Photo by Thomas Abercrombie. Drawing of Ekeko published in Pathways of Memory and Power (University of Wisconsin Press, 1998).

(Con traducción al español)

How does personhood survive after death? In this collection of essays, written in light of Thomas Abercrombie’s sudden and premature passing in April of 2019, authors reflect on this question, writing about the pathways that he carved and sowed as a teacher, mentor, scholar, and friend. We examine how key concepts from Tom’s eclectic and interdisciplinary work shaped our own intellectual trajectories. Together, these keywords illustrate how the contemporary project of anthropology becomes reworked by a modality of knowledge production that is not imposed upon or extracted from but collaboratively shaped by the people with whom we work. In doing so, they point toward the radical power of inverted hierarchies in both fieldwork and the academy, in which expertise is at once possible and not what we might think it to be. The series speaks to the powerful contribution of a kind and meticulous anthropologist who turned away from theorizing the contemporary in grand-narrative terms, nurturing instead the building of smaller worlds—and caring for the people who reside within them. These entries, often intimate and grounded in the particularities of Andean and Latin American anthropology, attest to Tom’s survival and demonstrate how persons are made from past and future genealogies.

Caminos

Traducido por Arturo Ramírez.

¿Cómo sobrevive la persona después de la muerte? En esta colección de ensayos, escritos a la luz del fallecimiento repentino y prematuro de Thomas Abercrombie en abril de 2019, los autores reflexionamos sobre esta cuestión y escribimos sobre los caminos que como maestro, mentor, estudioso y amigo, esculpió y sembró. Examinamos cómo los conceptos clave del trabajo ecléctico e interdisciplinario de Tom dieron forma a nuestras propias trayectorias intelectuales. Juntas, estas palabras clave ilustran cómo el proyecto contemporáneo de la antropología se reelabora mediante una modalidad de producción de conocimiento que no se impone ni se extrae de las personas con las que trabajamos, sino que se forma colaborativamente. Al hacerlo, apuntan hacia el poder radical de las jerarquías invertidas tanto en el trabajo de campo como en la academia, en las que el conocimiento es a la vez posible y no es lo que podríamos pensar que es. La serie habla de la contribución poderosa de un antropólogo amable y meticuloso que evitó teorizar lo contemporáneo desde las grandes narrativas, nutriendo en su lugar la construcción de mundos más pequeños -- cuidando a las personas que residen dentro de ellos. Estas entradas, a menudo íntimas y situadas en las particularidades de la antropología andina y latinoamericana, atestiguan la supervivencia de Tom y demuestran cómo las personas se hacen a partir de genealogías pasadas y futuras.

Posts in This Series

Pathways: Introduction

Pathways: Introduction

(Con traducción al español)In Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson (2000) wrote about how human life is not bounded by skin. Personhood, he explained, s... More

Authenticities

Authenticities

(Con traducción al español)Writing a tribute to Tom Abercrombie is kind of bumming me out, because it necessarily involves dwelling on the reality that he is no... More

Cholo Politics

Cholo Politics

(Con traducción al español)Tom Abercrombie’s doctoral project at the University of Chicago certainly reflected the ferment in that department throughout the lat... More

Crossings

Crossings

(Con traducción al español)At the beginning of Pathways of Memory and Power (Abercrombie 1998), Tom sits and talks history with a man he calls don Pablo Choquec... More

Ethnohistory

Ethnohistory

(Con traducción al español)It was a formidable looking tome. Tom’s first book, Pathways of Memory and Power (Abercrombie 1998), sat high on my shelf of Bolivian... More

Identities

Identities

(Con traducción al español)Whenever I go to Bolivia, which is far too seldom lately, the inevitable moment arrives: a friend of mine, a sociologist and prominen... More

In Death

In Death

(Con traducción al español)The morning Tom Abercrombie passed away was also the day of my dissertation defense. Tom was one of my principal advisors, and needle... More

Indexicality

Indexicality

(Con traducción al español)One of my favorite places is Q’enko, a nearly circular Inka site above Cuzco. Seemingly carved from a single boulder, this shrine (w’... More

Indigenous History

Indigenous History

(Con traducción al español)I met Tom Abercrombie in the early 1980s, when he was a graduate student and I’d just finished my PhD. I was excited about getting to... More

Iterations

Iterations

(Con traducción al español)I never got the chance to meet Tom Abercrombie in “person,” though we corresponded by email. But I am happy and proud to have known h... More

Language Waves

Language Waves

(Con traducción al español)What does indigenous mean? Even though entire libraries have been written on this topic, I do not know a single anthropologist who co... More

Laughing at Yourself

Laughing at Yourself

(Con traducción al español)English translation by Jacob Price.Tom Abercrombie was relaxing in his office populated with books, photos, artisanal goods, house pl... More

Matters

Matters

(Con traducción al español)A few months before I went to the field, Tom Abercrombie returned from Bolivia bearing a gift: a little plaster man carrying miniatur... More

Mobilities

Mobilities

(Con traducción al español)When Tom Abercrombie first called me in Copenhagen during NYU’s 2001 admissions season to let me know that “my hat was in the ring,” ... More

Performance

Performance

(Con traducción al español)Tom’s life and my life intersected in ways that speak less about any particular modality of friendship, and more about how our friend... More

Return

Return

(Con traducción al español)In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella forced those Iberian Jews who had not already converted to Christianity to “choose” betwee... More

Ritual Images

Ritual Images

(Con traducción al español)Translated by Jacob Price.Thomas Abercrombie has created a detailed description of rituals, in particular of thaki, ritual declaratio... More

Sazón

Sazón

(Con traducción al español)When I consider how Tom Abercrombie influenced the way I think, I particularly remember a series of conversations we had about the co... More

Storytelling

Storytelling

(Con traducción al español)“Tourists like to tell stories about alterity in the Andes,” Tom told our class before adding, “but this doesn’t make these stories g... More

Topographs

Topographs

(Con traducción al español)When I learned of Tom Abercrombie's passing, I pulled out my copy of Pathways of Memory and Power (Abercrombie 1998) and began reread... More