Resumen de Nicaraguan Narratives of Development, Nationhood, and the Body
Anthropological studies of development in Latin America generally have taken political economic approaches, though a few have raised important cultural questions as well. This work con tributes to the latter project by approaching two subjects rarely discussed together: discourses of development and body politics. In Nicaragua during the last decade, contentious political economic differences have often played out in discursive practices, as the nation makes a transition from die revolutionary Sandinista period to the neoliberal era. Here I examine discussions of microenteiprises and the informal sector as development issues in die remaking of the nation. Then I present the more personal, visceral narratives of working class and poor urban residents. These nondominant discourses that invoke gender and the body as sites on which current conditions are inscribed may point the way toward alternative approaches and critiques
