For courses in Peoples and Cultures of Latin America found in departments of Anthropology or History.

This reader is a part of the Exploring Cultures series. Designed to expose students to some of the most important critical thinking by anthropologists across a wide range of issues, it examines Latin American cultures from a number of different perspectives. Very accessible and perceptive, it covers a wide range of topics -- beginning with a general overview of Latin America (observations about size of land mass, geography, population size and growth rates) and then highlighting some of the cultural characteristics that permit us to talk about "Latin America" -- balancing the incredible cultural diversity with some of the overriding features that give at least the appearance of "similarity."