ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces readers to some demographic, cultural, economic, geo-political, and transnational reasons why the study of the anthropology of LatinAmerica and the Caribbean is important in today’s contemporary world. It then turns to a brief overview of anthropology and cultural anthropology, including key methods and concepts. The third section introduces students to the cultural anthropological enterprise, including methods and theory, by comparing two powerful ethnographic works on the everyday lives of the poor in urban slums or shantytowns in Puerto Rico, NewYork City, and Brazil.
Is the study of Latin America and the Caribbean tantamount to privileging-intellectually, politically, or culturally-Latin America over other regions of the world? Of course not. But it is a question of recognizing the intense and manifold ways in which the destinies of North American and Latin American and Caribbean peoples have become so interwoven over the past 150 years, and also a question of being cognizant that Latin America and the Caribbean-and their peoples-have had (and will continue to have) a decisive impact on the culture, society, and politics of the United States, and vice-versa.1
