This volume represents recent anthropological research on the political economy of Latin America. Dependency theories, modes of production analysis, and theories of the state all attempt to conceptualize the interrelations among class,
interest, and, at some level, power. All three, that is, focus on classical questions of political economy. The studies presented in this volume both draw on the insights of this literature and challenge the grander theories in important respects. The chapters in this volume represent an anthropological contribution to the political economy of Latin America, a bypassing of dependency theory and the adoption of its successors, mode of production analysis and state theory.