Latin American studies: new themes, old vices

• In Event: A Critical Look at Latin American Studies

Abstract

This paper examines how, despite criticism (Mignolo, Feres Jr.) current portrays of Latin America found in social scientific texts, even in critical approaches to the study of race and gender in Latin America, display the same shortcomings that “traditional” approaches to the study of Latin America, such as modernization theory, political development theory, and studies of corporatism. These shortcomings are: overgeneralization, stereotyping, and the tendency to attribute Latin America’s social and political problems to its culture (culturalism). Finally, I intend to show that these diagnoses of Latin America can only be articulated from an American point of view that is not always explicit in the texts, and thus, is often sheltered from criticism.

Author

• João Feres Júnior, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro