigenous villages on the shore of Lake Titicaca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Ben Orlove brings alive the fishermen, reed cutters, boat builders, and families of this isolated region, and describes the role that Lake Titicaca has played in their culture. He describes the landscapes and rhythms of life in the Andean highla...

This volume represents recent anthropological research on the political economy of Latin America. Dependency theories, modes of production analysis, and theories of the state all attempt to conceptualize the interrelations among "class," "interest," and, at some level, "power." All three, that is, focus on classical questions of political economy. The studies presented in this volume both draw on the insights of this literature and challenge the grander theories in important respects. The ...