Question Description
My book Migrant Conversions: Transforming Connections Between Peru just came out from the University of California Press. Read a couple chapters for extra credit.
It is available for free online.
- To read it online or download it to your computer (where you can highlight it, etc), go to this website (Links to an external site.). Click [read book] or [download] and choose one of the options (e-pub worked on my Mac)
- To get a free Kindle download, go to Amazon: here. (Links to an external site.)
For extra credit, read the the Introduction: Constructing the End, and Chapter 1: Peru, South Korea, Peru
Note: The intro chapter may have some challenging/dry parts at the beginning when I am setting up my argument. If those get troublesome just skim them and skip to the part called “Salsa Dancing in Seoul”.
Read these two chapters and submit your answers to the following questions:
- What is the most interesting, surprising or shocking thing you read and why? This could be a story, a quote, a person’s experience, a fact, etc.
- What does it mean to convert religions? In your answer you could talk about if you ever converted or known someone who has. What does one potentially gain and lose when converting? What do I mean when I say this book is about conversion? Find a quote from this section that illustrates why I am talking about the conversion of money, religion and the plans migrants make. 3. From the introduction answer one of the following questions:
- What were some jobs Peruvian migrants held? Where did they live, work and hang out? What was cosmopolitan about it? What do you think they liked about it and why?
- What were my methods of data collection? (Where did I go, who did I talk to and why, etc.). What does it mean that I did transnational fieldwork?
- How did the nun Hermana Pilar (Sister Pilar) and the priest Padre Ignacio (Father Ignacio) help me gain entry into the Peruvian community? What was that first meeting like? How do you think that influenced the rest of my fieldwork with non-Catholic migrants?
- My reception and positionality in the field: How was I treated in Korea versus Peru and why? In what ways does an anthropologist’s identity impact the data she collects? What are some of the challenges of doing fieldwork in so many places at once?
4. From Chapter 1: Peru, South Korea, Peru… answer one of the following questions:
- How and why did Peruvians begin to travel to South Korea? What were some of the travel stories that stuck out to you and why? How and why did the stories change over time?
- Beatriz and Victor live in the same town in Korea and they arrived in Korea under similar circumstances twenty years ago. Why do you think their stories were so different now? How did religion impact their stories differently?
5. Ask a question. This could be a question for me as the author or a discussion question .
