Dr Margaret Bolton

Dr Margaret Bolton
Dr Margaret Bolton
Dr Margaret Bolton

Lecturer

Accepting PhDs

About
Email Address
maggie.bolton@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 272731
Office Address
Room G19 Edward Wright Building
School/Department
School of Social Science

Biography

I came to anthropology after studying physics and working as an engineer in industry.  A growing interest in Latin America and specifically the Andean region led me to return to higher education to study for an M.Litt. in Amerindian Studies and a PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, one of the few universities in the UK offering tuition in Quechua language at that time.  My doctoral thesis was on Indigenous identity in southern Bolivia among llama herders and artisanal miners.  After completing my PhD I held a three-year ESRC fellowship at the University of Manchester during which my research interest turned specifically to human-animal relations.  During this period I conducted fieldwork in the south of Bolivia on rural development projects aimed at llama herders. I subsequently held short-term posts at the Universities of Bradford and Hull before joining the Anthropology Department at Aberdeen. I have published various articles and book chapters on human-animal relations in the Andes and have edited two collections  - Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the biotech Industry (jointly edited with Cathrine Degnen) and Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic (jointly edited with Jan Peter Laurens Loovers).  Recently, my research interest has returned to mining in the Andes and connections between Andean mining and the north-east of Scotland.  I co-curated the exhibition Aberdonians in the Americas: Migrants and Adventurers from Mexico to Paraguay with Professor Patience Schell, and Jenny Downes and Melia Knecht from the University Museums team, focusing the photographic collection of James Duncan, a native of Aberdeenshire who owned mines in Bolivia in the early years of the 20th century.  My research on this topic continues, along with plans for a heritage project at the site of one of Duncan's last mines.  

External Memberships

Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth.

Research

Research Overview

Andes region (Bolivia); human-animal relations, mining, science, technology and expertise; colonialism; the state; ethnohistory; historical anthropology.

Research Areas

Accepting PhDs

I am currently accepting PhDs in Anthropology.


Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.

Email Me

Anthropology

Supervising
Accepting PhDs

Research Specialisms

  • Social Anthropology
  • Latin American History
  • Latin American Studies
  • Sociology of Science and Technology

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Knowledge Exchange

Co-curator (with Prof. Patience Schell, Jenny Downes and Melia Knecht) of the Exhibition Aberdonians in the Americas: Migrants and Adventurers from Mexico to Paraguay, Kings Museum, 2017.

Funding and Grants

2010-11 British Academy Small Grant: Education, Citizenship and Democracy in Rural Bolivia funding for pilot study into adult/alternative education under the Morales administration.

2010 CASS research funding: Education, Citizenship and Democracy in Rural Bolivia

2003-6  ESRC Research Fellowship: The Reception and Interpretation of Science and Technology in non-Western contexts. 

2002  British Academy Small Grant

2000  Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Fund Award

Publications

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  • Flowing Silver and Ephemeral Cities: Working the Ruins of Colonial Silver Mining

    Bolton, M.
    Silver: Transformational Matter. Hills, H. (ed.). British Academy, pp. 64-88, 24 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
  • Introduction: Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic

    Loovers, P., Bolton, M. E.
    Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic. Brill, pp. 1-16, 17 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic

    Bolton, M. E. (ed.), Loovers, P. (ed.)
    Books and Reports: Anthologies
  • The Fragility of Relations of Domestication: Humans, Llamas and Unseasonal Snow in the Bolivian Andes

    Bolton, M. E.
    Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animals Relations in the Amazon, Andes and Arctic. Bolton, M. E., Loovers, J. P. L. (eds.). Brill, pp. 99-117, 19 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
  • La fragilidad de relaciones de domesticación: humanos, llamas y nevadas pocos habituales para la estación del año en Sud Lípez, Bolivia

    Bolton, M. E.
    Animales humanos, humanos animales: Relaciones y transformaciones en mundos indígenas sudamericanos. Bugallo, L., Dransart, P., Pazzarelli, F. (eds.). Editorial Antropofagia, pp. 159-186, 28 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
  • We Need to Talk About the Dog! Explorations of Human–Canine Relations and Community Hybridity in Bolivia

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 28-47
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Review of, "With the Saraguros: The Blended Life in a Transnational World". By David Syring

    Bolton, M.
    Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 119-120
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review of, "Death and Conversion in the Andes: Lima and Cuzco 1532-1670" by Gabriela Ramos

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 162-163
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review of, "Remapping Bolivia: resources, territory and indigeneity in a plurinational state". Edited by Nicole Fabricant and Bret Gustafson

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 167-168
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review of, "La recuperación de tecnologías indígenas: Arqueología, tecnología y desarrollo en los Andes" by Alexander Herrera Wassilowsky

    Bolton, M.
    Mountain Research and Development, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 188-189
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review of: "Roosters at Midnight: Indigenous Signs and Stigma in Local Bolivian Politics" by Robert Albro

    Bolton, M. E.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 219-220
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Animals and science: from colonial encounters to the biotech industry

    Bolton, M., Degnen, C.
    Books and Reports: Anthologies
  • Healthy meat and natural animals: nature, culture and decolonizing knowledge in Bolivia

    Bolton, M. E.
    Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the Biotech Industry. Bolton, M., Degnen, C. (eds.). Cambridge Scholars Pub., pp. 169-195, 27 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Introduction

    Bolton, M., Degnen, C.
    Animals and Science: From Colonial Encounters to the Biotech Industry. Cambridge Scholars Pub., pp. 1-29, 29 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Review of "El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia" by Sian Lazar

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 544-546
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Counting Llamas and Accounting for People: Livestock, Land and Citizens in Southern Bolivia

    Bolton, M.
    The Sociological Review, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 5-21
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Genetic Defects or Generative Prototypes: Competing Models for Livestock Improvement in Southern Bolivia

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 531-549
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • The Devil and Maria Picha Picha at San Antonio de Lipez: A 'pachakuti' in the colonial past of a mining area

    Bolton, M.
    Kay Pacha: Cultivating earth and water in the Andes. Dransart, P. (ed.). Archaeopress, pp. 47-54
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Review of, "Signs of the Inka Khipu: binary coding in the Andean knotted string records". By Gary Urton

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 223-224
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review of, "The Cord Keepers; Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village". By Frank Salomon

    Bolton, M.
    Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 257-258
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Quartering Sheep at Carnaval, Sud Lipez, Bolivia

    Bolton, M.
    The Qualities of Time: Anthropological Approaches. James, W., Mills, D. (eds.). Berg Publishers, pp. 187-201, 15 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Contando llamas y dando cuenta de gente: La importancia de ser (o no ser) 'indio' en Sud Lipez, Bolivia

    Bolton, M. E.
    Anuario de estudios bolivianos, archivisticos y bibliograficos 2004. Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, pp. 129-157, 18 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Doing Waki in San Pablo de Lipez: Reciprocity Between the Living and the Dead

    Bolton, M. E.
    Anthropos, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 379-396
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

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