Those of us who are anthropologists, have a lot of fun and the privilege of learning from and about other peoples. While there is so much that I do not know, I do know that many concepts that I “grew up” with are over-simplified. My goal in this talk is to unpack some of these concepts by illustrating the diversity and change that characterizes Oaxaca—from the ecological to the cultural, from ancient history to today--by looking back through time and across space. Some themes are maize, language, ethnicity, history, production, gender—especially how the perspectives of anthropologists have changed over the last forty years or so.

Presenter: An anthropologist with 50 years of experience in Mexico, Martha Rees specializes in women’s work, peasant household economy, migration, health, and does evaluation research (MacArthur Foundation, NIOSH-CDC). In Mexico, she has worked in many different states, but mostly in Oaxaca, on household economics and migration with Mexican and US institutions: Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Centro de Ecodesarrollo, University of Cincinnati, and Agnes Scott College. She has also held Fulbright awards and worked as an expert witness. Currently she is the President of the Welte Institute for Oaxacan Studies, Inc. [https://institutowelte.org/], a library of Oaxacan materials in Oaxaca.