Progress in the Balance: Mythologies of Development in Santos, Brazil

Daniel R. Reichman

Published by Cornell University Press 2023

Progress in the Balance

Mythologies of Development in Santos, Brazil

Daniel R. Reichman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501770449

Overview
Contents

About this book

Through a historical ethnography of Santos, Brazil, Progress in the Balance addresses and assesses an anthropological theory of progress. Observing that anthropology is a progressive discipline with a pessimistic attitude towards progress, Daniel Reichman explains the contested meanings of progress in Brazil and explores how anthropologists and others can define this concept more generally. He investigates how any society can separate "progress" from plain old change and, if change is constantly happening all around us, how and why certain events get lifted out of a normal timeframe and into a mythic narrative of progress.

Each chapter outlines a particular episode in the history of Santos, a city undergoing an unprecedented period of economic and political turmoil, as it is represented in public culture, mainly through museums, monuments, art, and public events. Drawing on the anthropology of myth, Reichman proposes a model that he refers to as a "clash of timescapes." Progress in the Balance shows how this concept of "progress" requires a different temporal structure that separates sacralized social change from mundane historical events.

Author / Editor information

Daniel R. Reichman is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The Broken Village.

Reviews

Stefan Helmreich, author of Sounding the Limits of Life:

How are ideas about progress devised and revised, shaped as mixes of the modern, the miraculous, and the magical? In this incisive ethnographic investigation of contests that have cross-cut attempts, in Brazil, to realize the country's Ordem e Progresso motto, Daniel R. Reichman reveals how progress is ever subject to dueling dreams about utopia, social space, and the shape of time itself.

Edward Fischer, Vanderbilt University, author of The Good Life:

Combining a traditional anthropological focus on the sacred with cutting-edge approaches to political economy and culture, Daniel Reichman artfully illuminates the changing philosophical and social meanings of progress in a large Brazilian city and what this means for social theory.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Note on Terminology Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
Introduction: Cracks in the Foundation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Spectacles of Colonialism: Two Timescapes of Indigenous Presence in Santos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
2. Coffee of the Past, Coffee of the Future: Two Timescapes of Export Agriculture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
3. Port of the Past, Port of the Future: Two Timescapes of Labor and Capital Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4. Sacralizing the Sewer: Turning Pollution into Progress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
5. Citizen of the World, King of All Nations: Globalization and the FIFA Class at the Pelé Museum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Conclusion: The Shapes of Progress: Configuring Social Change in Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 204
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 1
- Images: 13
- Other: 13 b&w halftones, 1 map
Keywords: history of Santos Brazil; anthropology of progress; ethnography of Brazil; Bandeirantes history; progress in Brazil; definition of progress; coffee trade in Brazil; second Brazilian miracle

eBook

Published: August 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781501770449