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Anthropology

Edward (Ted) Fischer

Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology
Professor of Management (Owen School)
Professor of Health Policy; Professor of Radiology (School of Medicine)
Director, Center for Latin American Studies
He/his/him

Specializations

political economy, values, health

Edward (Ted) Fischer is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University. He also directs a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project in collaboration with WHO-Europe on the Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing.  In 2009, Fischer founded Maní+, an award-winning social enterprise in Guatemala that develops and produces locally sourced foods to fight malnutrition, and he currently serves on the board of the Maya Education Foundation. His research focusses on issues of political economy, values, wellbeing, and development. He has authored or edited a number of books, including most recently The Good Life: Aspiration, Dignity, and the Anthropology of Wellbeing (2014). Fischer is currently completing a book that examines the ways cultural and economic values are intertwined in the high-end coffee market.

Representative publications

Books
Fischer, Edward F. 2014. The Good Life: Aspiration, Dignity, and the Anthropology of Wellbeing. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F., ed. 2014. Cash on the Table: Markets, Values, and Moral Economies. Santa Fe: School of Advanced Research Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F., ed. 2008. Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society, and the Neoliberal State in Latin America. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.

 

Mella, Joseph S., Carlos Jáuregui, and Edward F. Fischer, eds. 2008. Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamín. Nashville: Vanderbilt University. [Southeastern College Art Conference, Outstanding Exhibition and Catalogue of Contemporary Materials, 2008]  

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Peter Benson. 2006. Broccoli and Desire: Global Connections and Maya Struggles in Postwar Guatemala. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

 

Watanabe, John M. and Edward F. Fischer, eds. 2004. Pluralizing Ethnography: Comparison and Representation in Maya Cultures, Histories, and Identities. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Carol Hendrickson. 2002. Tecpán Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context. Boulder: Westview Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2001. Cultural Logics and Global Economies: Maya Identity in Thought and Practice. Austin: University of Texas Press. [Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2002]

 

Fischer, Edward F. and R. McKenna Brown, eds. 1996. Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala. Austin: University of Texas Press. [Spanish translation published in 1999 as Rujotayixik ri Maya’ b’anob’al: Activismo cultural maya. Guatemala City: Editorial Cholsamaj.]

 

Journal Articles
Fischer, Edward F., Bart Victor, and Linda Asturias de Barrios. 2020. Quality versus Solidarity: Third Wave Coffee and Cooperative Values Among Smallholding Maya Farmers in Guatemala. Journal of Peasant Studies.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2019. Quality and Inequality: Taste and the Creation of Value with Third Wave Coffee, Socio-Economic Review.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2018. Now is the Time of Monsters: Economic anthropology and the post-neoliberal political economy. Economic Anthropology 6:160-162.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2017.  Beyond Nutrition: Eating, Innovation, and Cultures of Possibility. Sight and Life 31(1): 32-39.

 

Cuj, Miguel, Jessica Dardón, Manolo Mazariegos, Edward Fischer, Wilton Pérez, and Ana Victoria Román. 2017. Determination of weight gain, protein quality, and digestibility of eight diets based on two legumes, peanut (Arachis hypogae) and sesame (Sesamum indicum) in Wistar rats. Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición. Revista Científica 27(1): 21-32.

 

Cuj, Miguel, Manolo Mazariegos, Edward F Fischer, and Ana Victoria Roman. 2016. Aceptabilidad y Uso en el Hogar de un Alimento Complementario Listo Para Consumir (ACLC) en el Área Rural de Guatemala. Revista Científica 26: 62-73.

 

Victor, Bart, Meridith Blevins, Ann F. Green, Elisée Ndatimana, Lázaro González-Calvo, Edward F. Fischer, Alfredo E. Vegara, Sten H. Vermund, Omo Olupona, Troy D. Moon. 2014. Multidimensional Poverty in Rural Mozambique: A New Metric for Evaluating. Public Health Interventions. PLoS ONE 9(9): e108654.

 

Davis, Thomas E., Edward F. Fischer, Peter J. Rohloff, and Douglas C. Heimburger. 2014. Breastfeeding and Ready-To-Use Supplementary Foods in Guatemala. Human Organization 73(1): 72-81.

 

Fischer, Edward F and Bart Victor. 2014. High-end coffee and smallholding producers in Guatemala.  Latin American Research Review 49(1): 155-177.

 

Victor, Bart, Edward F. Fischer, and Bruce Cooil, et al. 2013. Frustrated Freedom: The Effects of Agency and Wealth on Wellbeing in Rural Mozambique. World Development 47: 30-41.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Mareike Sattler. 2009. Produktion und Begehren ‑ Das neue Gesicht landwirtschaftlicher Exporte aus Latin Amerika. Lateinamerika Jahrbuch 33.

 

Reich, Michael S., Mary S. Dietrich, A. J. Reid Finlayson, Edward F. Fischer, and Peter R. Martin. 2008. Coffee and cigarette consumption and perceived effects in recovering alcoholics participating in Alcoholics Anonymous in Nashville, Tennessee.  Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental 32(10): 1799-1806.

 

Benson, Peter, Edward F. Fischer, and Kedron Thomas. 2008. Resocializing Suffering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala’s New Violence. Latin American Perspectives 35(5): 38-58.

 

Benson, Peter and Edward F. Fischer. 2007. Broccoli and desire. Antipode 39(5): 800-820.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2007. Introduction: Indigenous peoples, neoliberal regimes, and varieties of civil society in Latin America. Social Analysis 51(2): 1-18.

 

Fischer, Edward F.. 2006. Changing continuities: Reflections on “structure” and the work of Victoria Riefler Bricker. Human Mosaic 36: 5-11.

 

Hamilton, Sarah and Edward F. Fischer. 2005. Maya farmers and export agriculture in highland Guatemala: Implications for development and labor relations. Latin American Perspectives 32(5):33-58.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Peter Benson. 2005. Something better: Hegemony, development, and desire in Guatemalan export agriculture. Social Analysis 49(1):3-20.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Avery Dickins. 2004. Development and hegemony: Cultural property and cultural propriety in the Maya region. Connecticut Journal of International Law 19(2):315‑327.

 

Hamilton, Sarah and Edward F. Fischer. 2003. Non-traditional agricultural exports in highland Guatemala: Understandings of risks and perceptions of change. Latin American Research Review 38(3):82-110.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2003. Strategic Identities and Subversive Narratives: On Being Maya in a Globalized World. Vanderbilt Journal of Luso‑Hispanic Studies 1(1):149‑166.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2002. Comment on Ronald Nigh’s “Maya Medicine in the Biological Gaze.” Current Anthropology 43(3):470-471.

 

Hill, Robert M. II, and Edward F. Fischer. 1999. States of heart: An ethnohistorical approach to Kaqchikel Maya ethnopsychology. Ancient Mesoamerica 10:317-332.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and Judith M. Maxwell. 1999. Political linguistics and Maya worldview: The creation of neologisms in Kaqchikel Mayan. Texas Linguistic Forum 42:64-73.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 1999. Cultural logic and Maya identity: Rethinking constructivism and essentialism. Current Anthropology 40(4):473-499.

 

Brown, R. McKenna, Edward F. Fischer, and Raxche'. 1998. Mayan visions for a multilingual society: The Guatemalan Peace Accords on Indigenous Identity and Languages. Fourth World Bulletin on Indigenous Law and Politics 6: 28-33.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 1993. The West in the future: Cultural hegemony and the politics of identity. American Anthropologist 94(4):1000-1002.

 

Jankowiak, William R. and Edward F. Fischer. 1992. A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love. Ethnology 31:149-155.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 1992. Yaqui voices and Spanish texts, or Inquiries into Yaqui history, 1533-1740. Human Mosaic 26(1): 4-11.

 

Book Chapters:
Fischer, Edward F. 2019. Guatemala—Quality Coffee and the Aspirations of Maya Farmers. In: Cosmos Coffee, eds. Melanie Jahreis, Sara Marquart, and Nina Möllers. Munich: Deutsches Museum.

 

Fischer, Edward F., Bart Victor, Daniel Robinson, Adriana Farah, Leticia G. Britto, and Peter R. Martin. 2019. Coffee Consumption and Health Impacts: A Brief History of Changing Conceptions. In: Coffee: Consumption and Health Implications, Adriana Farah (ed.). London: Royal Society of Chemistry, pp. 1-19.

 

Fischer, Edward F and Avery Dickins de Girón. 2014. Ultimatums and Rationalities in Two Maya Towns. In: Cash on the Table: Markets, Values, and Moral Economies. Edward F Fischer (ed.). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2014. German Eggs and States Preferences.  In: Cash on the Table: Markets, Values, and Moral Economies. Edward F Fischer (ed.). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2014. Introduction: Markets and Moralities.  In: Cash on the Table: Markets, Values, and Moral Economies. Edward F Fischer (ed.). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

 

Benson, Peter, Kedron Thomas, and Edward F. Fischer. 2011. Guatemala’s New Violence as Structural Violence: Notes from the Highlands.  In: Securing the City: Neoliberalism, Space, and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala. Kevin O'Neill and Kedron Thomas (eds.), pp. 127-145. Durham: Duke University Press.  

 

Benson, Peter and Edward F. Fischer. 2009. Returns on Violence: Social Suffering in the Post‑War Era.  In: Mayas in Postwar Guatemala: Harvest of Violence Revisited. Walter Little and Timothy Smith (eds.), pp. 151-166.  Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press

 

Carlos A. Jáuregui and Edward F. Fischer. 2008. Of Rage and Redemption, Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919‑1999). In: Of rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamín.  Joseph S. Mella, Carlos A. Jáuregui, and Edward F. Fischer (eds.). Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2006. Violencia en un mundo globalizado. Reflexiones sobre representaciones y actualidades. In: Lugares Indígenas de la Violencia en Iberoamérica.  Julián López García and Pedro Pitarch Ramón (eds.).  Madrid: Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2005. Más allá de la victimización: luchas mayas en la Guatemala Postguerra. In: La Lucha por los Derechos Indígenas en America Latina.  Nancy Grey Postero and Leon Zamosc (eds.).  Quito: Editorial Abya Yala.

 

Watanabe, John M. and Edward F. Fischer. 2004. Emergent Anthropologies and Pluricultural Ethnography in Two Postcolonial Nations. In: Pluralizing Ethnography: Comparison and Representation in Maya Cultures, Histories, and Identities.  John M. Watanabe and Edward F. Fischer (eds.). Santa Fe: SAR Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2004. Beyond victimization: Maya movements in post-war Guatemala. In The Struggle for Indian Rights in Latin America.  Nancy Grey Postero and Leon Zamosc (eds.).  Brighton (England): Sussex Academic Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2004. The Janus face of globalization: Economic production and cultural reproduction in highland Guatemala. In: Pluralizing Ethnography: Comparison and Representation in Maya Cultures, Histories, and Identities.  John M. Watanabe and Edward F. Fischer (eds.).  Santa Fe: SAR Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2003. Globalización económica, culturas híbridas y futuros políticos: Potencialidades y problemáticas para los pueblos mayas. In: Globalización, Resistencia y Negociación en América Latina.  Beatriz Pérez Galán y Gunther Dietz (eds.).  Madrid: Catarata.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2001. Documenting Maya resurgence: Trends in Maya scholarship and publishing. In Documenting movements, identity & popular culture in Latin America.  Austin: Seminar in the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2001. La verdad y sus consecuencias: El relativismo antropológico, la intercesión, y la ética en Guatemala. In Stoll‑Menchú: La invención de la memoria, Mario Roberto Morales (ed.).  Guatemala: Consucultura.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2001. Late capitalism and Maya resurgence in Guatemala. In Maya Survivalism. Acta Mesoamericana Vol. 12, Ueli Hostettler and Matthew Restall (eds.). Markt Schwaben, Germany: Verlag Anton Saurwein.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 2001. Derechos humanos y relativismo cultural: La ética antropológica en la area maya. In Representaciones de los derechos humanos en el area maya. Julián López García and Pedro Pitarch (eds.). Madrid: Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas.

 

Fischer, Edward F. and R. McKenna Brown. 1999. El rol del académico no-maya en los estudios maya: Hacia un diálogo más abierto. In: Rujotayixik ri Maya’ b’anob’al: Activismo cultural maya, Edward F. Fischer and R. McKenna Brown (eds.). Guatemala City: Editorial Cholsamaj.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 1999. El cambio cultural inducido como una estrategia para el desarrollo socioeconómico: El movimiento maya en Guatemala. In Rujotayixik ri Maya’ b’anob’al: Activismo cultural maya, Edward F. Fischer and R. McKenna Brown (eds.).  Guatemala: Editorial Cholsamaj.  [Translation of Fischer 1996]

 

Jankowiak, William R. and Edward F. Fischer. 1998. A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love. In Human emotions: A reader, Jennifer M. Jenkins, Keith Oatley, and Nancy L. Stein (eds.).  Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.  [Reprint of Jankowiak and Fischer 1992.]

 

Fischer, Edward F. and R. McKenna Brown. 1996. Introduction: Perspectives on Maya cultural activism in Guatemala. In: Maya cultural activism in Guatemala, Edward F. Fischer and R. McKenna Brown (eds.).  Austin: University of Texas Press.

 

Fischer, Edward F. 1996. Induced culture change as a strategy for socio-economic development: The case of the pan-Maya movement in Guatemala. In: Maya cultural activism in Guatemala, Edward F. Fischer and R. McKenna Brown (eds.).  Austin: University of Texas Press.

 

Awards

  • 2015     Alterna Prize for Social Entrepreneurship, for Maní+
  • 2016     VIVA Schmidheiny Prize for Social Innovation, for Maní+