Daniel Reichman

Associate Professor University of Rochester

Rochester NY

Expert on the cultural responses to economic change, especially the anthropology of trade and globalization in Latin America

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Spotlight

Aug 24, 2021

1 min

Frost in Brazil creates a volatile coffee market. But University of Rochester anthropologist says growers in Columbia and Central America may benefit.

A severe frost in Brazil has damaged coffee crops, prompting an increase in global coffee prices. According to Reuters, arabica coffee prices have surged to the highest level in almost seven years. "But coffee is grown all over the world, and smart coffee buyers will be able to adapt by finding new sources to replace the lost supply in Brazil," says Daniel Reichman, an associate professor anthropology at the University of Rochester. "Brazil’s losses will benefit coffee growers in places like Colombia and Central America." Reichman explains that the coffee market is segmented between large scale buyers that have sophisticated hedging strategies to deal with risk, and small scale roasters that might have a relationship with single farms. Reichman, who has researched the coffee-growing economies in both Central America and South America, wrote about "big coffee" in Brazil for The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. His upcoming book is titled Progress in the Balance: Mythologies of Development in Santos, Brazil. It's a study of political and economic transformations in the city of Santos, which has been the hub of the world coffee trade for more than a century.

Areas of Expertise

Latin American Development

Trade and Globalization in Latin America

Latin America Politics

Latin American Immigration

Cultural Anthropology

Brazil

Latin American Economies

Coffee Industry

Media

Biography

Reichman's research focuses on cultural responses to economic change, especially the anthropology of trade and globalization in Latin America.

He has conducted field research in Honduras since 2001, focusing on emigration to the United States, the coffee industry, and evangelical religion. His book, The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras (Cornell University Press, 2011) is an ethnography of one Honduran town's transformation from a coffee-growing economy to a migration-based economy. The book was awarded 3rd prize in the 2012 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, awarded annually by the society for Humanistic Anthropology.

In 2008, he conducted research on Central American workers in the Maine seafood industry. He is currently studying how traceability systems are transforming food industries, with a focus on coffee. In 2013, he began comparative research on coffee production in Brazil. As a Fulbright scholar in Brazil in 2016, he conducted an ethnographic and historical study of the city of Santos, the largest industrial port in Latin America and the historic center of the global coffee trade. He is currently writing a book called "Time in the Balance: Histories of Progress in a Brazilian Port"

In addition to his academic publications, Reichman occasionally writes in the popular media on immigration and other current events related to Latin America. He has consulted on Central American immigration for the United Nations and other institutions.

Education

Cornell University

PhD

Anthropology

2006

Selected Media Appearances

Why migrants are fleeing their homes for the U.S.

Axios online

2021-03-07

“The country of Honduras has become incredibly dependent on migration to the United States and the incomes that migrants in the US get and send back to their families,” says Daniel Reichman, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. Reichman argues that US immigration laws should better reflect the desire for many migrants to work in the country, but then return home.

Op-ed: Biden’s immigration plan is a good step, but it demands scrutiny

USA Today print

2021-02-21

The centerpiece of Joe Biden’s immigration reform will be a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The fastest growing segment of this population comes from three tiny countries in Central America — Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The debate over amnesty will undoubtedly focus on the perennial question of whether it will beget further waves of illegal immigration, but viewing it only as an incentive to future migration misses another, more surprising, outcome: Many immigrants will go home.

Millions migrate to mark the Year of the Rat

University of Rochester Newscenter online

2020-01-23

This is typically the busiest travel period in China—if not the world—as millions of people make their way home to celebrate the Chinese New Year, clogging highways, airports, and train stations in the process. As described by Forbes, the country goes into radio silence as more than 1.3 billion Chinese go on vacation at the same time.

“It’s been called the largest mammalian migration on the planet, and it always takes place at the Chinese New Year,” says John Osburg, a University of Rochester associate professor in the Department of Anthropology.

This year’s celebration may be less than typical, as the country is faced with an outbreak of coronavirus, which has forced the closure of Wuhan, a major port in China, and several other cities.

Osburg says, “While I’ve heard from friends in China who are cancelling travel plans, I also have friends who are mostly unconcerned with the threat of the virus.”

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