墨西哥—美国边界:边疆人类学的诞生

The Mexican-American Frontier: the Birth of Frontier Anthropology

导言近年来,对边疆、边境和跨境行为有很多讨论。边界(border)这一概念现在被广泛用于社会科学、人文学科和教育领域等各种语境。然而,我们对边界方面的论述应向什么方向展开还没有充分研究。地缘政治上的边疆和观念上的边疆之间的冲突、矛盾和悖反一直潜伏在我们左右。边疆研究如何增进我们的知识并加深对当地民众和文化实践的理解?

This review traces the development of an anthropology of borderlands.The ideas of early ethnography and applied anthropology about border regions are considered along with contemporary perspectives on reterritorialized communities and practices illustrated specifically by Mexican migration and transborder processes.The argument is made that the conceptual parameters of borderlands,borders,and their crossings,stemming from work done on the Mexican-US border,in particular,illustrate the contradiction,paradox,difference,and conflict of power and domination in contemporary global capitalism and the nation-state,especially as manifested in local-level practices.Furthermore,the borderlands genre is a basis upon which to redraw our conceptual frameworks of community and culture area.