SOCIAL SCIENCE 2460 9.0
CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA

FINAL TEST STUDY GUIDE
March 2005

GENDER, RACE, ETHNIC & CLASS RELATIONS

• gender & sex
• machism & marianism
• recent transformations in women's lives
• race & ethnicity as social constructions
• timba music (origins, construction of black identity, gender roles & sexuality)
• disidentification
• anti-racism in Brazil (how is racism opposed?, contrast with US)
• role of culture in native resistance, selective acculturation
• unitary citizenship
• new mode of governance (main elements, why did it emerge?)
• new mode of governance & the reconstitution of ethnic identities (review Hale's argument)
• indio permitido , good ethnicity & dysfunctional ethnicity
• U'wa & Pemon native resistance (factors that determine success)
• neoliberal policies (impact on poor women, collective responses, role of women)
• community organizing (women's empowerment or reinforcement of traditional gender roles?)
• survival and resistance
• triple role of women
• Military Regimes (emergence, goals, impact)
• National Security Doctrine, culture of fear
• Women's resistance to military regimes (when, why, how, role of traditional gender roles)
• politization of women's identities
• motherhood as a political weapon
• evolution & accomplishments of mother's movement

STRUGGLES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY

• Sweatshops
• Globalization & changes in the garment industry
• Manufacturer vrs. Retail-driven industries
• Cross-border labour activism (Anner's argument re. gains & difficulties, conditions for success)
• Maquiladora industry (origins, evolution, impact)
• Fair Trade (origins, principles, impact)
• Free Trade & Fair Trade (compare & contrast)
• Fair trade movement and fair trade network (compare & contrast)
• Evolution of fair trade (according to Fridell)
• Coffee in the global economy (importance, main players)
• slump in coffee prices (causes, impact on producers)
• strategies to sustain coffee prices (proposals, goals, limitations)

POPULAR CULTURE, HEGEMONY & CULTURAL RESISTANCE

• culture (define)
• culture as an iceberg
• popular culture & high culture
• mass society theory (main propositions, critique)
• cultural imperialism theory (main propositions, critique)
• hegemony
• communication as a two way process (explain, apply to culture)
• popular culture (a site for reproduction of mainstream values or cultural resistance?)
• appropriation of cultural symbols
• Superbarrio
• hybrid cultures
• soccer as a modern sport (origins, connection with industrial capitalism)
• history of soccer in Latin America (main phases according to Arbena)
• sports (site for social reproduction and cultural resistance?)
• resistance to capitalist "work ethic" through soccer (Shirt's argument)
• Sócrates, Corinthian Democracy, Samba soccer
• soccer fan's rituals & chants (gender & racial dimension)
• music (site for social reproduction & cultural resistance?)
• origins of salsa
• salsa caliente & salsa romantica (compare & contrast)
• Ruben Blades, Pedro Navaja, Juan Luis Guerra
• merengue & national identity in the Dominican Republic
• "merengue invasion" (causes & significance)