The Mexican-US Border: The Making of an Anthropology of Borderlands

Abstract

This review traces the development of an anthropology of borderlands. The ideas of early ethnography and applied anthropology about border regions are considered along with contemporary perspectives on reterritorialized communities and practices illustrated specifically by Mexican migration and transborder processes. The argument is made that the conceptual parameters of borderlands, borders, and their crossings, stemming from work done on the Mexican-US border, in particular, illustrate the contradiction, paradox, difference, and conflict of power and domination in contemporary global capitalism and the nation-state, especially as manifested in local-level practices. Furthermore, the borderlands genre is a basis upon which to redraw our conceptual frameworks of community and culture area.