Paper short abstract:

How are social policies received in the Peruvian Amazon, marked by state-indigenous conflicts? Based on a 10-month ethnographic study with the Maijuna, this paper analyzes how their paradoxical responses from appropriation to resistance reflect practical needs, expectations and state distrust.

Paper long abstract:

In 2012, the Peruvian government initiated social policies, including cash transfers, old age pensions, and a National School Food Program. How are these programs received in the Peruvian Amazon, where sociopolitical and ecological conflicts between the state and indigenous communities are intense? Based on a 10-month ethnographic study conducted from 2013 to 2017 with the Maijuna, Western Tukanoan indigenous peoples, this paper focuses on their complex reception of social policies in the light of the school food program which provides agribusiness-produced foods. While the anthropological literature previously emphasized either forms of appropriation or resistance among Amazonian groups in the Amazon when confronted with external initiatives, this analysis reveals the simultaneous presence of both processes. On one hand, the Maijuna express gratitude for the food and financial support, referring to them as 'gifts' (regalos), 'assistance' (apoyos), or 'aid' (ayuda). These provisions partially fulfill some of their expectations, providing them with financial assistance and enabling their children to learn to “become mestizo” in school. On the other hand, they develop negotiation strategies and present some forms of resistance. Some Maijuna, particularly mothers, spread rumors portraying their children as potential prey of the state, depicting it as cannibalistic. Cash transfers are interpreted as the state 'buying' their children, with the implication that the state might one day kidnap them, kill them, and then return them in tuna cans. These paradoxical responses reflect local practical needs, expectations, and infrapolitics vis-à-vis the state, within the context of contradictory policies aimed at indigenous peoples.