Lecturer
- About
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- Email Address
- maggie.bolton@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272731
- Office Address
- Room G19 Edward Wright Building
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
I came to anthropology after studying physics and working as an engineer in industry. A growing interest in Latin America and specifically the Andean region led me to return to higher education to study for an M.Litt. in Amerindian Studies and a PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, one of the few universities in the UK offering tuition in Quechua language at that time. My doctoral thesis was on Indigenous identity in southern Bolivia among llama herders and artisanal miners. After completing my PhD I held a three-year ESRC fellowship at the University of Manchester during which my research interest turned specifically to human-animal relations. During this period I conducted fieldwork in the south of Bolivia on rural development projects aimed at llama herders. I subsequently held short-term posts at the Universities of Bradford and Hull before joining the Anthropology Department at Aberdeen. I have published various articles and book chapters on human-animal relations in the Andes and have edited two collections - Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the biotech Industry (jointly edited with Cathrine Degnen) and Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic (jointly edited with Jan Peter Laurens Loovers). Recently, my research interest has returned to mining in the Andes and connections between Andean mining and the north-east of Scotland. I co-curated the exhibition Aberdonians in the Americas: Migrants and Adventurers from Mexico to Paraguay with Professor Patience Schell, and Jenny Downes and Melia Knecht from the University Museums team, focusing the photographic collection of James Duncan, a native of Aberdeenshire who owned mines in Bolivia in the early years of the 20th century. My research on this topic continues, along with plans for a heritage project at the site of one of Duncan's last mines.
External Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth.
- Research
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Research Overview
Andes region (Bolivia); human-animal relations, mining, science, technology and expertise; colonialism; the state; ethnohistory; historical anthropology.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Anthropology.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Social Anthropology
- Latin American History
- Latin American Studies
- Sociology of Science and Technology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Knowledge Exchange
Co-curator (with Prof. Patience Schell, Jenny Downes and Melia Knecht) of the Exhibition Aberdonians in the Americas: Migrants and Adventurers from Mexico to Paraguay, Kings Museum, 2017.
Funding and Grants
2010-11 British Academy Small Grant: Education, Citizenship and Democracy in Rural Bolivia funding for pilot study into adult/alternative education under the Morales administration.
2010 CASS research funding: Education, Citizenship and Democracy in Rural Bolivia
2003-6Â ESRC Research Fellowship: The Reception and Interpretation of Science and Technology in non-Western contexts.Â
2002Â British Academy Small Grant
2000Â Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Fund Award
- Publications
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Page 1 of 1 Results 1 to 23 of 23
Flowing Silver and Ephemeral Cities: Working the Ruins of Colonial Silver Mining
Silver: Transformational Matter. Hills, H. (ed.). British Academy, pp. 64-88, 24 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Introduction: Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic
Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic. Brill, pp. 1-16, 17 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] https://brill.com/display/title/68296?language=en
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004679450_002
Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic
Books and Reports: AnthologiesThe Fragility of Relations of Domestication: Humans, Llamas and Unseasonal Snow in the Bolivian Andes
Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animals Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic. Bolton, M. E., Loovers, J. P. L. (eds.). Brill, pp. 99-117, 19 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)La fragilidad de relaciones de domesticación: humanos, llamas y nevadas pocos habituales para la estación del año en Sud Lípez, Bolivia
Animales humanos, humanos animales: Relaciones y transformaciones en mundos indígenas sudamericanos. Bugallo, L., Dransart, P., Pazzarelli, F. (eds.). Editorial Antropofagia, pp. 159-186, 28 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)We Need to Talk About the Dog! Explorations of Human–Canine Relations and Community Hybridity in Bolivia
Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 28-47Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12463
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/18459/1/Andean_dogs_Mar18.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Review of, "With the Saraguros: The Blended Life in a Transnational World". By David Syring
Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 119-120Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12570
Review of, "Death and Conversion in the Andes: Lima and Cuzco 1532-1670" by Gabriela Ramos
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 162-163Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesReview of, "Remapping Bolivia: resources, territory and indigeneity in a plurinational state". Edited by Nicole Fabricant and Bret Gustafson
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 167-168Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesReview of, "La recuperación de tecnologías indígenas: Arqueología, tecnología y desarrollo en los Andes" by Alexander Herrera Wassilowsky
Mountain Research and Development, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 188-189Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesReview of: "Roosters at Midnight: Indigenous Signs and Stigma in Local Bolivian Politics" by Robert Albro
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 219-220Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2011.01740_22.x
Animals and science: from colonial encounters to the biotech industry
Books and Reports: AnthologiesHealthy meat and natural animals: nature, culture and decolonizing knowledge in Bolivia
Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the Biotech Industry. Bolton, M., Degnen, C. (eds.). Cambridge Scholars Pub., pp. 169-195, 27 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersIntroduction
Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the Biotech Industry. Cambridge Scholars Pub., pp. 1-29, 29 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersReview of "El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia" by Sian Lazar
Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 544-546Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150802340453
Counting Llamas and Accounting for People: Livestock, Land and Citizens in Southern Bolivia
The Sociological Review, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 5-21Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00680.x
Genetic Defects or Generative Prototypes: Competing Models for Livestock Improvement in Southern Bolivia
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 531-549Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00351.x
The Devil and Maria Picha Picha at San Antonio de Lipez: A 'pachakuti' in the colonial past of a mining area
Kay Pacha: Cultivating earth and water in the Andes. Dransart, P. (ed.). Archaeopress, pp. 47-54Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersReview of, "Signs of the Inka Khipu: binary coding in the Andean knotted string records". By Gary Urton
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 223-224Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] https://www.jstor.org/stable/3803931
Review of, "The Cord Keepers; Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village". By Frank Salomon
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 257-258Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] https://www.jstor.org/stable/3803961
Quartering Sheep at Carnaval, Sud Lipez, Bolivia
The Qualities of Time: Anthropological Approaches. James, W., Mills, D. (eds.). Berg Publishers, pp. 187-201, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersContando llamas y dando cuenta de gente: La importancia de ser (o no ser) 'indio' en Sud Lipez, Bolivia
Anuario de estudios bolivianos, archivisticos y bibliograficos 2004. Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, pp. 129-157, 18 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersDoing Waki in San Pablo de Lipez: Reciprocity Between the Living and the Dead
Anthropos, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 379-396Contributions to Journals: Articles