Ventriloquism,racism and the politics of decoloniality in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

This article discusses two forms of discrimination against indigenous people: ventriloquism and open racism, and argues that a transition from paternalism to open intolerance has taken place in Ecuador in the context of governmental emphasis on natural resource extraction. Ventriloquism, when non-Indians speak for indigenous people, is analysed through the Sumak Kawsay (Good Living) policies of the government of Rafael Correa (2007–2017). Public racism is examined by looking at government repression against indigenous leaders and communities and Presidential speeches. The article concludes that the state’s ventriloquist and racist discourses and practices are equally rooted in the country’s colonial past. These findings are contrasted with the writings of scholars that have called the government of Mr. Correa decolonizing. The article examines the ways in which decolonial theorists informed and promoted the policies of this regime, and argues that decolonial scholars have been insufficiently self-critical and reflective of their own complicity with the state’s repressive project vis-à-vis indigenous communities.     

Boundaries are Made to be Crossed: The Magic and Politics of the Long-lasting Amazon/Andes Divide

The construction of Amazonia as a distinct entity, opposed to the Andes, results from processes associated with the expansion of Andean-centered state formations. Analysis of five short texts on the Amazon region, written in colonial and postcolonial Peru by a diversity of social actors, reveals a pervasive rhetoric of alterity whose content varies according to the particular objectives the authors had in mind. In all cases, however, the aim is the same, namely the imposition of boundaries of differentiation as justification for state integration, expressed in the commodification and symbolic consumption of the Amazonian Other. If the politics of boundary making consist in "peripheralizing" and "othering" the Amazon and its people, the magic of boundary making resides in the discursive sleight of hand through which contemporary agents conceal the fact that the Amazon has long ago been incorporated into the nation-state.     

Autonomy and Interdependence in Native Movements: Towards a Pragmatic Politics in the Ecuadorian Andes

Ecuador strikingly illustrates two contradictory forces of the global cultural economy: the pressures of market integration that erode economic independence and the pursuit of "autonomy" that has motivated native movements. Examining here how Quichua communities practice self-determination during enactments of popular justice and negotiations for urban market access, the article shows the political limitations and economic risks of autonomy defined in the context of bounded indigenous territories. It also argues against the practicality and even desirability of autonomy formulas that assume new, unified multicultural identities as a means of framing relations among autonomous peoples. Instead, the author contends that Quichua peoples have been working towards a "relational autonomy" linked to the geographic mobility of peasant careers. It manifests itself not through zonal separation and new pluricultural identities, but rather through strengthening and restricting relations with others. The autonomy that emerges, then, is situational, reflecting the responsiveness of indigenous organizers-rather than programmatic commitment to ideals, multicultural or otherwise.     

Lo andino,duality, and indigenous identities in Prehispanic highland Bolivia

This argument examines duality as part of a constellation of cultural traits used by Andean archaeologists in a prehistoric conception of lo andino, a regionally specific worldview and way of life that is presumed to have included ayllus, paired moieties, ecological complementarity or verticality, and dualism. Several lines of material evidence from Jachakala, a highland Bolivian site dating to ca. AD 170–1000, are presented. The timing of the appearance of duality at Jachakala suggests that the ideological division of the whole into two complementary halves may be most useful in times of crisis, as a mechanism for coping with socioenvironmental stress. The article compares this prehistoric version of lo andino to another version of cultural essentialism at work in Andean indigenous identity politics today, one that uses a different set of features (coca chewing, indigenous language and dress) to symbolize the regionally shared core of Andean indigenous cultures as a counterpoint to modernity.     

白银生产与拉丁美洲的依附性现代化——以安第斯地区为例

白银生产是殖民地美洲最重要的经济活动之一,对整个地区的经济、社会和政治生活都起着重要的主导作用."白银经济圈"的形成和发展,不仅对拉丁美洲内部殖民地经济造成了重要影响,而且是不平等世界分工形成的一个重要条件.文章以安第斯白银产区为例,分析白银生产对拉丁美洲社会经济发展造成的严重后果,探讨拉美后来依附性发展的早期症结所在.白银生产和安第斯地区社会经济的变化发展过程,突出反映了拉丁美洲沦为欠发达地区的过程.白银生产是拉美依附性现代化形成的重要根源之一.