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Full-Text Articles in Latin American History

Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis Apr 2014

Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis

Ageeth Sluis

Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this article examines the importance of place and gender within constructions of race politics in Carlos Castaneda’s series on shamanism. Championing a “separate reality” predicated on an indigenous worldview, Castaneda’s lessons invited transnational middle-class youth to "journey" alongside him to camposcape—an anachronistic and idealized countryside—as a means to escape the bourgeois values of their homelands and find spiritual fulfillment in a timeless and "authentic" Mexico. Castaneda’s work proposed new viable spaces of difference in Mexico, yet inscribed these spaces with a masculinist discourse that served to neutralize the gender trouble within the counterculture …


Indigenismo From Below? Carlos Castaneda, New Age Anthropology And Identity Politics, Ageeth Sluis Jan 2013

Indigenismo From Below? Carlos Castaneda, New Age Anthropology And Identity Politics, Ageeth Sluis

Ageeth Sluis

This paper explores the intersections between Carlos Castaneda’s work on shamanism, indigenismo, and larger changes within the field of anthropology from the 1960s to 1980s. Castaneda introduced a large readership to Mexico at a time when the Americas saw pronounced socio-political and cultural changes. Despite criticism by fellow anthropologists, Castaneda's bestselling books became instrumental in constructing new indigenous identities, a magical Mexico, and new directions in anthropology. This paper seeks to understand Castaneda within a larger historical context of the historical trajectories of indigenismo and changes in gender and race identity politics both in Mexico and the U.S. due to …


Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis Dec 2012

Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this article examines the importance of place and gender within constructions of race politics in Carlos Castaneda’s series on shamanism. Championing a “separate reality” predicated on an indigenous worldview, Castaneda’s lessons invited transnational middle-class youth to "journey" alongside him to camposcape—an anachronistic and idealized countryside—as a means to escape the bourgeois values of their homelands and find spiritual fulfillment in a timeless and "authentic" Mexico. Castaneda’s work proposed new viable spaces of difference in Mexico, yet inscribed these spaces with a masculinist discourse that served to neutralize the gender trouble within the counterculture …


Journeys To Self And Lessons Of Other: Carlos Castaneda, Indigenismo, And The Politics Of A New Age, Ageeth Sluis Oct 2012

Journeys To Self And Lessons Of Other: Carlos Castaneda, Indigenismo, And The Politics Of A New Age, Ageeth Sluis

Ageeth Sluis

During the 1960s and 1970s, Carlos Castaneda’s work on shamanism introduced a large international readership to Mexico at a time when the Americas saw pronounced socio-political and cultural changes: mounting social unrest, political instability, civil rights movements, the counterculture, and the sexual and other revolutions. While heavily criticized by contemporary scholars, Castaneda's work became instrumental in the construction of an imagined Mexico, which, in addition to drawing counterculture tourists, featured new ways of conceptualizing race and gender. Seeking to understand the Castaneda phenomenon within a larger transnational context, the study sheds light on how new conceptions of indigenous identity informed …


Journeys To Self And Lessons Of Other: Carlos Castaneda, New Men, And The Politicization Of Indigenous Identity During The Cold War, Ageeth Sluis Dec 2009

Journeys To Self And Lessons Of Other: Carlos Castaneda, New Men, And The Politicization Of Indigenous Identity During The Cold War, Ageeth Sluis

Ageeth Sluis

No abstract provided.