In search of Juan de Onate: Confessions of a cryptoessentialist

In recent years the combination of deconstructionism within their disciplin e and the challenge of an ascendant cultural studies movement from without have prompted anthropologists to question their key concept-culture. This p resent article discusses the multiple identities of Juan de Onate, sixteent h-century founder of Hispanic Nuevo Mexico, and particularly his "Basquenes s," as ploys for reviewing the "anti-essentialist" rhetoric of the cultural debates. I argue that there is increasing convergence between anthropology and cultural studies, on the one hand, and that anthropology is regaining its confidence in the utility of the culture concept, on the other. I furth er conclude that some modicum of essentialism is inherent in (i.e., essenti al to) bath the anthropological and cultural studies projects.