"Micro-social and macro-structural aspects are wound together in a very wide analytical and comparative framework in an unprecedented way. Constitutes a very important contribution both to historical and to sociological and anthropological studies of Latin America." -- S N Eisenstadt, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem"A welcome addition to recent scholarship that seeks to expand the analytical boundaries of the political and understands the interaction between the realms of politics and identity. The papers in this volume add yet more evidence to the contention that cultural understandings are complexly integrated, with categories built around ethnicity, class, nationality and so on -- social markers that were once taken to be evident and transhistorical." -- Hispanic American Historical Review