Direct Sales and Direct Faith in Latin America

Since 1990, direct sales have attracted over two million recruits in Mexico and are characterized by a belief in the power of positive thinking. Through an ethnographic portrait, Peter S. Cahn demonstrates that the quasi-religious commission of self-empowerment accounts for the explosive growth of commission-based sales in the developing world.

'An engagingly written and richly observed ethnography of the rise of direct sales in Mexico .Cahn's analysis of direct sales fits most clearly into the literature on religious movements, but it also aims to intervene in discussions of political and economic anthropology, especially the role of neoliberal policies and ideologies in developing economies.' - PoLAR

"Cahn takes two unusual approaches in his book. First, in this ethnography of direct sales, he chooses to focus on a single representative of a single vitamin supplement company - a woman he calls Luisa, who sells Omnilife products in Morelia, Mexico, as well as briefly in Santiago, Chile. Cahn is not the first researcher to take this focus, but this narrow approach continues to be uncommon. However, Cahn demonstrates the possibility for great depth of analysis by sacrificing breadth of sample. Second, he analyzes direct marketing through the theoretical lens of religion. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries" - CHOICE

"In loving detail, Cahn chronicles how Omnilife has become one of the most visible multi-level marketing schemes in Mexico." - Anthropological Quarterly

PETER S.CAHN Director of Faculty Development and Diversity at Boston University, USA.