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In the early days of anthropology as a discipline in the nineteenth century, evolutionism and diffusionism supplied anthropologists with 'global' visions. Anthropologists have always been involved with all-encompassing cosmopolitan notions such as humankind and culture. Many have thus endeavoured to explain the world as a whole, and how humans have developed in different historical moments. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the new label 'globalization' generated a field of scholarly preoccupations, anthropologists started to contribute to this growing body of literature. Their most valuable contributions are related to the tensions between local and global forces, and between forces of heterogeneity and homogeneity, as well as to the use of ethnography as a methodological tool. Anthropologists have borrowed notions from other related disciplines such as sociology, history, and geography. This paper situates the anthropological production on 'the global' within this diverse history of borrowings, internal disciplinary debates, and wider historical junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Misteri or Festa d'Elx is the main festival of a town (Elche). Although it has survived from the Middle Ages, it was patrimonialised twice in seventy years to be preserved in a historical context of profound changes. Nowadays, the Misteri still is represented, nevertheless, the attitude of the local population towards this Festival shows a polarization that ranges from the indifference of the majority to the enthusiasm of a minority, committed to its maintenance and continuity. In other words, new ways of relating to the Festa have been generated, different from the traditional ones, which implies new cultural meanings. In this paper, we intend to point out these new meanings about this patrimonialised festival. To do this, we analyse discourses and practices of local social agents, especially those involved in their maintenance and safeguarding. We relate them to the historical context that gives them meaning and that is characterized by permanent sociocultural change, and by the influence of globalizing factors at the local level, such as tourism and UNESCO distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a case study -- the recent Mapuche movement in Chile -- this paper portrays the figure of the global indigenenous. In order to do that, the Mapuche's case study will be discussed in relation to other indigenous experiences worldwide, in the midst of the current debates within the field of Indigenous Studies. The thesis defended here is that indigenous policies are trapped today in three paradoxes, constitutive of indigeneity itself. These paradoxes are concerned with how indigeneity is constituted in time and space. In this context sovereignty, cultural and physical authenticity are at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of a millenarist and messianic movement in the Chorti area of Northern Honduras together with the processes of native ethnogenesis provides an ethnographic framework to analyse and discuss the relationships among the social, religious, political and identity phenomena in the context of globalization in Honduras. The economical, social, educational, public health as well as land claims are worked out from Maya ethnic perspectives, thus acquiring a relevant symbolic value. The tensions, conflicts and contradictions of this native movement have spread to the religious level. In this context, the church of the Nuevo Siglo, of the Nuevo Katum has risen. This paper poses an interpretation of the religious phenomena as engines for change and transformation which is, moreover, much closer to the daily and personal experience of the social agents. The remake carried out by this movement in the economical, social and ideological level go beyond a simple prophetic interpretation of the world by supplying their Chorti followers with practical strategies of effective link with the world and of transformation of the intra and interethnic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mexican-US border represents an illustrative example of the globalization processes due to the installation of assembly plants known as maquiladoras since the late sixties. This lead to massive employment of women and with it to a slow configuration of a female proletarianization in all of Mexico, which showed a strong correlation between the transnationalization of production process and the participation of working women. This article examine the convergence between maquiladoras, jobs and female employment as a complex relation that researchers have been trying to portray for almost four decades. With this in mind this paper reviews some of the main and well known academic and institutional analysis for the last few years in Mexico. This review should help to understand the complexity of female employment studies and the need to recognize these women as a distinct gender in the working world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]