Academia, community adopt scholar as one of their own

by Eric Jackson

On July 16 many of the University of Panama's most notable social scientists and many residents from the Cocle mountain community of Loma Bonita crowded the university's Bernardo Lombardo Auditorium for a book presentation by American anthropologist Gloria Rudolf. The tome was the Spanish-language "La Gente Pobre de Panamá - Víctimas, Agentes y Hacedores de la Historia," whose English version was published two years ago in the United States. It is the result of three decades of a university professor's field work in a small rural community, now published in soft cover by the University of Panama's press.

Rudolf has her bachelor's degree in history and her PhD in anthropology, and to University of Panama historian Marcela Camargo, the book's overlap between its author's graduate and undergraduate field, and indeed several others, is one of its great strengths. "Recognize the methodology," Camargo advised. "Interdisciplinary practices are so necessary if we are to have serious research." In addition to the application of historical techniques to Rudolf's anthropology book, Camargo pointed to the work's incorporation of sociology, economics and political science. The historian also noted the relationship between labor and value: "It's necessary to take a lot of time to do profound research like Gloria's," decades of work that she considers naturally more worthy than spending " three months in the field."

For sociology professor Raúl Leis, "Gloria's work put people first." Opining that the book "not only had science, but also love," Leis was impressed by its lack of condescension. "Poverty is not just a story of victimization," he said. "People can be active agents of change." Calling Loma Bonita "a microcosm of rural Panama," Leis highlighted the book's treatment of the effects that the military dictatorship's and the Catholic church's efforts to address rural poverty had on the community.

Dr. Ligia Herrera Jurado, a geographer who participated in the United Nations Development Program's study on rural poverty in Panama, set Rudolf's work in the context of land tenure problems, noting that if one takes many of the roads that lead from the Pan-American Highway into the mountains, along the way one is likely to see many places with a lot of fruit trees, but no houses. These are areas where the poor had established farms and lived for many years, but where as soon as roads were built the rich came in and evicted whole communities. She also pointed to many roads with shacks along the right-of-ways as another result of widespread evictions, and argued that while coffee production came to rural communities as a source of hope, in Loma Bonita and other places it just brought on land conflicts and more misery than before. "If we are to make the kind of progress that many Asian countries have," Herrera argued, "the first step has to be profound agrarian reform."

Rudolf said that "this book represents my life and my feelings, as well as my work." She recounted how her research in Loma Bonita began in 1972, and that a few years later when she was back in the community again after being away to teach in the states, septuagenarian Isabel Nuñez urged her to "take our words and bring them back to us." That Rudolf did, but not before Señora Isabel had died. The professor presented the first copies of her work to Nuñez's children and to each household in Loma Bonita.

Rudolf chose to focus on the connection between the work of those who want to improve the world through social action and those who study social life. To those who argue that social studies are a luxury, rather than a necessity, in a world of scarce resources where most people, as in Loma Bonita, must fight each day just to eat and maintain basic health, Rudolf says that social problems can't be solved without studying them first. For example, to take action against a social problem like unemployment, one must first study the causes of unemployment.
If the causes are a lack of skills, then the emphasis should be on developing education and job training; if, instead, the causes are due to racial or gender discrimination, then social actions should concentrate on racial and gender equity.

Rudolf also argued that Panama's rural programs, and in many cases the studies upon which they have been based, have been far too simplistic. "There are few communities where people are not divided," she said, adding that "this is also true in the poorest communities." The professor said that her book shows that when a program to alleviate poverty is started in a community without first undertaking studies, "sooner or later that program will fail... and leave more divisions in the community."

She also called upon scholars and agrarian reform workers to study the ideas that people have, which motivate their actions. For examples, she asked, how a reforestation project could be successful "if project planners] propose to plant trees in an area that's considered by residents to be sacred?" or, "how could a new health center successfully improve women's health, if the local women prefer traditional healers and herbal medicines?" or, how could a new primary school curricula using only spanish improve the education of indigenous children if the children enter school speaking an indigenous language that their parents want to preserve?

Despite the decades of failed programs, Rudolf noted, the people of Loma Bonita still have "the gift of hope." That, and the University of Panama. "It's the only place where a person from a community like Loma Bonita can become an anthropologist" or a well educated professional in any field.

The anthropologist concluded on an historical note, arguing that change for the better is not usually accomplished through the acts of great leaders or in great rebellions, "but when ordinary people take concerted action" to better their conditions. She said that she hopes her book inspires those who read it to do something about the conditions it describes.

After the speeches were over but before the munchies were served, young Librada Castillo, who hails from Loma Bonita and appears to be about 10 years old, accompanied by her older sister on the mejorana and her father on the guitar, belted out some decima tunes about the life she knows. "La tierra es mi vida," she sang, with following verses explaining that means not to lose the machete, not to forget to smell the flowers, and not to take it easy when the rice is ready to harvest. The Castillo family was followed by the university's folklore dance troupe, whose three men and three women demonstrated that there is much more to cumbia excellence than just the well made montunas and montunos.

This was a celebration of rural Panamanian culture, and the best of this country's scholarship, conducted entirely in Spanish. There was no sense of the foreign expert talking down from on high. As Professor Leis noted, "People matter in this book, and also in the country." And so the university scholars and the Loma Bonita residents embraced the gringa anthropologist as one of their own.

 

also in this section Two generals from the Minnesota Air National Guard, donate computers News Briefs
©2001 The Panama News