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- Convenors:
-
Ruben Darío Chambi Mayta
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU))
Juliane Müller (University of Barcelona)
Carmen Ibanez
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- Format:
- Workshop
Short Abstract:
The workshop invites reflections on urban Indigenous economies and the ways in which associated economic scenarios prompt us to establish collaborations with Indigenous actors to (re)think our categories of analysis and forms of sharing or commoning knowledge with and about these emerging actors.
Long Abstract:
One characteristic of the (re)emergence of Indigenous peoples on the global stage has to do with the growing Indigenisation of cities and economies. In recent times, various communities have entered, deployed and redefined urban spaces based on their own logics of economic, social and political organisation. One example can be found in Bolivia, where the city of El Alto prompts researchers to reconfigure some anthropological reflections on economic exchange and consumption, showing that Indigenous actors challenge the idea of a uniform global market economy. However, this process has also revealed commercial practices contrary to a “community economy”, which is often attributed to these very actors by some social scientists and activists, or through political narratives such as “Vivir Bien” that promotes, among other things, a solidarity-based, non-accumulative economy.
Given this somewhat paradoxical friction between Indigenous economic scenarios and anthropological analysis, the following questions arise: What happens when Indigenous economic practices challenge the idea of a simple resistance to capitalism? How shall we deal with communities whose aspirations seem oriented towards economic inclusion, but at the same time seek to move away from hegemonic economic institutions and rules? The workshop invites reflections on these new scenarios that Indigenous economies pose, and the ways in which collaborations with Indigenous actors prompt us to (re)think our categories of analysis and the forms of sharing or commoning knowledge with and about these emerging actors.
Accepted contributions:
Contribution short abstract:
Bolivian festivities in São Paulo, Brazil, are becoming enterprises dependent on material and symbolic resources. It has resulted in the emergence of a set of “festive markets” organized around flows, and so their organizers (“pasantes”) must have network capital to organize and direct the flows.
Contribution long abstract:
After the pandemic, the Bolivian festivities in São Paulo, Brazil, have grown both in quantity over time and in their physical dimensions in space. A true total social fact (Martins, 2005), these festive events have become huge enterprises and, therefore, dependent on a series of material and symbolic resources. It has resulted in the emergence and dynamization of a set of “festive markets” that they have created and maintain active to supply them. For all this to work, the organizers (“pasantes” or “prestes”) must not only have sufficient economic capital, but also network capital to maintain contact with some of the distant actors mobilized for the fiestas. Above all, they must be able to define, organize and direct the flow of people, but also of objects, narratives and images that make up their festivities at different global scales. My argument is that these Bolivian fiestas are anchors (Freire-Medeiros, Lages, 2020, Urry, 1997) not only in the sense of a space produced by the movement, but also in the subjective sense: as social events that anchors flows of ideas and imaginaries about the migratory experience. So, more than an alternative way of understanding the various elements (social, religious, economic, cultural) that cross Bolivian social life in the metropolis, this research offer a way of observing how these individuals manage to articulate and make complementary two rationalities that, at first glance, seem antagonistic: one of a more communitarian nature, exemplified in the “ayni” system, and another capitalist.
Contribution short abstract:
Community-based monitoring in the Amazon implicates a multidimensional combination of diverse actors and perspectives. The changes of local technologies are noticeable on a social, ecological and economic level. These has effects on indigenous communities as well as on (trans-)regional cooperation.
Contribution long abstract:
According to preliminary findings of the research project ‘Jaguar, drone, human: indigenous vigilance in the Amazon’, community-based (environmental) monitoring in the Amazon constitutes a multidimensional combination of diverse actors and perspectives. The short- and longterm assemblages of local actors, such as indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, extractivist companies and the state, generate effective forms of vigilance aimed at protecting their own territory, nature in general and other indigenous communities. Among others, there is an intertwining of social, ecological and economic interests as well as a transformation of local practices through advancing technologization. In particular, the use of GPS devices, smartphones and drones is having an influence on the dynamics within community-based environmental monitoring. In addition, there is an increased economization of environmental monitoring, which has transformative effects on the indigenous communities themselves, but also on the dynamics between the actors mentioned above. The paper presents examples from the southern Amazon region in Peru and discusses questions relating to local responsibilization practices, specific assemblages, global attention and the interplay of indigenous and ‘western-scientific’ knowledge.
Contribution short abstract:
The Yagua people in the Peruvian Amazon are enchanted by modern artefacts. My presentation provides an overview to underlying causes and then focuses on the heterogeneity of desires among the Yagua people as well as on the ethical challenges that emerged for me as a critical researcher.
Contribution long abstract:
Like many Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of the Amazonian rainforest, the Yagua people are enchanted by modern artefacts such as chainsaws, phones, and tablets. As a consequence, they become increasingly enmeshed into the regional capitalist system and more and more depend on wage work and the shops in town. The Yaguan desire for modern artefacts derives from various dreams and needs, which I will summarise in my presentation.
Importantly, desires among the Yagua people are heterogeneous. For instance, they differ between generation, and even an individual person may be drawn between a desire for the things of the Other and a desire for safeguarding their feeling of autonomy. Such heterogeneity of desires also appears in the work of Indigenous authors such as the Huaorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo.
For me as a critical researcher, the Yaguan interest in modern artefacts posed various ethical challenges, not only during my fieldwork but also during the writing process. For example, should I help my research participants in their quests for material affluence and consumption, even though I believe that this might lead to further problems down the line? Is it ethically permissible to support my research participants in terms of my own preferences and beliefs, or does that perpetuate colonial violence?
By focusing on the Yaguan integration into the regional economic system spanning rural areas and towns, my presentation thus opens up the field for a wider debate on methodological and ethical challenges related to divergent viewpoints on current economic trajectories and necessities.
Contribution short abstract:
The paper examines how Kichwa women from Otavalo understand and engage with three core concepts driving Ecuador's poverty eradication policies. Through case studies of midwives and cultural managers, it shows how they negotiate state perspectives while advancing their own agency.
Contribution long abstract:
The proposal is part of a research that arises from a critical questioning of the policies, discourses, conceptions and strategies that revolve around the eradication of poverty and inequality in Ecuador since the approval of the 2008 Constitution, in its Plurinational and Intercultural State dimension. The analysis focuses on the tension between the state vision, which has characterized Indigenous women as passive beneficiaries of redistributive policies, and the reality of their political and economic agency in their communities. The geographical context is the city of Otavalo, located in the Ecuadorian highland. The population of Otavalo, which according to the 2010 population census reached 104,000 inhabitants, 57% self-identify as indigenous, and 40% recognize themselves as mestizos. This demographic characteristic, present in not many Ecuadorian cities, makes Otavalo and its social, political, and economic dynamics a scenario of interest among those who dedicate their analysis to inter- and intra-ethnic relations.
The paper presents part of the results of an extensive ethnographic work. This specific case explores the perspectives of Kichwa women of the Otavalo and Kayambi peoples on three fundamental concepts that directed poverty eradication policies in Ecuador: Poverty, development, welfare and social welfare. Taking as a case study the community midwives of the Otavalo canton and the cultural managers of the Otavalo and Kayambi peoples.
It examines how these women negotiate and dispute the imaginaries constructed about their identities, and how they strategically use these constructed representations to expand their spaces for political, social and economic action.