Between Two Paths: Ethnographies of Crises and Disasters in Latin America. Presentation
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Published
01-10-2026
Diego Zenobi
Susann Ullberg
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9652-8330
Susann Ullberg
Abstract
This text presents the special issue “Anthropology, Crises, and Disasters in Latin America.” The central thesis of the special issue is grounded in a persistent question: How can we conceptualize and examine the relationship between crises and disasters in Latin America? Recognizing that crises and disasters are not separate phenomena, but rather historically intertwined processes whose understanding requires simultaneously addressing structural vulnerabilities and the lived experiences of those who endure them, the articles in this issue —all written from an ethnographic perspective and located empirically in Latin America— argue for the need to bring together disaster anthropology and crisis studies to examine how these phenomena are produced, interpreted socially and politically, as well as to envision possible futures. The issue opens with an essay in the “Fundamental” section by Telma Camargo da Silva. It also includes four research articles by Roberto Barrios, A. J. Faas, Adrián Koberwein, and Virginia Vecchioli. Two book reviews by Sandrine Revet and Andrés Scharager, as well as an interview with Virginia García Acosta conducted by Diego Zenobi and Susann Ullberg, round out the issue.
How to Cite
Zenobi, D., & Ullberg, S. (2026). Between Two Paths: Ethnographies of Crises and Disasters in Latin America. Presentation. Papeles De Identidad, 2026(2), presentación. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.28809
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Keywords
crisis, disasters, anthropology, Latin America
References
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Arosi, A. (2017). Ativismo de vítimas do incêndio na boate Kiss: Evento traumático, causa pública e conflitos morais. Papeles del CEIC. International Journal on Collective Identity, 2017/1(168), 1-30.
Barrios, R. E. (2017). What does catastrophe reveal for whom? The anthropology of crises and disasters at the onset of the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Anthropology, 46, 151- 166.
Barrios, R. E., y García-Acosta, V. (Eds.). (2025). A revelatory pandemic. Berghahn Books.
Camargo, A. (2021). Mundos que colapsan. Revista de Antropología y Sociología: Virajes, 23(2), 7-11.
Carrier, J. G. (2017). After the crisis: Anthropological thought, neoliberalism and the aftermath. Routledge.
Correa, S. T. (2023). Problemas públicos, engajamentos políticos e conflitos no desastre de 2011 em Nova Friburgo/RJ: Da moradia à corrupção. En S. Álvarez y C. A. M. Valpassos (Eds.), Alguns olhares do sul: Antropologia, etnografia e análise de conflitos e crises no
século xxi (pp. 77-94). Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro.
Das, V. (1996). Critical events: An anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford University Press.
de Paula Marcurio, G. (2020). «Somos atingidos todos os dias»: Os efeitos dos desastres na comunidade de Paracatu de Baixo (MG). Acervo, 27(2), 56-79.
Faas, A. J. (2022). In the Shadow of Tungurahua. Rutgers University Press.
Fabian, J. (1983). Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. Columbia University Press.
Fassin, D., y Honneth, A. (Eds.) (2022). Crisis under critique: How people assess, transform, and respond to critical situations. Columbia University Press.
Fortun, K. (2001). Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, disaster, new global orders. University of Chicago Press.
Fortun, K. (2012). Ethnography In Late Industrialism. Cultural Anthropology, 27, 446-464.
García-Acosta, V. (2021). La antropología de los desastres en América Latina. Gedisa.
Gluckman, M. (1955). Custom and conflict in Africa. Basil Blackwell.
Hay, C. (1996). Narrating crisis: The discursive construction of the «Winter of Discontent». Sociology, 30(2), 253-277.
Houdart, S., Manceron, V., y Revet, S. (2015). Connaître et se prémunir. La logique métrique au défi des sciences sociales. Ethnologie française, 45(1), 11-17.
Jaramillo, J. (2021). En búsqueda de justicia: Cuerpo, dolor y agravio entre los lesionados por las explosiones de Guadalajara. Revista Papeles de Trabajo, 15(27), 101-121.
Jones, E., Luque, D., y Murphy, A. (2018). Recovering impunity: A tale of two disasters and governance in Northwest Mexico. Mexican studies/Estudios mexicanos, 34(2), 218-249.
Kapferer, B. (2010). In the event. Toward an anthropology of generic moments. Social Analysis, 54(3), 1-27.
Kapferer, B. (2019). Crisis and communitas: Victor Turner and social process. Anthropology Today, 35(5), 1-2.
Koberwein, A., y Zenobi, D. (2021). Cuando la tragedia se vuelve masacre y la catástrofe, ecocidio: la responsabilidad frente a los procesos críticos. Crítica y resistencias.
Koselleck, R. (2007/1959). Crítica y crisis: Un estudio sobre la patogénesis del mundo burgués. Trotta-UAM.
Lakoff, A. (2023). Las ansiedades de la globalización: venta de antidepresivos y crisis económica en la Argentina. Cuadernos de Antroplogía social, 18, 35-66
Lomnitz-Adler, C. (2003). Times of Crisis: Historicity, Sacrifice, and the Spectacle of Debacle in Mexico City. Public Culture, 15(1), 127-147.
Marchezini, V. (2015). The biopolitics of disaster: Power, discourses, and practices. Human Organization, 74(4), 362-372.
Maskrey, A. (Ed.) (1993). Los desastres no son naturales. Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina.
Motta, E., y Neiburg, F. (2023). Misalignments: House money and inflationary experiences. International Sociology, 38(6), 610-626.
Narotsky, S., y Besnier, N. (2020). Crisis, valor y esperanza: Repensar la economía. Cuadernos de Antropología Social, 51, 23-48.
Noel, G., y Visacovsky, S. E. (2025). Uncertain futures, wavering hopes: Crisis, pandemic, and expectations around the COVID-19 vaccination process in Argentina. En R. E. Barrios y V. García-Acosta (Eds.), A revelatory pandemic (pp. 27-49). Berghahn Books.
Ojani, C., Ullberg, S., y Vonderau, A. (2024). Infrastructures and environments in late industrialism: An introduction. kritisk etnografi: the Swedish Journal of Anthropology, 7(1), 9-20.
Oliveira da Silva, G. (1999). Angra e a melancolia de uma era. EdUFF
Oliver-Smith, A. (1994). Anthropological research on hazards and disasters. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 303-328.
Oliver-Smith, A., y Hoffman, S. M. (Eds.) (1999). The angry earth: Disaster in anthropological perspective. Routledge.
Passos, R. A., y Vasconcellos, M. da P. (2017). A cidade de Mariana pós-desastre: Um relato etnográfico. Ponto Urbe, 20, 1-13.
Peek, L., Wachtendorf, T., y Meyer A. (2021). Sociology of disasters. En Handbook of environmental sociology (pp. 219-241). Springer Nature Link.
Petryna, A. (2002). Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press.
Perelman, M. D., Privitera Sixto, M. R., y Puricelli, V. (2024). Buenos Aires ante las crisis: Temporalidades e incertidumbres en las formas de vivir. Revista Arista-Crítica, 4, 1-19.
Revet, S. (2007). Anthropologie d’une catastrophe: Les coulées de boue de Venezuela. Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Roitman, J. (2014). Anti-crisis. Duke University Press.
Sahlins, M. (1972). Stone age economics. Aldine-Atherton.
Siqueira, M. D. de, y Victora, C. (2018). «A maior tragédia em 50 anos»: Moral e emoções na transformação dos sentidos do incêndio da boate Kiss. En T. Rifiotis y J. Segata (Eds.), Políticas etnográficas no campo da moral (pp. 183-205). UFRGS Editora.
Summerson Carr, E., y Fisher, B. (2016). Interscaling awe, de-escalating disaster. En E. Summerson Carr y M. Lempert (Eds.), Scale: Discourse and dimensions of social life (pp. 133-156). University of California Press.
Turner, V. (1957). Schism and Continuity in an African Society. Manchester University Press.
Ullberg, S. (2013). Watermarks: Urban flooding and memoryscape in Argentina. Stockholm University.
Ullberg, S. (2017). La contribución de la antropología al estudio de crisis y desastres en América Latina. Iberoamericana — Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 46(1), 1-5.
Vigh, H. (2008). Crisis and chronicity: Anthropological perspectives on continuous conflict and decline. Ethnos, 73(1), 5-24.
Visacovsky, S. E. (2011). Estados críticos: La experiencia social de la calamidad. Ediciones Al Margen.
Visacovsky, S. E. (2017). When Time Freezes: Socio-Anthropological Research on Social Crises. Iberoamericana — Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 46(1), 6-16.
Visacovsky, S. E., y Zenobi, D. (2021). When a crisis is embedded in another crisis. Social Anthropology, 28(2), 379-380.
Wagner-Pacifici, R. E. (2000). Theorizing the Standoff: Contingency in Action. Cambridge University Press.
Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., y Davis, I. (2004). At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge.
Zenobi, D. (2014). Familia, política y emociones: Las víctimas de Cromañón entre el movimiento y el Estado. Antropofagia.
Zhouri, A. (2023). Crise como criticidade e cronicidade: A recorrência dos desastres da mineração em Minas Gerais. Horizontes Antropológicos, 29, 1-30.
Arosi, A. (2017). Ativismo de vítimas do incêndio na boate Kiss: Evento traumático, causa pública e conflitos morais. Papeles del CEIC. International Journal on Collective Identity, 2017/1(168), 1-30.
Barrios, R. E. (2017). What does catastrophe reveal for whom? The anthropology of crises and disasters at the onset of the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Anthropology, 46, 151- 166.
Barrios, R. E., y García-Acosta, V. (Eds.). (2025). A revelatory pandemic. Berghahn Books.
Camargo, A. (2021). Mundos que colapsan. Revista de Antropología y Sociología: Virajes, 23(2), 7-11.
Carrier, J. G. (2017). After the crisis: Anthropological thought, neoliberalism and the aftermath. Routledge.
Correa, S. T. (2023). Problemas públicos, engajamentos políticos e conflitos no desastre de 2011 em Nova Friburgo/RJ: Da moradia à corrupção. En S. Álvarez y C. A. M. Valpassos (Eds.), Alguns olhares do sul: Antropologia, etnografia e análise de conflitos e crises no
século xxi (pp. 77-94). Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro.
Das, V. (1996). Critical events: An anthropological perspective on contemporary India. Oxford University Press.
de Paula Marcurio, G. (2020). «Somos atingidos todos os dias»: Os efeitos dos desastres na comunidade de Paracatu de Baixo (MG). Acervo, 27(2), 56-79.
Faas, A. J. (2022). In the Shadow of Tungurahua. Rutgers University Press.
Fabian, J. (1983). Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. Columbia University Press.
Fassin, D., y Honneth, A. (Eds.) (2022). Crisis under critique: How people assess, transform, and respond to critical situations. Columbia University Press.
Fortun, K. (2001). Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, disaster, new global orders. University of Chicago Press.
Fortun, K. (2012). Ethnography In Late Industrialism. Cultural Anthropology, 27, 446-464.
García-Acosta, V. (2021). La antropología de los desastres en América Latina. Gedisa.
Gluckman, M. (1955). Custom and conflict in Africa. Basil Blackwell.
Hay, C. (1996). Narrating crisis: The discursive construction of the «Winter of Discontent». Sociology, 30(2), 253-277.
Houdart, S., Manceron, V., y Revet, S. (2015). Connaître et se prémunir. La logique métrique au défi des sciences sociales. Ethnologie française, 45(1), 11-17.
Jaramillo, J. (2021). En búsqueda de justicia: Cuerpo, dolor y agravio entre los lesionados por las explosiones de Guadalajara. Revista Papeles de Trabajo, 15(27), 101-121.
Jones, E., Luque, D., y Murphy, A. (2018). Recovering impunity: A tale of two disasters and governance in Northwest Mexico. Mexican studies/Estudios mexicanos, 34(2), 218-249.
Kapferer, B. (2010). In the event. Toward an anthropology of generic moments. Social Analysis, 54(3), 1-27.
Kapferer, B. (2019). Crisis and communitas: Victor Turner and social process. Anthropology Today, 35(5), 1-2.
Koberwein, A., y Zenobi, D. (2021). Cuando la tragedia se vuelve masacre y la catástrofe, ecocidio: la responsabilidad frente a los procesos críticos. Crítica y resistencias.
Koselleck, R. (2007/1959). Crítica y crisis: Un estudio sobre la patogénesis del mundo burgués. Trotta-UAM.
Lakoff, A. (2023). Las ansiedades de la globalización: venta de antidepresivos y crisis económica en la Argentina. Cuadernos de Antroplogía social, 18, 35-66
Lomnitz-Adler, C. (2003). Times of Crisis: Historicity, Sacrifice, and the Spectacle of Debacle in Mexico City. Public Culture, 15(1), 127-147.
Marchezini, V. (2015). The biopolitics of disaster: Power, discourses, and practices. Human Organization, 74(4), 362-372.
Maskrey, A. (Ed.) (1993). Los desastres no son naturales. Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina.
Motta, E., y Neiburg, F. (2023). Misalignments: House money and inflationary experiences. International Sociology, 38(6), 610-626.
Narotsky, S., y Besnier, N. (2020). Crisis, valor y esperanza: Repensar la economía. Cuadernos de Antropología Social, 51, 23-48.
Noel, G., y Visacovsky, S. E. (2025). Uncertain futures, wavering hopes: Crisis, pandemic, and expectations around the COVID-19 vaccination process in Argentina. En R. E. Barrios y V. García-Acosta (Eds.), A revelatory pandemic (pp. 27-49). Berghahn Books.
Ojani, C., Ullberg, S., y Vonderau, A. (2024). Infrastructures and environments in late industrialism: An introduction. kritisk etnografi: the Swedish Journal of Anthropology, 7(1), 9-20.
Oliveira da Silva, G. (1999). Angra e a melancolia de uma era. EdUFF
Oliver-Smith, A. (1994). Anthropological research on hazards and disasters. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 303-328.
Oliver-Smith, A., y Hoffman, S. M. (Eds.) (1999). The angry earth: Disaster in anthropological perspective. Routledge.
Passos, R. A., y Vasconcellos, M. da P. (2017). A cidade de Mariana pós-desastre: Um relato etnográfico. Ponto Urbe, 20, 1-13.
Peek, L., Wachtendorf, T., y Meyer A. (2021). Sociology of disasters. En Handbook of environmental sociology (pp. 219-241). Springer Nature Link.
Petryna, A. (2002). Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press.
Perelman, M. D., Privitera Sixto, M. R., y Puricelli, V. (2024). Buenos Aires ante las crisis: Temporalidades e incertidumbres en las formas de vivir. Revista Arista-Crítica, 4, 1-19.
Revet, S. (2007). Anthropologie d’une catastrophe: Les coulées de boue de Venezuela. Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Roitman, J. (2014). Anti-crisis. Duke University Press.
Sahlins, M. (1972). Stone age economics. Aldine-Atherton.
Siqueira, M. D. de, y Victora, C. (2018). «A maior tragédia em 50 anos»: Moral e emoções na transformação dos sentidos do incêndio da boate Kiss. En T. Rifiotis y J. Segata (Eds.), Políticas etnográficas no campo da moral (pp. 183-205). UFRGS Editora.
Summerson Carr, E., y Fisher, B. (2016). Interscaling awe, de-escalating disaster. En E. Summerson Carr y M. Lempert (Eds.), Scale: Discourse and dimensions of social life (pp. 133-156). University of California Press.
Turner, V. (1957). Schism and Continuity in an African Society. Manchester University Press.
Ullberg, S. (2013). Watermarks: Urban flooding and memoryscape in Argentina. Stockholm University.
Ullberg, S. (2017). La contribución de la antropología al estudio de crisis y desastres en América Latina. Iberoamericana — Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 46(1), 1-5.
Vigh, H. (2008). Crisis and chronicity: Anthropological perspectives on continuous conflict and decline. Ethnos, 73(1), 5-24.
Visacovsky, S. E. (2011). Estados críticos: La experiencia social de la calamidad. Ediciones Al Margen.
Visacovsky, S. E. (2017). When Time Freezes: Socio-Anthropological Research on Social Crises. Iberoamericana — Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 46(1), 6-16.
Visacovsky, S. E., y Zenobi, D. (2021). When a crisis is embedded in another crisis. Social Anthropology, 28(2), 379-380.
Wagner-Pacifici, R. E. (2000). Theorizing the Standoff: Contingency in Action. Cambridge University Press.
Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., y Davis, I. (2004). At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge.
Zenobi, D. (2014). Familia, política y emociones: Las víctimas de Cromañón entre el movimiento y el Estado. Antropofagia.
Zhouri, A. (2023). Crise como criticidade e cronicidade: A recorrência dos desastres da mineração em Minas Gerais. Horizontes Antropológicos, 29, 1-30.
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