Paper short abstract:

This paper explains my experience editing a book with anthropologists who reflected on, and revisited, different aspects of the community ethnographies they had previously produced in the Andes.

Paper long abstract:

Community ethnographies were the most paradigmatic form of anthropological study for decades, before becoming largely considered as obsolete and somehow out of fashion in the late 20th century. This was also the case of Andean Anthropology, where rural communities have been a key focus of study as a result of their centrality in the Andean highlands.

In 2016 I edited a book in which I reviewed the evolution of these ethnographies in the Central Andes, and reassessed their role in the study of Andean culture. The book also brought together prestigious authors who had produced community ethnographies in previous decades, mostly between the 1970s and 1990s, in Bolivia, Ecuador and, above all, Peru. In their respective chapters, these authors reflected on their early work in light of contemporary Anthropology, and revisited different aspects of it.

In this paper I explain the origin, evolution and results of this book, reflecting on the nature and value of this "revisiting strategy", and on its current place in academia according to my editing experience.