Edward Telles and PERLA, “Pigmentocracies: Ethnicity, Race and Color in Latin America” (UNC Press, 2014)

New Books in Sociology · Mar 9, 2015 · 43m

How do race, ethnicity and appearance work on Latin America? Edward Telles‘ and the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America‘s (PERLA) new book Pigmentocracies: Ethnicity, Race and Color in Latin America (UNC Press, 2014) shatters the idea that there is a single answer to that question, and proceeds instead with probing studies of four different countries: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. A team of researchers working in each country conducted extensive surveys and interviews with hundreds of participants. The results are surprising in many ways and indicate dynamic changes in ideas…