Introduction: The Puerto Rico Project: Reflections Sixty Years Later

In the late 1940s Julian Steward initiated a social anthropological study of Puerto Rico, carried out by a team working in a range of communities representing different ecological zones. The project was a landmark in anthropology but met with criticism from Puerto Rican scholars. The articles in this collection reconsider the Puerto Rico Project in terms of its place within the history of anthropology, its reception in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, and some theoretical and political issues raised by it.     

Anthropological Approaches to Modern Societies in the 1940s

At the time that Julian Steward was formulating the Puerto Rico Project, several other approaches to complex societies were being pursued by American anthropologists. Beginning in the 1920s, funders'—and subsequently, New Deal agencies'—interest in addressing social problems impelled microcosmic community studies in the United States. That approach, essentially functionalist and ahistorical, was extended to village studies in other countries, and Redfield's folk-urban continuum became the dominant theoretical framework for comprehending regions within nations. Concurrently, acculturation theory legitimized anthropological interests beyond “primitives” and offered an alternative, two-way cultural contact model. With the onset of World War II, the culture and personality approach was applied to strategic nations, providing holistic configurational depictions of national character. Steward's effort can be seen as a critique of, and alternative to, these approaches that were prevalent in the late 1940s. Building upon his method of cultural ecology, his orientation toward work, and his notions about sociocultural integration, he devised a different way of studying a total society. Steward's framework was modified and expanded by members of his team, both in the field and in the writing of the jointly authored book. While slow to have a wider impact, the project—both in its successes and its limitations—signaled new departures for the anthropological study of the modern world.     

Photography and ambivalence

Although scant attention has been devoted to the anthropological ‘crisis in representation’ of creating still images as part of anthropological research, several contemporary women anthropologists have written of their misgivings. In this paper, I examine the ideas and photographic practices of Ruth Behar, Lila Abu‐Lughod, Serena Nanda, Barbara Tedlock, Kristen Hastrup and Nancy Scheper‐Hughes, all of whom hold ambivalent attitudes toward photography. I will identify common concerns as well as strengths acknowledged by them. Also, I will examine new ways in which they and a number of other anthropologists are re‐visioning photographic practices and creating more equitable relationships between researchers and subjects.     

Materialist Scholarship and The People of Puerto Rico

The People of Puerto Rico occupies an ambivalent place in both the genealogy of anthropological theory and the understanding of Puerto Rican society. Its co-authors collectively developed a uniform and complex conceptual scheme which expressed both convergence and divergence among them. The book furthered Marxist approaches in U.S. anthropology and was the first serious scholarly materialist analysis of Puerto Rico. While privileging the lives of common people, it fell short of representing important strains of Puerto Rican diversity and socio-historical dynamics. The Puerto Rico Social Anthropology Project used four different models to explain the genesis of cultural forms and the interrelations among aspects of society/culture, in a given, homogeneous, “subculture” or “socio-cultural segment” of a complex society. The Project's members stressed a linear-utilitarian analysis of these subcultures, but where they could not account for observed cultural forms with such an approach, they appealed to the culture-psychology relation. This article considers the four interlinked paradigms, the associated analysis of socio-cultural trends, the resulting problematic theoretical consequences, and the flawed Marxism of the work.     

Changing Space,Making Race: Distance,Nostalgia, and the Folklorization of Blackness in Puerto Rico

In this article, I critique some of the discursive terms in which blackness is folklorized and celebrated institutionally as part of the nation in Puerto Rico. I examine a government-sponsored housing project that meant to revitalize and stylize the community of San Ant n, in Ponce, as a historic black site. Although government officials tried to preserve what they considered to be traditional aspects of this community, conflict arose because not all residents agreed with this preservationist agenda. I document the controversy, linking the government's approach to racial discourses that represent blackness as a vanishing and distant component of Puerto Rico. I argue that this inclusion and celebration complements ideologies of blanqueamiento (whitening) and race-mixture that distance blackness to the margins of the nation and romanticize black communities as remnants of a past era. I link these dynamics to modernizing State agendas and discourses of authenticity that fuel cultural nationalism worldwide.     

Migration in a small semiperiphery: the movement of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans

"This article argues that the semiperipheral development of Puerto Rico since around 1975 has led to the creation of a relative labor surplus in the formal sectors of the economy while at the same time increasing the demand for cheap labor in the informal service sector. Thus, Puerto Ricans leave their country in search of good jobs in the United States while Dominicans migrate to Puerto Rico and find work in the informal sector. The return migration of Puerto Ricans has also been significant, but is due to their strong national culture, rather than economic reasons. The article concludes that migration to and from Puerto Rico is of a semiperipheral type because it combines characteristics of migration previously described as 'migration from the periphery to the center' and 'migration within the periphery.' A precise definition of the semiperipheral characteristics of Puerto Rico is given."     

Mobile Livelihoods: The Sociocultural Practices of Circular Migrants between Puerto Rico and the United States1

This article focuses on the bilateral flow of people between Puerto Rico and the United States ‐ what has come to be known as circular, commuter, or revolving‐door migration. It documents the migrants' livelihood practices based on a recent field study of population flows between Puerto Rico and the mainland. Specifically, the basic characteristics of multiple movers, one‐time movers and nonmovers residing in Puerto Rico are compared. More broadly, the article assesses the implications of circular migration for Puerto Rican communities on and off the island. The author's basic argument is that the constant displacement of people ‐ both to and from the island ‐ blurs the territorial, linguistic, and juridical boundaries of the Puerto Rican nation. As people expand their means of subsistence across space, they develop multiple attachments to various localities. In the Puerto Rican situation, such mobile livelihoods are easier to establish than in other places because of the free movement of labor and capital between the island and the mainland. The author hypothesizes that circulation does not entail major losses in human capital for most Puerto Ricans, but rather often constitutes an occupational, educational, and linguistic asset.     

Welfare Policy and the Construction of Legitimate Authority: The Case of Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the role of the welfare state in maintaining state authority by testing the relationship between participation in state social programs and the espousal of ideals that reject the sovereignty of the existing state. We use the case of Puerto Rico, drawing on surveys of residents of Puerto Rico regarding their participation in social welfare programs and their views on the legitimacy of the U.S. state, distinguishing between means-tested and universal social programs. The research demonstrates that the form and extent of social citizenship programs affect the continued acceptance of authority of the U.S. federal government over the island’s territory and population. Specifically, the use of means-tested social benefits predicts a greater acceptance of the authority of the sovereign state. These findings may be considered broadly informative to the power of social welfare programs in garnering quiescence among minority populations, expanding the existing literature to illustrate differences in opinion of state legitimacy based on the type of social benefits one receives.     

STRUGGLES OF INCORPORATION AMONG THE PUERTO RICAN MIDDLE CLASS

In this article I examine the settlement experiences of middle-class Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland. Data for the study come from open-ended interviews with 40 middle-class Puerto Ricans who came to the U.S. mainland, 20 of whom remained and 20 of whom returned and resettled in Puerto Rico. I examine their subjective interpretations of incorporation and the conditions under which they resettle in Puerto Rico. Findings reveal that in spite of occupational and economic integration into the U.S. mainstream, migration and U.S. settlement result in dislocations among Puerto Ricans, particularly regarding separation from family and kin networks and experiences with racialization and exclusion. Puerto Ricans see themselves as members of transnational families, yet, the struggles of leading dual lives between mainland and Puerto Rican societies result in settlement decisions that reflect desires to live locally with roots in one place instead of feeling split between the two. Experiences with U.S. racism complicate these decisions. Findings illustrate the various patterns of attachments to place, or emotional embeddedness, that impact the circumstances under which Puerto Ricans engage in alternating periods of mainland and Island settlement. The implications for assimilation theories are discussed.     

The New Historiographies of Criminality and Social Disorder in Early Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico

Abstract This article briefly examines why the new histories of 1898–1930 Puerto Rico have not explored the full range of 'native' laboring-poor responses to being transformed into a proletarianized workforce. Drawing on my recent research on this question. I primarily critique the handful of historiographies that actually concentrate on what Foucault called the 'popular illegalities.'My analysis rethinks the historicity of such transgressions by exploring why these social practices tend to be separated from, or perceived as antagonistic to, the subaltern responses blocking the advance of capitalist socioeconomic relations in this U.S. overseas colony.     

The migratory impact of minimum wage legislation: Puerto Rico, 1970-1987

"This study examines the impact of minimum wage setting on labor migration. A multiple time series framework is applied to monthly data for Puerto Rico from 1970-1987. The results show that net emigration from Puerto Rico to the United States fell in response to significant changes in the manner in which minimum wage policy was conducted, particularly after 1974. The extent of commuter type labor migration between Puerto Rico and the United States is influenced by minimum wage policy, with potentially important consequences for human capital investment and long-term standards of living."     

Dilemma of a Native: On Location,Authenticity, and Reflexivity

With the focus on native/halfie anthropology, I address in this paper three issues of location, authenticity, and reflexivity of the anthropologist in close connection to the reality of uneven distribution of power inside academe among scholars and institutions, and, above all, anthropologists, including native anthropologists. I emphasise that interaction between the field and the ethnographer never closes even after the fieldwork is over; the issue of intersubjectivity is not confined in writing one book, but permeates an ethnographer's lifelong career; the power relation is no longer divided only between the field and the home institution, but also divided within so-called Western academe. Through these discussions, I try to draw our attention to multiple axes of tension in the production of anthropological knowledge.     

Consequences of return migrant status for employment in Puerto Rico

"At the aggregate level, return migrants in Puerto Rico in 1970 and 1980 faced greater employment-related difficulties, as compared with nonmigrants. This article explores the individual-level relationship of return migrant status to employment outcomes. The conceptual framework takes into consideration local and regional contextual factors, particularly the employment conditions prevailing in Puerto Rico during this period. Within this framework, specific hypotheses suggest a negative influence of return migrant status.... The findings substantiate the hypotheses for both census years and indicate the importance of the duration of residence in the United States and the timing of the return move as mediating factors."     

Puerto Rican migration and occupational selectivity, 1982-1988

"This study examines whether or not the likelihood of Puerto Rican workers choosing to migrate to the United States depends on their occupations or skills. The study determined that the occupational composition among those migrating from the island to the United States generally corresponds to the occupational distribution in Puerto Rico. The exception is that, after controlling for labor market conditions in Puerto Rico and in the United States and for other characteristics of the migrants, farm workers, laborers, and craft and kindred workers are overrepresented in the flow of migrants. The two most important factors contributing to the occupational distribution of migrants are whether or not they already have job offers in the United States and whether they are currently employed in Puerto Rico."     

Did the Puerto Rico Project Have Consequences? A Personal View

Those of us who participated as fieldworkers in the Puerto Rico Project gathered regularly at the University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras) during the eighteen months we were in the field to compare notes, discuss our work together, and advance our research cooperatively. During that time a distinct difference between our integration in the communities where we were working and in the university community where we gathered became apparent to some of us. It was a coefficient of the class and other differences that separated the university faculty from the working men and women among whom some of us lived in the field, and it was reflected in political differences, among others. A substantial fraction of the university faculty was strongly committed to political independence, whereas a large majority of rural dwellers supported the Popular Democratic Party, then in power. It was not surprising that these differences were linked to others, such that some of us felt we were more fully accepted by the laboring classes among whom we lived than by the intellectuals whom we knew at the university. I try here to show how our fieldwork made visible (and troublesome) these sharp political divisions.     

The Effect of Networks on the Selection of Migrants and Destinations: Colombians in Galicia (Spain)

This article presents findings from a research project on Colombian transnational migration to a secondary and peripheral region of Spain. The transnational character of our object of study means that our methodology is mainly of an anthropological nature. But our analysis is also guided by demographic data and theories, so it can be considered a sample of work in the new field of anthropological demography. The article’s main purpose is to explore migration network effects on inflows, given the weakness of other pull factors. We believe that local or regional levels of analysis might reveal other aspects about migration determinants that get lost at the national level. Moreover, the links between migrant networks and the size of immigration flows should be more evident at the regional level of analysis. Both statistical data analysis and ethnographic evidence point to the same conclusion: network dynamics do not sufficiently explain inflows behaviour, nor migration strategies and Colombians migrants’ interaction in destination. Instead, we can infer the importance of powerful push factors, and of migration history and social change in the country of origin. A transnational mother profile plays a relevant role in the analysis of this case and of cumulative causation theory. Gathered testimonies and observed evolution of Colombian migration to Spain and Galicia suggest the activation of feminised networks and the inhibition of family reunification.     

A New Look at the African Slave Trade in Puerto Rico Through the Use of Parish Registers: 1660–1815

Our knowledge of the volume of slave traffic as well as the geographic origin and ethnicity of slaves introduced into peripheral areas of the Americas, such as the former Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, is limited. Information contained in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century parish baptismal, marriage, and death registers enables us to locate and identify Africans in a number of island communities, including San Juan. Drawing upon data culled from parish registers this study seeks to broaden our understanding of the slave trade to Puerto Rico in the years 1672 to 1810. Few slaves were brought in either from Africa or from elsewhere in the Americas to Puerto Rico, and the supply of these was erratic and limited. Although they were small in number, there was considerable diversity in the geographic origins and ethnicity of African arrivals, with individuals from West and West Central Africa predominating. For the most part, these shared a relatively homogenous culture and a greater similarity insofar as the language(s) they spoke. Such commonalities facilitated integration and promoted social cohesion among the newly arrived Africans as well as those already present in the host population. It also facilitated their integration into what was emerging as a unified Afro-Puerto Rican slave community.     

Aesthetics of disaster as decolonial aesthetics: making sense of the effects of Hurricane María through Puerto Rican contemporary art

ABSTRACT

On 20 September 2017, Hurricane María made landfall on Puerto Rico causing unprecedented disaster. From that day onwards, the Puerto Rican multi-layered colonial, social and political context was further complicated by the traumatic acceleration of a human disaster via this natural disaster. This crystalized the urgency of using art as vehicle for (social) catharsis, a practice that continues to be used by individual artists, collectives, community organizations, art projects, and other art institutions on the island and abroad, through mural art, community paintings, art exhibitions, literature, music, and many other aesthetic expressions. This article examines, from a decolonial and critical cultural studies perspective, post-Hurricane María artistic expressions in contemporary art as decolonial aesthetics through the cathartic use of the frame of an aesthetics of disaster. It is argued that, an aesthetics of disaster aims to re-assert an artistic form that is able to accelerate the discursive nullification of a deeply rooted colonial, social and cultural problem by way of art as catharsis inspired by the way that Hurricane María unveiled these problems. The piece briefly contextualizes Puerto Rico, and it examines the idea of Puerto Rican contemporary art as catharsis. Then, it describes how Puerto Rican contemporary art exhibitions and associated aesthetic production are processing urgent post-hurricane issues through three illustrative pieces in exhibitions in PR and abroad in the United States (US). Lastly, decolonial aesthetics is reexamined and re-understood, informed by Édouard Glissant's view expressed in Poetics of Relation which aids to the conclusion that Puerto Rican contemporary art using the frame of an aesthetics of disaster functions as a powerful form of decolonial aesthetics.     

The circular migration of Puerto Rican women: towards a gendered explanation

"The purpose of this paper has been to outline a theoretical framework for the explanation of the circulation of Puerto Rican women that brings gender relations to the fore, but frames the island-mainland pattern of mobility in the context of core-periphery capitalist relations. We have argued that gender relations in the home and workplace are vitally important for understanding women's moves to the [United States] and return trips to Puerto Rico. Specifically, we posited that most Puerto Rican women move as tied-migrants or because of their obligation or desire to meet gender responsibilities. In addition, we also viewed migration as an action with the potential to modify gender relations and alter future migration decision-making, as women gain experience in the labour market and exposure to new social and cultural environments." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)