Borderlands and cultural bonds

Abstract

Abstract Although the word “border” and, in close association with it, “borderland,” conveys a concept as ancient as the sovereignty of a kingdom, nation, or state, it is Anzaldua's widely acclaimed book Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) that has made the conditions of living on the border a focus point of studies across social sciences and humanities over recent decades. The multifaceted conditions of the borderland existence, with respect to gender, race, class, belief, and national and cultural identities, for instance, also constitute a central concern in recent studies of global migration. The study of borderlands, however, goes back to as early as the turn of the 20th century, largely focusing on historiographic studies of colonial frontiers, such as the pioneering studies of the Spanish borderlands in America by Herbert Eugene Bolton (1870–1953).