Research In Central America Research Articles

Echinoderm research perspectives: A Central American bibliometric review

Introduction: Central America, a narrow strip of land dividing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, has a high diversity of marine and terrestrial species. Echinoderms are one of the most diverse marine groups with 420 reported species. Objective: To summarize echinoderm research in Central America. Methods: We compiled the literature from SCOPUS, Web of Science, SciELO, Google Scholar, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Internet Archive and the Smithsonian Library. Results: We found 324 publications dating from 1840 to 2020; the early studies had a strong taxonomic focus, but after the 1970s, ecology, evolution and reproduction gained prominence. Echinoidea is the most studied class (38% of publications) due to its use in evolutionary studies as well as the importance of the genus Diadema in reef ecology and dynamics. Conclusion: We recommend more research on fisheries management, conservation and environmental education; and greater integration of local and international research.

A guide to the identification of subfossil non-chydorid Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) from lake sediments of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: part I

Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) quickly respond to changes in environmental conditions and their remains are usually found in large amounts in lacustrine sediments, which make them an important biological proxy in paleolimnological studies. Variations in species composition have been used to infer paleo-climate and paleo-environmental variables including lake depth, eutrophication, and deforestation. However, despite their advantages as bioindicators in the study of past conditions, they are underutilized in paleolimnological research in Central America due to limited knowledge about their diversity and the morphological differences between the subfossil remains of different taxa. In order to address this issue, we described and analyzed cladoceran remains from 56 waterbodies located in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Here, we provide a description of the remains from 10 different taxa that belong to the Sididae, Bosminidae, Daphniidae, Macrothricidae, and Ilyocryptidae families.

Es cosa suya: entanglements of border externalization and African transit migration in northern Costa Rica

Starting from the idea that border externalization – understood as the spatial and institutional stretching of borders – is enmeshed with the highly contextual humanitarian and securitarian dynamics of migrant trajectories, this article addresses the reach of border externalization tentacles in Costa Rica. Although Costa Rica does not formally engage in border externalization agreements, it is located in a region characterized by transit migration and transnational securitization pressures. Moreover, externalization efforts across the Atlantic have contributed to a relatively new presence of so-called extra-continental migrants. Given these circumstances, we aim to interrogate the ways in which border externalization plays a role in Costa Rica’s discourses, policies and practices of migration management. We do so by analysing a migrant reception centre in the northern Costa Rica border region, and by focusing on African transit migration. Our analysis is based on exploratory field research at the centre as well as on long-term migration research in Central America. Building on these empirical explorations and the theoretical notions of mobility regimes, transit and arterial borders, the article finds that Costa Rica’s identity as a ‘humanitarian transit country’ – as enacted in the migrant reception centre – both reproduces and challenges border externalization. While moving towards increased securitization of migration and an internalization of its border, Costa Rica also distinguishes itself from neighbouring countries by emphasizing the care it extends to African migrants, in practice enabling these migrants to move further north. Based on these findings, the article argues for a deeper appreciation of the role of local-regional histories, perceptions, rivalries, linkages and strategies of migration management. This allows for a better grip of the scope and shape of border externalization across a diversity of migration landscapes.

Strengthening social relationships through community archaeology at Nueva Esperanza, El Salvador: Challenges and lessons

ABSTRACTThough collaborative community archaeology continues to grow worldwide, it is still an underdeveloped aspect of archaeological research in Central America. In this article, I describe an attempt to conduct community archaeology in the community of Nueva Esperanza, El Salvador. This article outlines how archaeological findings and collaborative archaeological practices impacted the people living at the site and how a community's collaboration impacts archaeologists. I explore the nature and significance of an open communication between archaeologists and communities in archaeological practice. This enriches our understanding of the past, thereby creating new values and meanings in relation to the archaeological material. The archaeological site provides a gathering place where collective memories are forged, and social relationships between different generations, genders, and other communities in the region are strengthened.

Terry L. Erwin: She Had a Black Eye and in Her Arm She Held a Skunk: Re-published from "American Entomologist" Vol. 61 (I) on the occasion of ZooKeys 500.

Terry L. Erwin is Curator of Coleoptera at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C. and editor-in-chief of ZooKeys. He generated significant controversy in 1982—which continues to this day—when he published an estimate of 30 million species on Earth, which was substantially more than the nearly one million described species. He was born 1 December 1940 in St. Helena, California and spent his youth trout fishing with his maternal grandfather in the High Sierra near Lake Tahoe. As a teenager, with prodding from his father, he built hot rod cars and was a founding member and later President of the California Conquistadores, a hot rod club in the San Francisco Bay area. Erwin earned his B.S. (1964, Biology) and M.A. (1966, Biology) degrees from San Jose State College. With a desire to learn from the three greatest living carabidologists, he first obtained a Ph.D. (1969, Entomology) from University of Alberta under the direction of George Ball. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology with Philip J. Darlington, Jr. During that year, a position opened at the (then) United States National Museum in the Department of Entomology, which he accepted, but two months after taking the job, he departed for a year-long sabbatical at Lund University in Sweden, where he completed the carabidology “trifecta” under the mentorship of Carl H. Lindroth. While in Sweden, the Chairman of Entomology at the USNM changed from Karl Krombien to Paul D. Hurd, who saw on his desk a proposal left by Terry to study California carabid beetles. Learning that grant money was available for research in Central America, Hurd crossed out “California” and wrote in “Panama.” Terry returned to Washington in 1971, as the second coleopterist within the USNM, and was greatly surprised to find that his proposal had been changed, funding had been secured, and he was scheduled for the next flight to the Canal Zone. Thus began a lifetime career on studies of insect biodiversity in neotropical forests.

“Migration and Violence: Lessons from Colombia for the Americas” A workshop of the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration and the Refugee Research Network (TFMI)

The conference, “Migration and Violence: Lessons from Colombia to the Americas” was held in Bogotá D.C., Colombia at the Pontifi cia Universidad Javeriana on June 29, 2012. The main objective of the conference was to develop inter-disciplinary academic research in Central America and Mexico regarding the relationship between violence, particularly narco-violence, and migration. The setting in Bogotá D.C. was deliberate as the participants discussed how lessons learned from Colombia’s experience with narco-induced migration could be leveraged for the benefit of Central America and Mexico. With the participation of experts on international migration, government representatives, academics, and civil society, the conference highlighted research results and relevant intervention experience concerning this problem in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.This article presents an analysis of the presentations given and the discussions held at the conference. It consists of four parts. The first section compares the similarities and differences regarding migration and violence in Colombia and El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. The second section presents the major epistemological challenges emerging from research and models of intervention. The third section presents the implications of the epistemological challenges and their impact on public policy. The fourth section concludes with principal lessons from Colombia for research and intervention in the problem of violence and migration.

Transforming and Mobilizing Fluid Accounting Inscriptions: The Logical Framework in Non-Governmental Organizations

The article seeks to better understand the transformation and mobilization of the Logical Framework, a project planning and performance assessment tool that is widely used in international development organizations. The Logical Framework has certain features, including its capacity to (a) summarize projects in the form of a “simple” and visually appealing matrix, (b) be modified by the addition or removal of components, (c) use components to create other inscriptions, and (d) avoid control by a cadre of inventors, consultants, or agencies. These features make the Logical Framework a fluid inscription (i.e. components and relations among them vary, blurring its boundaries both descriptively and practically). These features also allow its users to transform and mobilize the Logical Framework through the field of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by extending (plugging) its components into other inscriptions and practices — particularly into the NGO’s communicative practices and management accounting controls, such as the strategic plan, operating plan, and budget. Such transformations further blur its boundaries. These connections make the Logical Framework a powerful device: they introduce into the field of NGOs a way of thinking about, and controlling from a distance, the practice of international development. Based on field research in Central America, the study contributes to our understanding of management accounting controls in international development organizations, the transformation and mobilization of accounting objects, and fluid inscriptions.

Huellas ignotas: Antolog�a de cuentistas centroamericanas (1991-2005) (review)

Reviewed by: Huellas ignotas: Antología de cuentistas centroamericanas (1991-2005) Edward Hood Muñoz, Willy O. Huellas ignotas: Antología de cuentistas centroamericanas (1991-2005). Vol.. San José, Costa Rica: EUNED, 2009. Pp. 506. ISBN 978-9968-31-684-2. This anthology of short stories by Central American female authors is the result of Willy O. Muñoz's many years of research in Central America and productive contact with the region's writers and their literature. Volume 1, which is not under review here, includes texts published between 1890 and 1990. Volume 2 contains texts written or published by a diverse array of writers from the region between 1991 and 2005, a period in which there was a proliferation of writings by Central American women. Muñoz has organized his anthology by the date of composition or publication of each text. This arrangement allows for inclusion of authors from different generations. The thirty-seven writers included in the anthology were born between 1933 and 1974. Nine were born in Panama (Isis Tejeira, Beatriz Valdés, Rosa María Britton, Moravia Ochoa López, Aida Judith González Castrellón, Consuelo Tomás, Yolanda J. Hackshaw, Melanie Taylor, and Gloria Guardia); eight in Guatemala (Esmeralda Putzeys Illescas, Mildred Hernández, Jessica Masaya Portocarrero, Aida Toledo, Ruth Piedrasanta Herrera, Gloria Hernández, Fabiola Juárez, and Lorena Flores); seven in Nicaragua (Mercedes Gordillo, Patricia Belli, Isolda Rodríguez Rosales, Marisela Quintana, Betty Lacayo, Alejandrina Gutiérrez, and María del Carmen Pérez Cuadra); four in Honduras (María Eugenia Ramos, Rocío Tábora, Waldina Mejía, and Lety Elvir); four in El Salvador (Ruth Evelyn Cruz, Jacinta Escudos, Irma Chavarría, and Jennifer Rebeca Valiente); and one in Costa Rica (Anacristina Rossi). The remaining four writers were born outside of Central America: Erika Harris, who is considered a Panamanian writer, was born in Mexico, and Myriam Bustos Arratia, Giovanna Giglioli, and Dorelia Barahona, considered Costa Rican authors, were born in Chile, Italy, and Spain, respectively. Moreover, Alejandrina Gutiérrez, who was born in Nicaragua, spent part of her childhood in Venezuela and lives in Costa Rica. Muñoz provides biographic and bibliographic information for each of these authors and an introduction to each short story. Although this is a diverse group of women, their writings share many characteristics. Several of their stories reflect what Beatriz Cortez, in her recent study Estética del cinismo:Pasión y desencanto en la literatura centroamericana de posguerra (2010), has characterized as an esthetic of cynicism and expression of disenchantment in post-conflict Central American literature. Indeed, in his introduction, Muñoz asserts that contemporary Central American female authors are highly conscious of the power of the written word and have made use of language to represent the diversity of experience of Central American women and their cultures that, in many cases, had not been given representation in the past. He notes that these writers expose and critique the use of language and knowledge by a patriarchal system of oppression, wherein, [End Page 544] in many cases, women are relegated to domestic roles where they must endure the abuse and infidelities of their husbands. To varying degrees, these writers see their work as the appropriation of language to contest and replace its phallocentric representation of the world with one that takes account of women, their bodies, and their experiences. Muñoz also points out their interest in representing individuals from socially, economically, or politically marginalized sectors of society. Additionally, he notes these authors' efforts to represent the diverse nature of human sexuality and its manifestations. Stylistically, Muñoz observes that they avail themselves of a sophisticated array of fictional techniques to give expression to their themes. A brief description of several of the stories will demonstrate their diversity and how they exemplify Muñoz's characterization of contemporary short story writing by Central American female authors. In "Punto y seguido" (1999), a brief story by Honduran writer Rocío Tábora, the narrator struggles with the language of others and realizes she must find her own words or perish. Female sexual attitudes and practices are explored through a multiplicity of voices in...

Comparisons of LSMS-ISA data collection and dissemination efforts in Central America

This article aims the comparison of LSMS survey in Central American countries to increase current knowledge of survey methodologies and ensure the most efficient dissemination and utilization of the results.It will improve the availability,quality and relevance of agricultural data for policy and research in Central America. The criterion for this comparison consists of household survey data production,methodological validation/research,capacity building and dissemination. The integrated approach considers multi-topic questionnaire as agriculture plus non-farm, nutrition, interalia, consumption –based welfare measure, global strategy to improve Ag statistics.The methodological validation/research is an extension of LSMS IV for improvement of following measures: crop yields (plot size, quantities,measurement tool, diaries/crop cards, crop cutting),module development/sourcebooks (income source, fishery, livestock, and community governance/empowerment. The results would have the following priorities and principles: a)support and build longitudinal data systems that improve policy decision making, resource allocation, and priority setting, b) ensure free public access to all data as soon as possible, c) lower the costs of using data trough data access platforms, harmonization of methodologies, and through outreach and capacity building, d) capitalize on synergies from integrating different types of data (example,broad representative surveys as LSMS, more intensive surveys/sentinel sites, censuses, geospatial data, etc.) Key words: Panel data, living standards measurement study (LSMS), LSMS-ISA, MECOVI (Regional program for improvement of surveys of living conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean).

Volume and Geographical Distribution of Ecological Research in the Andes and the Amazon, 1995–2008

The Andes range and the Amazon basin represent the most diverse biological community on earth and the largest tropical forest on earth, respectively, but they are historically understudied by biologists. In this paper we provide the first quantitative description of the volume and geographical distribution of ecological research in these regions. We compiled a dataset of all articles based on the Andes and Amazon regions published in two prominent international tropical ecology journals between 1995 and 2008. During this period, the number of scientific articles based on research in the Amazon was half that based on research in Central America, while the Andes scored among the least-studied of all tropical regions. Brazil was the leading base for Amazonian studies and Ecuador the primary location for Andean studies, but Ecuador led both categories and Brazil came last when research effort was standardized by area. Most Amazonian research took place in three regions—Manaus, southeastern Peru, and eastern Ecuador—with ∼31 percent of all papers coming from four field stations in those regions. Andean research focused overwhelmingly on the northern Andes. Research in the Andes range and the Amazon basin remains scattered, patchy, and far below its potential. We propose steps that funding agencies can take to increase research output and reduce geographical bias in the study of South America's richest ecosystems.

Learning in the Field: Using Community Self Studies to Strengthen Forest‐Based Social Movements

AbstractState devolution has combined with social movement pressures to give communities increasing access and rights to southern forests, making development of effective local participation in sustainable resource management crucial. This paper discusses an experience of participatory research in Central America, which sought to help two grassroots forest organizations, the Association of Forest Communities of Petén, Guatemala and the Farmer to Farmer Programme of Siuna, Nicaragua, to respond to new organizational and political challenges by developing their internal capacity for research and analysis. Community‐based ‘para‐professional’ social researchers were trained to carry out studies of their communities' experiences with natural resource management, including strengths, problems and possible response strategies. The collaborative research initiative also encountered problems of inequality, uneven education and skills and concerns with validity. The results of this experience indicate that with appropriate support, community‐based research and researchers can help engender collective reflection, strengthen local organizational capacity and contribute knowledge and analysis in support of forest community movements' efforts to promote local resource rights and more sustainable development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Agrobiodiversity and Shade Coffee Smallholder Livelihoods: A Review and Synthesis of Ten Years of Research in Central America*

We used households as the primary unit of analysis to synthesize agrobiodiversity research in small-scale coffee farms and cooperatives of Nicaragua and El Salvador. Surveys, focus groups, and plant inventories were used to analyze agrobiodiversity and its contribution to livelihoods. Households managed high levels of agrobiodiversity, including 100 shade tree and epiphyte species, food crops, and medicinals. Small farms contained higher levels of agrobiodiversity than larger, collectively managed cooperatives. Households benefited from agrobiodiversity through consumption and sales. To better support agrobiodiversity conservation, our analysis calls for a hybrid approach integrating bottom-up initiatives with the resources from top-down projects.

Mario Rodríguez (1922-2005)

Mario Rodríguez was a young man in a hurry. Born in Colusa, California, the son of parents who had emigrated from Spain, he entered the University of California, Berkeley, in 1940 with a major in Spanish and a minor in history. In December 1942, part way through his baccalaureate, the U.S. Army called for his services. The following September he married Mildred Shepherd, who together with their daughter Jacqueline survives him. Mario arrived in France in late 1944; he participated in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded and hospitalized for several months. He was still in the hospital in May 1945 when Jackie was born. Throughout his service years, he took correspondence courses, and he attended school in Grenoble while recuperating. After returning to Berkeley, he obtained his A.B. in 1946 and M.A. in 1948. He completed his Ph.D. in history in 1952.His dissertation, written under the supervision of Engel Sluiter, studied the Portuguese outpost of Colonia do Sacramento — a focus of Luso-Spanish rivalry in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. But after obtaining his first position, an instructorship at Tulane University, in 1952, Mario decided to specialize in the history of nineteenth-century Central America. In 1954 he moved from New Orleans to New Haven, where he became the first Latin Americanist in Yale’s history department. He remained there until 1960, when he moved to the University of Arizona, where he spent another six years. This was followed by a stint of equal duration at George Washington University. His next move, to the University of Southern California in 1972, would be his last; he retired from that institution in 1992.Mario helped found several programs in Latin American studies, taught a wide variety of courses, and lectured extensively, especially in Washington, DC. He was also a productive scholar. His unpublished dissertation was the font of two outstanding articles, one of which earned the James Alexander Robertson Prize in 1955. His work on Central America included a deftly written, impressively researched biography, Frederick Chatfield: Palmerstonian Diplomat in Central America (Univ. of Arizona Press, 1964), a brief synthesis, Central America (Prentice Hall, 1965), and The Cádiz Experiment in Central America, 1808 to 1826 (Univ. of California Press, 1978), as well as a series of shorter monographs.Frederick Chatfield and The Cádiz Experiment made significant contributions to Central American history for the first half of the nineteenth century. By documenting British Foreign Office operations in Central America in the second quarter of the century, Chatfield helped to clarify some very murky diplomatic history. The Cádiz Experiment fitted Mario’s specific Central American expertise into the larger backdrop of the age of democratic revolutions. It contributed not only clarity to the Central American struggle to achieve an independent constitutional regime, but a rare political account of the Cortes of Cádiz, largely from original documents.Mario’s 1964 Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to conduct research in Central America. For the academic year 1975 – 76, he received a Fulbright research grant for a study entitled “The Impact of the American Revolution on the Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking World.” This allowed him to complete his work on Central America and to develop a third research focus, the Americas during the revolutionary era, 1760s to 1820s. This latest area of investigation resulted in two additional books, one a collection of documents published in Madrid (1976), and his last book, “William Burke” and Francisco de Miranda: The Word and Deed in Spanish America’s Emancipation (Univ. Press of America, 1994). Beyond his research, he served as contributing editor for the Handbook on Latin American Studies, 1959 – 76.Mario was preceded in death by his twin sister. Their brother, Angelo, a well-known New York actor, passed on five days after he did. Proud not only of his own achievements but also of those of his family and students, Mario was, like his mentor, an exacting scholar, an exceptionally generous friend, and an amiable colleague who will be missed by all who knew him.

One problem at a time. Building research capacities in developing countries is necessary for economic success in the long term. But the numerous problems in doing so have to be solved for each country individually.

Building research capacities in developing countries is necessary for economic success in the long term. But the numerous problems in doing so have to be solved for each country individually

The case against direct incentives and the search for alternative approaches to better land management in Central America

Land shortages are forcing smallholder farmers to cultivate steeplands. Resulting accelerated soil erosion is being addressed by the promotion of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies, such as cross-slope barriers. These are designed to reduce soil and water loss and increase productivity. Farmer adoption rates, however, are low and many development organisations have reverted to using direct incentives, such as cash payments and food-for-work, to attract participating farmers. Research in Central America shows that whilst these incentives stimulate implementation of SWC technologies, many of the farmers abandon the technologies once the direct incentives are withdrawn. Field research from 1996 to 1998, involving farmed test plots on slopes greater than 33° sought to test a priori assumptions about the impact on soil loss and maize production following adoption of SWC technologies. Research demonstrates that at least one typical SWC technology—live barriers of Vetiveria zizanioides (vetiver grass)—has little or no impact on reducing soil loss or contributing to increased maize yields. This explains why, in the absence of direct incentives, few farmers adopt official recommendations: farmers see little benefit from their investment in the implementation and maintenance of SWC technologies. However, there are major off- and on-farm benefits to reduced soil loss and the research suggests that these benefits can be attained without the use of direct incentives, which are neither sustainable nor contribute to farmer empowerment. An alternative approach is to promote strategies that seek to combine farmers’ concerns about productivity with conservationists’ concerns about reducing soil erosion, often via soil cover management and an improvement in soil quality. The alternative approach poses a challenge to development practitioners, politicians, and society in general. Firstly, a new professionalism is needed in which the interests of farmers are put first and where farmers’ active participation in decision-making is encouraged. Secondly, farmers are more likely to practice better land management if they have secure access to land and receive favourable prices for agricultural products. These so-called indirect incentives are only likely to come about in the context of an enabling policy environment, created, in turn, by pressure from public and private institutions.

Cancuén, Guatemala: Sacred, Scientific and Sustainable

In 1998, the Vanderbilt Cancuén Archaeological Project began its research at sites south of the department of Petén, central Guatemala. Rooted in the heart of the jungle lay the remains of a great civilization that had lived there more than one thousand years ago. Since the beginning of the project, three simultaneous lines of action were planned: archaeological research; restoration of the structures; and a sustainable human development program for the nearby communities. The Project's director, Arthur Demarest, thought the latter program crucial. After twenty years of experience in archaeological research in Central America in conditions of civil war, he found the right conditions to develop a project that was sensitive to raise the living standards of the villages around Cancuén. The Peace Treaty and truce accorded by the National Revolutionary Guatemalan Union (URNG) and the Guatemalan government in 1996 assured that the war would not interfere with local aid and community development. Previous Vanderbilt human development projects in the Petexbatun area to the north had been halted by army and guerrilla intrusions.

The United States in Central America, 1860-1911: Episodes of Social Imperialism and Imperial Rivalry in the World System

This work combines multi-country archival research with a theoretical framework grounded in world systems theory to elucidate the relations between the USA and Central America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Schoonover's archival research in Central America, Europe and the USA encompasses public, business, organizational and individual records. The text describes the role of personalities such as John C. Fremont, Otto von Bismarck, Theodore Roosevelt, Manuel Estrada Cabrera and Jose Santos Zelaya; the impact of railroad building and canal projects; and the role of pan-Americanism, nationalism, racism and anti-Americanism.

Limited Hopes and Fears in Guatemala

Essay| March 01 1991 Limited Hopes and Fears in Guatemala Richard L. Millett Richard L. Millett Professor of History, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Richard L. Millett is the author of more than 50 books and articles on Central America and has done research in Central America each of the last 16 years. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Current History (1991) 90 (554): 125–128. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1991.90.554.125 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Richard L. Millett; Limited Hopes and Fears in Guatemala. Current History 1 March 1991; 90 (554): 125–128. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1991.90.554.125 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCurrent History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1991 by The Regents of the University of California1991 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Central America in the 1980s: Political Crisis and the Social Responsibility of Anthropologists

For most of the past decade, Central America has been wracked by revolution, counterrevolution, military repression, and massive dislocation that have affected the lives of millions of people. Yet despite these dramatic events, little anthropological research has been directed toward Central America in the 1980s. Analysis of the contents of seven major cultural anthropology journals from 1980 to 1986 shows no increased attention to the area over a previous period, 1970 to 1976. Research published in the 1980s has been emphatically non-policy-based, even when fieldwork was conducted in the midst of crisis. This research report will analyze the underrepresentation of Central America in anthropology journals and possible reasons for it. I will suggest that the reticence of anthropology as a discipline to legitimate policy-based research in Central America stems from a tendency that has characterized the field since its beginnings: studying communities as isolated, timeless cultures that are unaffected by regional, national, and international events taking place outside their borders. This bias causes practitioners who wish to advance their careers to turn their backs on what may be considered controversial policy analysis and write instead about subjects endorsed by the discipline.