Latin America's indigenous peoples' social movements are gaining increasing attention from political scientists. Once the exclusive interest of anthropologists, sociologists, and historians, by the 1990s political scientists could no longer ignore the implications of the emergence of regional, national, and international indigenous political actors for the development of democracy and the state. By the end of the decade, political scientists had produced a handful of scholarly books on indigenous peoples' politics (e.g., Alison Brysk, From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and International Relations in Latin America, 2000; Donna Lee Van Cott, The Friendly Liquidation of the Past: The Politics of Diversity in Latin America, 2000; Deborah J. Yashar, Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge, 2005) and many other comparative and monographic studies are in the publishing pipeline or at the dissertation stage.

The dynamic growth of scholarly interest in indigenous peoples' political movements also is demonstrated by the flood of edited volumes on this theme. Resurgent Voices in Latin America is a welcome and valuable contribution to this burgeoning literature and provides a more explicitly political science approach than most. The majority of the new collections are edited and written by anthropologists and, thus, while offering valuable empirical detail, are less appropriate for political science courses (e.g., David Maybury-Lewis, ed., The Politics of Ethnicity: Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States, 2002; Kay Warren and Jean Jackson, eds., Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America, 2002). The editors of Resurgent Voices, in contrast, are political scientists who present the volume's themes and chapters within an overarching social movement theory framework. In addition to the three chapters written by the editors, the volume includes an excellent analysis by political scientist Alison Brysk of the Ecuadorian indigenous movement. Moreover, the volume's comprehensive and sensitive analysis of the interaction of indigenous actors and cultures with religious ideas, identities, and institutions gives this collection a greater theoretical and empirical coherence than others in this genre.

The focus on religion is particularly welcome. Although most political scientists have noted the vital role of Catholic and Protestant churches and individuals in constructing indigenous organizations, and in providing advice, resources, and solidarity to indigenous movements, this book constitutes an important effort to fully explore the implications of contact with religious actors and institutions for the development of indigenous political movements, as well as the significant ways in which indigenous communities, movements, and cultures have shaped the institutional and theological development of Catholicism and Protestantism in Latin America. For example, Bruce Calder, in his chapter on Guatemala, notes not only how the Catholic Church “accompanied” Mayan Indians in their struggle against repression and racism but also how the Church increased in size and influence and became more diverse and progressive, through its involvement in indigenous struggles (p. 117). Moreover, although two of them come from the ranks of the scholarly clergy, the authors frankly assess the contributions as well as the obstacles presented by religious actors and institutions to the political and spiritual liberation of indigenous peoples, and they address the controversial topics of the role of clergy as intermediaries between indigenous communities and of the question of indigenous agency in social movements that are often dependent upon outsiders for access to resources and the state.

The editors' introduction provides a comprehensive gateway to a complex and geographically vast topic. Six chapters by political scientists, historians, and anthropologists provide case studies of countries with significant indigenous populations—Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico—with both Guatemala and Mexico featured in two chapters. A seventh provides a rare study of Paraguay, where religious missions are intimately involved with indigenous communities. A chapter purporting to compare Bolivia and Peru actually focuses mainly on Bolivia and wrongly argues that “Peru does not have a national movement” (p. 58), a statement that has not been true since the formation in 1999 of the Permanent Conference of the Indigenous People of Peru (COPPIP), which has been quite active in the last several years. A number of important Peruvian regional organizations also are ignored. A comparative chapter by Stephen Judd provides a fascinating account of how indigenous catechists and clergy developed an autonomous “indigenous theology” in opposition to efforts by Christian churches to develop intercultural approaches to resolving the tension between universal truths and the diversity of local cultures. A fine conclusion by Timothy Steigenga reinforces the collection's four main themes: the syncretic nature of religious practice and institutions in Latin America; the role of religious actors, identities, and ideas in social movements; the effectiveness of spirituality-based social movements; and “the complexity and fluidity of both the religious marketplace and religious politics in Latin America” (p. 232).

The selection of cases contributes to a serious defect of the political science literature on Latin American indigenous peoples: a theoretically unjustified bias toward studying the same few countries, those with large indigenous populations and where indigenous movements have been most successful. The accumulation of knowledge in this field would be better served if scholars would devote more attention to understudied countries where interesting political developments are underway, such as Colombia, Guyana, and Venezuela, and to countries where, despite their efforts, indigenous peoples have achieved little, such as Argentina and Chile.

This is a book about political actors, causes, and outcomes, and also about ideas, culture, and faith. As such, it fills an important niche in the politics literature on indigenous peoples and on religion in Latin America. Students will encounter a straightforward introduction to both topics, while senior scholars will learn a great deal about the understudied convergence between two important forces in contemporary Latin American politics.