Histories of the Present

"The length and breadth of the Whittens' fieldwork in Ecuador adds a level of depth and insight that is unparalleled in Latin American studies. Their way of integrating earlier and more recent theories allows readers to understand how the contemporary concern for ethnogenesis, interculturality, and alternative modernities was anticipated several decades ago in works that still speak to us today in relevant terms."--Jonathan D. Hill, author of Made-from-Bone: Trickster Myths, Music, and History from the Amazon

"This book provides a fertile ground for thinking about the contributions of indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian peoples to transformative politics in Ecuador, and it is one that is sure to yield fruitful insights well into the future."--American Anthropologist

"In the Whittens' hands, culture is deeply relational. They develop a vocabulary of interculturality, alternative modernity, and emergent culture to convey how the transformative capacity of people operates in their power over signs."--The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

"This book historicizes ethnography in a unique, witness-participant way, bringing margins to center but also showing how indigenous and African-descended Ecuadorians have 'taken over' the country's history-in-the-making."--Kris Lane, author of Quito 1599: City and Colony in Transition