Other Published, Archived,
Recorded, and Online Sources

In addition to published works, James Howe is working to make primary research materials and working papers available to colleagues and to the Guna public, with the goal of fulfilling obligations created by research funding and indigenous collaboration. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (ailla.utexas.org) holds more than eighty-five recordings of texts, music, and live events from Howe’s Guna research ---all freely available to the public.

Selected articles

  • 1976 “Communal Land Tenure and the Origin of Descent Groups among the San Blas Cuna.” In Frontier Adaptations in Lower Central America, Mary Helms & Franklin Loveland, editors, pp. 151-184.  Philadelphia: ISHI.

  • 1981 (with Lawrence Hirschfeld), “The Star Girls’ Descent: a Myth about Men, Women, Matrilocality, and Singing.” Journal of American Folklore 94 (373): 299-322.

  • 1991 “Star Girls and Star Man: A Comparative Analysis of Paired Kuna Myths.” Journal of Latin American Lore 17: 225-266.

  • 2009 “Chapin’s Lament.” Chapter 11 from Chiefs, Scribes, and Ethnographers.

  • 2008 "Argument is Argument: An Essay on Conceptual Metaphor and Verbal Dispute." Metaphor and Symbol 23:1-23

  • 2012 “Chocolate and Cardiovascular Health: the Kuna Case Reconsidered.” Gastronomica 12(1): 43-52, February 2012

  • 2016 “La Revolución Dule: una rebelión indígena del siglo XX.”  Boletín del Museo del Oro, Bogotá, Año 2016, 56:205-226.

  • 2022 “Retratos del otro, proyecciones de sí: independencia y separatismo en las descripciones de los gunas de Panamá, 1900-1940.” Revista Mesoamérica 59:108-127

  • 2025 "Intercambio, hospitalidad y generosidad en la sociedad guna” Revista Panameña de Ciencias Sociales 9:126-136

Working Papers and Research Sources