Customer Reviews (6)

Great material
This is a wonderful treatment of both ecology and identification.Plates are as good as any I've seen.A version of the ID guide better suited to carrying in the field (the thing is heavy and bulky) would be very welcome.

Received package damaged
I received the package, but it was damaged.The two books come in a box set, and they were packed in such a way so that they moved around in the box during the trip, and the box broke on both the top and bottom.I didn't return it because Christmas was in a few days and I had to give the gift.It was disappointing though, that the company packaging it didn't put in any paper or packing materials to prevent this.

A must for identifying the birds of Ecuador
I have had these books for just a few weeks, but they have been invaluable for identifying the birds of Ecuador. I have lived in Quito for 9 years, and have had the opportunity to see many different species of birds, but have never taken the time to identify them until now. I will agree with other reviewers that the field guide is a little hefty for carrying with you. Here in Quito they have the plates in a separate volume and in Spanish, but you have to buy the entire set to get it. I have not found this available in the U. S. This would make a great addition to the library without having to tear out the plates and make your own, plates-only volume.

Auseful but bulky field guide
What a set of books, no doubt about that! For the first time, there is a full set of very useful color plates for one of the core South American countries. It is certainly a great accomplishment to have all the species pictured in color and on a more or less consistent standard. However, I do not agree with other reviewers who rave about the plates. Too many of the bird pictures have an overall flat appearance, with the color rendition being too simplistic or too bold. And while a good number of the birds are depicted in good or even unnessessarily large size, others would have benefitted from a larger sized rendition. Just because a species is small does not mean it has to be depicted in a diminutive size, unless there are larger species of the same group on the plate. Thus, while the plates are most useful, it is nevertheless disappointing to see that the overall standard (except for the plates being all in color) is rather lower than what was already published decades ago e.g. in "Birds of Colombia".
The field guide volume has excellent range maps and very helpful comprehensive texts. A somewhat more compact layout would have allowed for a smaller overall size of the book, however. The way to do it is being demonstrated in the book itself. The texts facing the plates use the suggested compact layout most convincingly. Spanish bird names are given in the main text, but, unfortunately, there is no index for them. To conclude, this is by far the more useful field guide for the general area than the also new "Birds of Peru" with its almost non-existing texts, lack of range maps and much less satisfactory plates. (P.S. This is a revised review as I think my first version did not do the book justice.)

Bird Bible for Ecuador arrives. Strengthen your doormats.
There are probably only two ways of approaching this book. Firstly on your knees, bowing low and, secondly, after several weeks of serious weight-training. I have recently come back from a short bird-watching holiday to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. I knew these books were coming out, but they weren't out in time for me. So, like thousands of birdwatchers in the past, I had to make do with Hilty & Brown's "Birds of Colombia" (Princeton University Press) as the next best thing. Hilty & Brown is an EXCELLENT book, but Ecuador has some 500 more bird species than Colombia and is arguably the richest birding country on the planet. A comparison is instructive. Hilty & Brown's paperback covers its remit in 820 pages and weighs 1.3kg. Ridgely & Greenfield consists of two paperback volumes totalling nearly 1600 pages which,in their thick cardboard slipcase, weigh 3.1 kg ! Hence the need for weight-training - even so, these may be more than you can comfortably carry and even the authors suggest you leave one volume at home ! Both Paperbacks are called "The Birds of Ecuador" but one is sub-titled "Vol. I. Status, Abundance & Taxonomy", whilst the other is "Vol. II. Field Guide". They are VERY different. Volume II is the more immediately traditional. It is 740 pages long, has nearly 100 colour plates illustrating the birds of Ecuador and is supported by a text giving details of each bird, habits, voice etc. and a distribution map. Volume I is 850 pages long and only has one illustration. It has an 80-page section on various topics such as ecosystems, migration, conservation, a history of Ecuadorian birdwatching, a gazeteer. The rest is a detailed account for each species of abundance and distribution in different districts andimportant birding sites in Ecuador. Are there any limitations ? Yes, chiefly geographical ones. The authors have deliberately left out the Galapagos (which belong to Ecuador) and have restricted seabirds to those that can be seen for a few kilometres out to sea. They also omit the large "Disputed Territory" which either belongs to Ecuador or Peru depending on whose map you look at - on balance this is probably a wise precaution. Some of the illustrations look as if they have come from Ridgely's masterwork on the Birds of South America but since this is only appearing at the rate of about one volume every decade this is hardly a criticism. Do you need both volumes - given that you can buy them separately if you want ? The answer is probably YES. I think if you had only bought volume I you would definitely NEED volume II - the Field Guide. If you had only bought Volume II you would WANT Volume I as well.Ecuador should be on the wish list of every travelling birdwatcher and these books should therefore be on the shopping list.Without serious competition, they are the immediate "Bible" for the birds of Ecuador and should be treated withreverence as a labour of love, a work of high scholarship and a delight to birdwatchers everywhere. ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines the relationship between indigenous populations in the north-central highlands of Ecuador and disease, especially those infections introduced by Europeans during the sixteenth century.Disease, of course, existed in the Americas long before 1500.But just as native societies resisted and eventually adapted to European conquest, so too did they adapt to Old World pathogens. Just as the responses of Indian communities to the economic and political demands of Spaniards varied over time, so too did the immunological responses of indigenous populations change over generations.What began in the sixteenth century as contact and invasion soon would involve both Indians and Europeans in a new history of biological, as well as social, adaptation. ... Read more

Product Description
The combination of weak states, ungoverned space, terrorism, and international criminal networks make a mockery of the Westphalian system of international order. Latin American countries are experiencing all of these maladies in varying degrees. In this context, Dr. Gabriel Marcella analyzes the lessons to be learned from the Colombian attack against the clandestine camp of the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was located at an isolated area within Ecuador on March 1, 2008. This single incident and its aftermath had profound reverberations throughout the Hemisphere. The events leading to the attack illuminate the vulnerabilities of states, societies, and the international community to the actions of substate groups conducting criminal activities. The author recommends that the United States manage its complex agenda with sensitivity and balance its support for Colombia with equally creative support for Ecuador. ... Read more

Product Description
Professor Kim Clark explores a time period and country for which little has been published in English. By studying the dimensions of politics and culture as one, Professor Clark argues that the local railroad case served as a demonstration of some of the problems that were most important during the liberal period.

At the turn of the century, diverse political, economic, and social conditions divided Ecuador. During the construction of the Guayaquil-Quito Railway, the people of Ecuador faced the challenge of working together. The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895-1930 examines local, regional, and national perspectives on the building of the railway and analyzes the contradictory processes of national incorporation.

Rather than examining the formation of Ecuador’s national identity, Professor Clark analyzes the methods of two groups working on the same project but with opposing goals. The elite landowners of the highlands were concerned with the transportation of their agricultural products to the coast, while the agro-export elite of the coast were more interested in forming a labor market. Because the underlying objectives were contradictory, only a partial consensus was reached on the nature of national development. This tense agreement channeled the conflicting opinions but did not eliminate them. The Redemptive Work is the first text to deal with these complex issues in Ecuador’s history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Modernity in the Andes
Geographically Ecuador has a long coast with a narrow coastal plane. Moving eastward, high mountains restrict access to the Alto Plano and the Amazon jungles beyond accentuate climate variations. Large indigenous populations share a common Inca heritage and historically Ecuador was a Spanish colony. As Ecuador was transformed and modernized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, elites envisioned national reform. The discourse was about how a railroad could tie the country together. Historically, it should be noted, railroads are marked as the quintessential icon of modernity in Latin America.

A. Kim Clark traces the development and construction of the rail link between Guayaquil, a port city on the coast and Quito, the capital in the interior. The railroad was seen as redeeming because it represented "for Ecuador, her moral resurrection and emancipation as a people."(43) Differences between the "principal dominant groups in Ecuador - the landowning elite of the highlands and the agro-export elite of the coast" (2) were overcome as each group perceived an advantage from the railroad. The insular land holding elite in the interior were tempted by expanding markets for their crops and livestock. Coastal elites, on the other hand, badly need labor to produce cocoa for export. The railroad alone was a technological achievement, but more significantly it served as a unifying link for nation building.

Clark notes three important aspects of the railroad in Ecuador: "First, the construction of the railway was associated with important political-economic transformations in Ecuador.... Second, the railway, and the broader discourse of movement and connection that surrounded it, allowed for consensus about the nature of national development....Third, the processes of national economic, political, and social integration through the railway had contradictory and uneven effects on different social groups and regions."(1-2)

If constructing the railroad was fraught with difficulty, the discourse necessary to achieve a consensus to even build it, likewise was not easy. It was the conservative leader, Gabriel Moreno, who came up with the very liberal idea to develop road and rail transportation as a means of uniting the country. Unlike most other Latin American countries, he did this by bringing the church and state closer together, rather than using the military to pressure the country toward modernization. (24)

Not until 1895 when General Eloy Alfaro and other coastal liberals wrested power from the dominant conservatives in Quito did Ecuador finish the task when they contracted with North American entrepreneur Archer Harmon. "The major difficulty was...due to the climatic conditions and the nature of the rocks." (36) When the Guayaquil-Quito link was inauguration in 1908, Ecuadorian liberals preened triumphantly. Hope for the nation sprang from optimism for national unity when the railroad opened up the interior to bring people together.

Clearly the building of the railroad was redeeming in that Ecuador was for all practical purposes disunited by geographic and ideological barriers. High mountains had separated the costal lowlands from the plateau and the more insular interior elites differed in outlook from the progressive export oriented coastal elites. As such the railroad was an "arena" of discourse between a geographical and ideological divide. The quickening of movement and communication would help promote the idea of an Ecuadorian national identity.

In reading The Redemptive Work, there is very little discussion directly about consumption as a mechanism of modernization, but in talking about the effect of the railroad on labor, agriculture, urbanization, movement, and connection, it is possible to extract some clues from the text.
Cocoa production for export did little to stimulate Ecuador's domestic economy. There was little foreign investment and the capital generated went overseas or went to support a luxurious life style for a few local elites. Cocoa production did stimulate growth in the population of Guayaquil where labor was in short supply due to the climate and illness associated with coastal living. Relatively high wages were offered to laborers there, compared to agricultural workers in the interior. Similarly higher wages for rail workers did not translate into more consumption. Intermediaries took a cut and left the workers with about half of their pay.

Other factors did not help build an internal economy. "As cocoa production expanded on the coast, it did not mean that highland food production was developed through transfer of earnings from the export sector to the non-export economy." (27) Despite the fact that Ecuador was an agricultural country, it was cheaper to import foreign food staples than to acquire them from the interior. What little industry developed had an agricultural basis and this was not significant.

The railroad did create a labor market for people from the interior to seek work on the coast and, by means of the railroad, interior elites were able to expand internal agricultural and livestock markets while easing access to imported goods, which presumably benefiting themselves more than others. Exactly how these factors effected the consumption patterns of peasants and indigenous people is unclear, but most likely it was minimal.

Nevertheless Clark concludes, "The railway stimulated the internal market by improving transportation in three ways. First, it allowed rapid transportation, which facilitated the commercialization of fresh vegetables and dairy products in coastal cities and towns. Second, the railway made it possible to transport heavy or bulky products such as onions, potatoes, grains, and corn. Third, the reduced cost of transportation permitted an increase in the profit margins for certain products destined for the internal market: livestock, dairy products, and some legumes (especially lentils and peas)." (110)

Clark makes one explicit reference to expanding the internal market in a program of the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura to create additional consumers along with the elimination of debt peonage. Underscoring its proposals was a concern that "indigenous peasants frittered away their earnings in unproductive ways." (128) Thismove to expand consumerism also served as a racist argument against Chinese merchants moving to Quito, accusing them of being "'meager consumers'" and "restricting costs to such extremes that they prevent legitimate competition'" (168-69) In this instance it does not seem the railroad was redemptive. ... Read more

Product Description
General Juan Jos Flores rose from humble social origins in Venezuela to attain eminence in the wars of independence and the first presidency of Ecuador. His conviction that Ecuador was ungovernable under republican forms led to a secret attempt to establish monarchy, not only in Ecuador but also in Peru and Bolivia.Failure and exile followed, but he returned to participate in the dictatorship of Gabriel Garca Moreno. In this finely researched political biography of Flores, Mark Van Aken shows that monarchism was a much more important force in early Ecuador than is commonly thought. This important study of Flores's political career contains much hitherto unknown information about Ecuador's early independent history and the leading individuals involved in its politics. It will be of great interest to Latin Americanists, not only because it is a major new interpretation of that period of Ecuadorian history but also because of its relevance to other Latin American monarchist efforts. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is a study of the power relationshipsinherent in domestic architecture and household material culture thatwere essential to the maintenance of the Spanish colonialempire. Using the household spatial patterning, furnishings, andpersonal belongings of residents of the highland city of Cuenca,Ecuador, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the bookexamines gender, ethnic, and status relations in the colonial Andeanworld. ... Read more

Product Description
Ecuador's national experience from independence to 1912 is traced in English for the first time in this compelling, fascinating history. ... Read more

Product Description
In Ecuador, as in all countries, archaeology and history play fundamental roles in defining national identity. Connecting with the prehistoric and historic pasts gives the modern state legitimacy and power. But the state is not the only actor that lays claim to the country's archaeological patrimony, nor is its official history the only version of the story. Indigenous peoples are increasingly drawing on the past to claim their rights and standing in the modern Ecuadorian state, while the press tries to present a "neutral" version of history that will satisfy its various publics.This path-finding book investigates how archaeological knowledge is used for both maintaining and contesting nation-building and state-hegemony in Ecuador. Specifically, Hugo Benavides analyses how the pre-Hispanic site of Cochasqui has become a source of competing narratives of Native American, Spanish, and Ecuadorian occupations, which serve the differing needs of the nation-state and different national populations at large. He also analyzes the Indian movement itself and the recent controversy over the final resting place for the traditional monolith of San Biritute.Offering a more nuanced view of the production of history than previous studies, Benavides demonstrates how both official and resistance narratives are constantly reproduced and embodied within the nation-state's dominant discourses. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Deeper insight into Ecuador and Indigenous issues of Latin America
This book fills a void in Latin American research.Little has been written about Ecuador compared to Peru, Guatemala and Mexico.I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Ecuadorian highlands (Guamote, Chimborazo) from 1988 - 1990.I needed this book to help me gain a better understanding of those two, very challenging years of my life.This book has helped me find many puzzle pieces that I simply did not have while I lived there.It also has helped me understand the changes I see between the late 80's and today.
The chapters are varied and not just focused on Ecuador - so anyone wishing a deeper understanding of Central and South America will find this book enlightening.
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Product Description
On the eve of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, peoples throughout the Andes brewed beer from corn and other grains, believing that this alcoholic beverage, called asua, was a gift from the gods, a drink possessing the power to mediate between the human and divine. Consuming asua to intoxication was a sacred tradition that humans and spirits shared, creating reciprocal joy and ties of mutual obligation.

When Butler began research in Huaycopungo, Ecuador, in 1977, ceremonial drinking was causing hardship for these Quichua-speaking people. Then, in 1987, a devastating earthquake was interpreted as a message from God to end the ritual obligation to get drunk.

Holy Intoxication to Drunken Dissipation examines how the defense of drinking and getting drunk ended abruptly as the people of Otavalo re-evaluated their traditional religious life and their relationship with the wider Ecuadorian society, and defended a renewed traditional indigenous culture with increasing pride. This account presents both the local people’s views of their struggles and a more general analysis of the factors involved, and concludes with thoughts about how their culture will adapt in the future. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more