Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America

by Warren, Kay B.; Jackson, Jean E.

• ISBN13: 9780292791411
• ISBN10: 0292791410
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Throughout Latin America, indigenous peoples are responding to state violence and pro-democracy social movements by asserting their rights to a greater measure of cultural autonomy and self-determination. This volume's rich case studies of movements in Colombia, Guatemala, and Brazil weigh the degree of success achieved by indigenous leaders in influencing national agendas when governments display highly ambivalent attitudes about strengthening ethnic diversity. The contributors to this volume are leading anthropologists and indigenous activists from the United States and Latin America. They address the double binds of indigenous organizing and "working within the system" as well as the flexibility of political tactics used to achieve cultural goals outside the scope of state politics. The contributors answer questions about who speaks for indigenous communities, how indigenous movements relate to the popular left, and how conflicts between the national indigenous leadership and local communities play out in specific cultural and political contexts. The volume sheds new light on the realities of asymmetrical power relations and on the ways in which indigenous communities and their representatives employ Western constructions of subjectivity, alterity, and authentic versus counterfeit identity, as well as how they manipulate bureaucratic structures, international organizations, and the mass media to advance goals that involve distinctive visions of an indigenous future.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: Studying Indigenous Activism in Latin America	1	(46)
Kay B. Warren
Jean E. Jackson
The Indigenous Public Voice: The Multiple Idioms of Modernity in Native Cauca	47	(34)
David D. Gow
Joanne Rappaport
Contested Discourses of Authority in Colombian National Indigenous Politics: The 1996 Summer Takeovers	81	(42)
Jean E. Jackson
The Multiplicity of Mayan Voices: Mayan Leadership and the Politics of Self-Representation	123	(26)
Victor Montejo
Voting against Indigenous Rights in Guatemala: Lessons from the 1999 Referendum	149	(32)
Kay B. Warren
How Should an Indian Speak? Amazonian Indians and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the Global Public Sphere	181	(48)
Laura R. Graham
Representation, Polyphony, and the Construction of Power in a Kayapo Video	229	(22)
Terence Turner
Cutting through State and Class: Sources and Strategies of Self-Representation in Latin America	251	(30)
Alcida Rita Ramos
Contributors	281	(2)
Index	283