Blackness in Latin America & the Caribbian ─ Social Dynamics and Cultural Transformations: Central America and Northern and Western South America

"The chapters in these volumes excel in describing the diverse cultural responses of black populations to unique local and national contexts.... Whitten and Torres have produced a valuable collection destined to become a standard reference work on black cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean." -- American Anthropologist

To understand the meanings of "blackness" in the African diaspora, we must critically examine the paradigms that have emerged over the past five centuries out of Euroamerican racism and black liberation. These seminal volumes add immeasurably to our understanding of those paradigms and of the black experience in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Norman E. Whitten, Jr. is Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies and Affiliate of Afro-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His publications include Black Frontiersmen: Afro-American Culture of Ecuador and Columbia; Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and Adaptation of Ecuadorian Jungle Quichua; Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador; and Sicuanga Runa: The Other Side of Development in Amazonian Ecuador.
Arlene Torres is Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She is affiliated with Afro American Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Latina/Latino Studies Programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She serves on the editorial board of the Afro-Latin American Research Association. Torres has conducted extensive field research in Puerto Rico and Barbados.