Book Reviews / General and Sources 499

on mestizaje and the Porfiriato, for instance, does not often handle so skillfully the
literature on the eighteenth century. Monographs on colonial cartography do not often
examine nineteenth-century maps. But the book does not uncover new material or
unseen theoretical nuances. Thus the book deals with such emblematic sources as Cla-
vijeros Historia antigua de Mexico or Mexico a traves de los siglos, Carlos de Singuenza y
Gongoras commemorative arch welcoming the new viceroy, the pre-Hispanic-inspired
monuments in the Paseo de la Reforma, or the late nineteenth-century Aztec-like
paintings, monuments, and lithographs. Of course, Professor Fernandes reinterprets
these well-known items through an up-to-date theoretical perspective, but he offers no
radically new view of them. And yet, it is a pleasure to read, to see in one volume so many
perspectives on various issues. At times, as when the author analyzes mestizaje as Mexicos
foundational myth, the book gets closer to offering a new synthesis, confronting Serge
Gruzinskis and Federico Navarretes views on the importance of history in under-
standing the role of mestizaje in current controversies about the indigenous peoples
marginality. But, like an unbiased judge, the author seems satisfied in exposing the
different views and moving to the next thing.
Patria mestiza is a valuable resource, especially for Portuguese readers. Here is
accessible in Portuguese, perhaps for the first time, a full account of long and complex
discussions about Mexican history. Moreover, unlike what is customary in books in
English, the book includes a careful selection of quotations both in Portuguese and in
their original Spanish rendering. Enhorabuena. In addition, though not often, here and
there Professor Fernandes incorporates a healthy Brazilian balance that, had he made a
more conscious use of it, would have produced indeed nuances and interesting new
interpretations. I recall, for instance, his use of Laura de Mello e Souzas work in
examining the construction of Indians as nature. I would have liked more of this so that
the author might have achieved something like have those Spanish legal historians who,
with Spanish eyesbut with solid, in situ research in Mexican sourceshave been
producing telling reinterpretations of Bourbon centralism and Mexican constitution-
alism. Yet let us consider Patria mestiza only the beginning of the real South-South
perspective to come.

mauricio tenorio-trillo, University of Chicago / Centro de Investigacion y

Docencia Economica, Mexico City
doi 10.1215/00182168-2694436

Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion. By enrique dussel.

Translated by eduardo mendieta et al. Latin America Otherwise:
Languages, Empires, Nations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xxii, 715 pp. Cloth, $34.95.

It has been more than 15 years since the philosopher Enrique Dussel published Ethics of
Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion in Spanish; its recent publication in
English points to how it has become a touchstone for contemporary critical thinking.
500 HAHR / August

The importance of this work lies, on the one hand, in how it demonstrates the force of
philosophical thought that reproduces itself in the periphery of the world-system and, on
the other hand, in how it poses theoretical, ethical, and political questions radically
important for humanity in this third millennium. In this sense, the book questions the
hegemonic ethics that postulates the save who you can ideology of capitalism and even
justifies social Darwinism.
We have before us a work that from the introduction confronts the hegemonic
vision of historyin Walter Benjamins sense of the termas not part of the Hellenic
world but of North Africa and the Middle East, relativizing the role of Europe in the
formation of a global culture. One should note that this historical description has the
philosophical intent of calling into question the myth of modernity, the ideology of
progress, and alleged Western superiority (p. 1).
In the first part, Foundation of Ethics, the author states the three primary
principles (or moments) that configure the architectural framework of the book. First
is the material principle, which touches upon suffering corporeality derived from
the victims negative experiences (p. 284). Second is the formal principle of morality
(p. 141), which refers to the application of the truth/validity norm and furthermore most
valuably reformulates the discourse ethics proposed by Karl-Otto Apel (p. 121); this
principle maintains a fruitful dialogue with and complements the material principle. Last
is the principle of feasibility, which focuses upon context or environment, conse-
quently weighing what is factually possible. With this principle, the instrumental role of
reason is properly placed by precisely subsuming it to a single objective: the production,
reproduction, and development of human life in community. Yet the author mentions
that no perfect system or institution exists, maintaining that every system always pro-
duces an unintentional negative effect.
In the second part, Critical Ethics, Antihegemonic Validity, and the Praxis of
Liberation, the author lays out the other three principles that configure the ethics of
liberation. First is the ethical-critical principle, a structurally central component and
part of the negativity of the victims. Following the reflections of Karl Marx, critical
theory, and Emmanuel Levinas, Dussel postulates the creation of a new ethical system
based upon a universal rationality of liberation that has as a reference point the alterity
and exteriority of the victim. Second, the principle of validity addresses the necessity
and possibility of a situation of intersubjective consensus to conform to this new ethics.
Following the thinking of Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch, the author rehabilitates the
role of utopia in ethical and social projects. The last principle, the liberation principle,
is the moment when the victims raise themselves to a radical transformation of the
system, or, in other words, when they leave the situation of material negativity in which
they find themselves. In this regard, the author addresses a prickly subject for contem-
porary political philosophy: violence. While the author suggests that we are not naive to
advocate violence, he notes that it exists as an unavoidable resource with which you
always have victims. The author also retakes the most valuable aspect of Marxist phil-
osophical thought by approaching the question of the constitution of subjects, of his-
torical actors who, in their praxis, envision building a just, free, and democratic society.
Book Reviews / Colonial Period 501

Finally, the validity and coherence of the ethical material proposed by the author
reveal themselves obviously, since it takes as its starting point the pain of the bodily reality
of the victims in order to rebuke the destructive logic of this actually existing moder-
nity. In this sense, I maintain that Ethics ofLiberation marks an important point not only
in the trajectory of this Argentine philosopher but also in the development of the history
of contemporary thought. For this, I consider the publication and diffusion of this
monumental work in the English-speaking world important.

luis martnez andrade, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

doi 10.1215/00182168-2694445

Colonial Period

Ancient Maya Political Dynamics. By antonia e. foias. Maya Studies.

Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. Maps. Figures. Tables. Notes.
Bibliography. Index. xiv, 289 pp. Cloth, $79.95.

Stasis is not a word that can be applied to the archaeology of the classic Maya lowlands.
Throughout the latter part of the twentieth century archaeologists heatedly debated
whether late classic Maya society (ca. 600800 BCE) could be classified as having achieved
statehood, whether its governmental structure was purely theocratic (or not), and whether
power relations could be characterized as centralized or decentralized. Meanwhile, the
decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing accelerated from the 1980s on; the writing
proved to be a logosyllabic text used to record dedication events and replete with names,
dates, places, and oblique references to martial conflict, royal alliance, and dance.
Yes, royal dancing (ahkot) to summon supernatural beings and ancestors was fre-
quently recorded in texts and depicted naturalistically on stone stelae and polychrome
pottery vessels. Unfortunately the latter became the stock-in-trade of illicit looters and
auction houses during the latter half of the twentieth century. The Ik styleso named
for the T-shaped ik hieroglyph (generally translated as wind) painted on these ves-
selswas one of the most sought-after styles on the black market. Part of an emblem
glyph (a royal moniker linked to a specific polity), the ik glyph probably referred to an
archaeological site called Motul de San Jose (MSJ), which is located on the north side of
Lago Peten Itza in Guatemala.
Only limited archaeological investigation had taken place at this classic Maya polity
before Antonia Foias began a sustained program of field research (19982008), which is
presented in Motul de San Jose: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity (2012),
an edited and data-focused book. In this companion volume, Foias sets out to craft an
understanding of political workings within MSJ and in relation to the larger political
ecology of the classic Maya lowlands. She situates her thinking beyond the polarizing and
typologically fixated models of the previous century and adopts an agent-based approach
to understanding the political machinations from the seventh to the ninth century that
resulted in an archaeological signature of pronounced monumentality and a well-honed