Book Cover
E-book
Author Arnold, Denise Y., author

Title The metamorphosis of heads : textual struggles, education, and land in the Andes / Denise Y. Arnold with Juan de Dios Yapita
Published Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2006]
©2006

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Description 1 online resource (345 pages) : illustrations, map
Series Illuminations
Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Contents Andean textual polity -- Colonizing texts and the struggle over meanings -- Lands, seeds, and letters : the cycles of production and reproduction -- Cycles of metamorphosis : the children as enemies -- Warriors and weavers : the pathways of learning in the community -- The cycles of libations in school rituals -- Cycles of memory : the Inka's voice -- Cycles of sound : prayers and the "rain of letters" -- The corporeality of Kipus : toward a mathematics incarnate -- Kipu, number, and writing -- Textual logic in the Andes -- Toward an Andean textual theory
Summary Annotation Since the days of the Spanish Conquest, the indigenous populations of Andean Bolivia have struggled to preserve their textile-based writings. This struggle continues today, both in schools and within the larger culture. The Metamorphosis of Headsexplores the history and cultural significance of Andean textile writings--weavings and kipus (knotted cords), and their extreme contrasts in form and production from European alphabet-based texts. Denise Arnold examines the subjugation of native texts in favor of European ones through the imposition of homogenized curricula by the Educational Reform Law. As Arnold reveals, this struggle over language and education directly correlates to long-standing conflicts for land ownership and power in the region, since the majority of the more affluent urban population is Spanish speaking, while indigenous languages are spoken primarily among the rural poor. The Metamorphosis of Heads acknowledges the vital importance of contemporary efforts to maintain Andean history and cultural heritage in schools, and shows how indigenous Andean populations have incorporated elements of Western textual practices into their own textual activities. Based on extensive fieldwork over two decades, and historical, anthropological, and ethnographic research, Denise Arnold assembles an original and richly diverse interdisciplinary study. The textual theory she proposes has wider ramifications for studies of Latin America in general, while recognizing the specifically regional practices of indigenous struggles in the face of nation building and economic globalization
Notes Translation of: El rincón de las cabezas
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-322) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Indians of South America -- Education -- Bolivia
Aymara Indians -- Education
Indians of South America -- Andes Region -- Languages -- Writing
Quipu.
Inca textile fabrics.
Indian literature -- Criticism, Textual
Transmission of texts -- Andes Region
Literacy -- Bolivia
PSYCHOLOGY -- Social Psychology.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
Aymara Indians -- Education
Inca textile fabrics
Indian literature
Indians of South America -- Education
Indians of South America -- Languages -- Writing
Literacy
Colonies -- Administration
Quipu
Spanish colonies
Transmission of texts
SUBJECT Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85100205
Spain -- Colonies -- America -- Administration
Subject America
Andes Region
Bolivia
Peru
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
Author Yapita, Juan de Dios, author
ISBN 9780822971023
082297102X
9780822962748
0822962748
Other Titles Rincón de las cabezas. English