Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity

How can we interpret Latin American culture in light of tensions between traditions that linger and modernity that is still arriving? This book confronts theoretical debates about the modern and the post-modern. The author questions whether a society can both move towards democracy and compete in a transnational marketplace without giving in to temptations of elitism or losing its cultural identity. The text moves from discussions of the theoretical implications of works by Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault to discussions of folklore and kitsch. The author looks at specific examples of the tensions between tradition and modernity embodied in such events as a television spectacle organized around the Tamayo Museum in Mexico in 1982; encounters between Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges; the relation between Chicano film, border art and deterritorialization; and the humour of comic strips and graffiti in marking the intercultural crossovers created by massive migration and new technologies. Central to this work is the notion that social formation does not take place chronologically from ancient to modern, with a progression from inferior to superior. The author illustrates how, in an attempt to adapt to modernization and still remain culturally pure, Latin American nation states have frequently legitimatized current relations of inequality. To remedy this situation, he proposes using a combination of anthropological and sociological methods, drawing from the strengths of each discipline to envision an autonomous culture that can survive in the transnational market.