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Paper short abstract:

Names are properties of the other for Amazonian Urarina: impositions from without to be endured or ignored. National identity cards work in similar ways, facilitating forms of recognition that are at once desired and dangerous, which helps to explain the ambivalent local meanings of ‘citizenship’.

Paper long abstract:

Naming can be a fraught political and ethical practice for the Urarina people of Amazonian Peru. The various types of names in use all work to stabilize personal identity, but are typically properties of the other, rather than the self. Thought to be materialized in the form of tiny, invisible darts bestowed by shamans in infancy, “true” personal names are widely seen as necessary impositions, or even intrusions, to be endured and, where possible, ignored. This colours Urarina peoples’ quests to obtain identity documents, widely seen as crucial tools in their struggle for recognition as Peruvian citizens with legitimate claims to state resources. Identity cards objectify people in similar ways, facilitating forms of recognition that are both desired and dangerous, mediating the relationship between individuals and the state. Both names and cards objectify and interpellate individuals in order to make them legible to authority, while opening up new possibilities for action. Yet people also find ways of undermining the effectiveness of this process, subverting the power of names to freeze identities in place. Transformations of onomastics thus constitutes a useful starting point for assessing the ambivalent meanings of ‘citizenship’ for indigenous peoples in the region, and its articulation with local frameworks of value.