Immigration and National Identities in Latin America
Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, an influx of Europeans, Asians, and Arabic speakers indelibly changed the face of Latin America. While many studies of this period focus on why the immigrants came to the region, this volume addresses how the newcomers helped construct national identities in the Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The essays, from some of the most respected scholars of migration history, examine the responses--some welcoming, some xenophobic--to the newcomers. The contributors also look at the lasting effects that Jewish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Syrian immigrants had on the economic, sociocultural, and political institutions. They explore themes of assimilation, race formation, and transnationalism to enrich our understanding not only of migration to Latin America but also of the impact of immigration on the construction of national identity.
Welsh Settlers and Native Americans in Patagonia
One of the geographical areas most neglected by historians of Latin America is Patagonia. This is particularly true of the second half of the nineteenth century, a period during which the area began to be opened up to European settlement. While it is true that some attention has been given to early European settlement on the one hand, and to the fate of the native Americans during the ‘Conquest of the Desert’ on the other, no one has thus far attempted to outline the nature of the relationships between the two populations. In this article I would like to initiate such an enquiry by focusing upon the relationship between the Welsh settlers in Chubut, who were the first Europen settlers successfully to occupy Argentinian Patagonia, and the nomadic populations which occupied the region at the time of arrival of these settlers. As is the case with most frontier histories, such a study should throw new light upon the ethnohistory of the native American population, especially as it focuses upon their relationship with the Argentine Government. Events such as the ‘Conquest of the Desert‘ are often viewed as a direct confrontation between the central government and the native Americans rather than as a phenomenon which must inevitably involve the frontier settlements as well.
Elemental interplay: the production, circulation and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork in Britain and Ireland
Abstract This paper considers how people were compellingly engaged with, and drew upon, their elemental world in the Bronze Age (c. 2000 – 800 bc). It takes into account the production, circulation and deposition of metalwork and presents a number of themes concerned with the social construction of objects, places and people in the Bronze Age, while exploring how elements are drawn upon to facilitate this. The case study focuses on evidence from Britain and Ireland, although the interpretative themes presented can be applied to a wider geographical dataset. In particular, it considers how elements are interplayed in order to bring about and articulate wider social and material transformations taking place in the Bronze Age.