“This rich ethnography describes how the motions of the people of Quirpini, a rural community in the Bolivian Andes, become intertwined, shaping the places they move through. This compelling study makes important contributions to contemporary debates about spatiality, temporality, power, and culture.”

“A groundbreaking book [that] re-envisions place as formed by individual movements, trips and digressions as well as a situational context for action.”
 — Setha M. Low, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

“It is very difficult to write ethnography about a small and unfamiliar place that is compelling to read, that flows from detail to detail, event to event, with the pleasurable sense of one's following along as a relaxed, but deeply curious, and somewhat surprised observer. [Stuart Rockefeller] succeeds in this. . . . [A] beautifully written ethnography. . . .an example of careful and evocative writing about what people do. It is a pleasure to read and a model of good writing as well as good anthropology.”
 — Laurie Kain Hart, Haverford College

“... an important contribution to the existing bibliography on the politics of movement.May 4, 2011”
 — Journal of Folklore Research

“[O]ffers a nuanced portrait of life in rural Chuquisaca during the 1990s, which sheds light on the dynamic and multi-scalar processes that go into the making of a place. The book contributes to the . . . literature on the social construction of place . . . .Oct. 2013”
 — Bulletin of Latin American Research

“[A] groundbreaking book . . . Rockefeller’s in-depth descriptions and theoretically savvy analysis guide the reader through the process by which space and place [are] constituted.79.1 2014”
 — Rural Sociology

“Starting from Quirpini is a beautifully crafted, accomplished text that is essential reading for those interested in migration, transnationalism, Andean ethnography, and the anthropology of space.”
 — Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“[T]his is an important book that should be widely read by scholars of the Andes and of migration, as well as those interested in the construction of places and borders.”
 — American Anthropologist