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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Five years passed between the time I started thinking about lead poisoning as a research
topic and the completion of this dissertation. The International Institute for Education
Fulbright student research grant and a dissertation grant from the Wenner Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research generously provided major funding.
Additional support for dissertation and pre-dissertation research and studies include the
Rosa Colecchio dissertation enhancement award (Binghamton University Foundation,
2005), the national Hispanic Scholarship Fund Award (1999-2002), the Graduate Student
Employees Union, the Graduate Student Organization, and the Anthropology Department
of Binghamton University- SUNY. A dissertation writing fellowship from the
Anthropology Department during the Spring 2007 semester proved invaluable for
completing the dissertation.
Innumerable individuals have inspired, shaped, and challenged the many ideas
that came and went before resulting in the culmination of this stage of the project. I
conversed with people about lead poisoning in the United States and Uruguay, Chile and
Mexico, and in academic and non-academic conferences in North and Latin America.
Those who influenced this project are too many to name here, but I will highlight a few.
I need to begin and end with my family. My brother Nicholas Renfrew was perhaps the
first to serve as a sounding board for some of my ideas. I remember it was during one of
our regular camping trips, this time in Uruguay’s Florida Department. Nick provided
initial and ongoing love and encouragement, and it was with his family that I first
celebrated the successful defense of this thesis. My parents, John and Ileana Renfrew,
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