Paper short abstract:

What happens when, during intercultural encounters, the “Other” consciously uses ‘equivocation' (sensu Viveiros de Castro 1998) as a means to pursue his own goals? I will explore this ‘tactic equivocation’ and its importance for the constitution of contemporary indigenous politics.

Paper long abstract:

The term 'equivocation' has been famously coined by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (1998) to indicate the misunderstanding which emerges from the encounter between two different worlds. During such encounter, he argues, both parties seem to be talking about the same thing, when,in fact, this is not the case. The notion of equivocation has been taken up by other anthropologists as a means for reflecting upon the ontological presuppositions which inform anthropological work. In this paper I wish to address the concept of 'equivocation' from another angle: what happens when, during intercultural encounters, the "Other" is consciously using 'equivocation?' In what ways are our indigenous interlocutors cunningly using equivocation to pursue their own political ends? I explore the possibility of a 'tactic' equivocation through materials from my ethnographic work among the Runa, indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. I will suggest that Runa people, when dialoguing with powerful outsiders about 'the rights of Mother Nature', are well aware of the misunderstanding that is taking place but still do nothing to prevent it. On the contrary: they cunningly use such equivocations to pursue their own political ends. In so doing, something else happens: the space of tactic equivocation becomes a fertile terrain for indigenous subjects to re-imagine themselves and their relationship to their place, the 'living' forest.