Defining Blackness in Colombia |
Defining Blackness in Colombia
Journal de la Société des Américanistes
Volume 95, Number 1 (2009)
pages 165-184 (46 paragraphs)
Peter Wade, Professor of Social Anthropology
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
This paper looks at the complex relationship between concepts employed by social scientists and those used in everyday practice and discourse, arguing that the standard ideas about how ideas travel from one domain (state, academe, social movements, everyday usage) to another, and become essentialised or destabilised in the process, are often too simple. Changing definitions of blackness in Colombia, through the process of multiculturalist reform and after, are examined with a view to exploring which categories of actors were influential in shaping these definitions and which were involved in essentialisations and de-essentialisations.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The ambiguity of blackness
- The emergence of black identity and huellas de africanía
- Constitutional reform and la comunidad negra
- The hegemony of « afro »
- Blackness and mestizaje
- Conclusion
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Colombia, Journal de la Société des Américanistes, Peter Wade