Deromanticizing subalterns or recolonializing anthropology? Denial of indigenous agency and reproduction of northern hegemony in the work of david stoll

This paper builds on some of the critical points made in the final section of Leigh Binford's discussion. David Stoll's critique of Rigoberta Menchú Tum is not simply an attack on the truthfulness of an indigenous woman who has become a major political figure. Stoll's larger agenda is an assault, not only on a number of other anthropologists, but on accounts of Latin American history that honor grassroots strivings for rights and social justice, and on political arguments offered by cultural studies and post‐colonial criticism. His book resonates with parallel attacks from other, and diverse, quarters, while also embodying a range of vices as an anthropological analysis (Stoll 1999).

Key words:

• Knowledge
• Politics
• Subalterns
• Guerrilla Movements
• Indigenous Mobilization
• Central America