Este trabajo explora el contraste entre dos modos sociales de beber entre los Mapuche del Sur de Chile: el implicado por la chicha, y el referido al vino. Mientras que la chicha es producida y compartida sin mayor elaboración, el intercambio de vino aparece como altamente elaborado y es entendido como el acto paradigmático para la creación de una relación social. Mi análisis sugiere que esta diferente estimación de dos tipos de bebida, superficialmente similares, deriva del hecho de que el vino y la chicha están metonímica y respectivamente relacionados con el intercambio mercantil y la producción doméstica. Mientras que la chicha se produce en el seno del hogar, el vino sólo puede obtenerse en la medida en que se ingresa en relaciones mercantiles con los no mapuche. Esta desvalorización de la producción frente al intercambio sirve como punto de partida para reflexionar acerca de las conceptualizaciones mapuche referidas a la economía, otorgándonos adicionalmente una nueva perspectiva vinculada a algunos intentos antropológicos recientes de retratar a las sociedades amerindias en general como caracterizadas por un modelo de relaciones sociales de “intercambio” en lugar de uno centrado en la “producción”.

This article explores and contrasts two modes of social drinking among the Mapuche of southern Chile: the drinking of cider and the drinking of wine. Although cider is produced and shared without much elaboration, the exchange of wine is highly elaborated and understood as the paradigmatic act for the creation of a social relationship. This analysis suggests that these very different evaluations of two superficially similar types of drinking stem from the fact that wine and cider stand metonymically for market exchange and domestic production, respectively: whereas cider is produced domestically, wine can only be obtained by entering into market relations with white people. This devaluation of production over exchange serves as a starting point for thinking about Mapuche conceptualizations of economic activity, and additionally affords a new perspective on recent anthropological attempts to portray Amerindian societies in general as characterized by “exchange” rather than “production” models of social relations.

Esse artigo è uma analise das relações que os Tiriyó (Suriname) tem desenvolvido com o comercio, os objetos, e com as pessoas não-ameríndias com as quais eles praticam trocas de objetos manufaturados. Apresento o comercio desde uma perspectiva ameríndia da socialidade, focalizando-me sobre as relações entre pessoas. Nesse artigo, apresento uma analise do comercio no contexto de uma discussão mais amplia sobre noções de pessoa, de corpo e de materialidade indígenas, para argumentar que as relações interpersonais de troco são fabricadas durante décadas de experiências comunas entre sujeitos e que modificam em modo visível as pessoas envolvidas e o espaço no qual essas pessoas vivem. As relações de troco resultam em manifestações visíveis ao nível do corpo e da construção do espaço social Tiriyó; os objetos manufaturados permitem a construção de narrativas de êxitos pessoais passados e de viagens transformacionais para esferas distantes de alteridade.

This article is an analysis of trade among the Trio (Suriname), and their relationship with objects and persons in their quest for manufactured goods. Based on data mostly collected in the Trio village of Tëpu in southern Suriname, it discusses trade from the point of view of Amerindian sociality, with regard to the nature of the interpersonal relations involved. I examine trade through the prism of an Amerindian understanding of personhood, the body and materiality, and show how these relationships tend to be fabricated over a lifetime, eventually becoming an integral and material part of the actors involved. This is manifested in the way Trio social space is constructed and inhabited as an extension of the body, and how objects acquired through trade come to elicit narratives of past exploits and travels to distant spheres of alterity.

Este artigo trata das idéias Panará sobre economia e modos de troca, através de uma discussão sobre o que “propriedade,” “dinheiro” e “partilha” significam para pessoas Panará. Partindo da discussão de Lévi-Strauss sobre comercio e guerra como aspectos de um único processo social, e sugerido que as atividades econômicas Panará podem ser entendidos como aspectos da relação dinâmica com a alteridade. O encontro e a interação da gente Panará com dinheiro revela idéias importantes sobre valor, equivalência, modalidades de troca, interdependência mútua e a relação entre pessoas e objetos.

In this article, Panará ideas of economy and modes of exchange are discussed by exploring what “property,” “money,” and “sharing” might mean to Panará people. Building on Lévi-Strauss's discussion of trade and warfare as aspects of a single social process it is argued here that Panará economic activities can be understood as aspects of their dynamic relation to alterity. The growing engagement of Panará people in the monetary economy reveals important ideas about value, equivalence, exchange modalities, mutual interdependence, and the relationship between persons and objects.

Tomando como referencia el caso de los Urarina de Perú, este trabajo investiga la demanda actual por artículos de consumo de los pueblos amazónicos, caracterizándola como una economía del deseo, la cual tiene raíces en las experiencias históricas de la colonización. Las relaciones de “domesticazión,” que durante mucho tiempo, han sido una característica de los encuentros con foráneos, las cuales median entre salvajes y el estado civilizado, han llegado a formar parte central del cuidado dentro de la pareja conyugal. Esto es cada vez más acentuado en el suministro de productos básicos, visto como algo similar a las crías de animales silvestres, y cuya adquisición es una actividad esencialmente masculina. Este proceso incluye al género como un punto clave de articulación entre la economía de subsistencia y el mercado, y demuestra los efectos “decodificantes” del capitalismo, a través del cual las esferas de intercambio se confunden y los deseos se intensifican.

Drawing on the case of the Peruvian Urarina, this article seeks to understand the present high demand for Western trade goods among native Amazonian peoples by situating it within a broader economy of desire with roots in historical experiences of colonization. The relations of “taming” that have long been a feature of encounters with outsiders, mediating an opposition between “savage” and “civilized” states, have become a central part of the caring dynamic between husbands and wives. This is increasingly focused on the provision of commodities, which are construed as akin to wild pets in need of taming and whose acquisition is a quintessentially male pursuit, much like hunting. While exacerbating existing gender asymmetries, this process points to gender as a key point of articulation between the subsistence economy and a penetrating market, and exemplifies the “decoding” effects of capitalism, through which spheres of exchange are conflated and desires intensified.

Debido al éxito de las políticas de identidad ecuatorianas y (Latino Americanas) desde 1990 en adelante, actualmente las demandas sobre indigeneidad se han convertido en un poderoso leguaje para conseguir derechos territoriales colectivos en esta región. En este contexto, la literatura sobre identidades étnico-raciales provee algunos ejemplos fascinantes sobre “indigeneidad” que cuestionan las concepciones dominantes de esta categoría. El presente caso de estudio va un poco más lejos en esta línea temática, al poner en cuestión la hegemónica premisa que considera las identificaciones étnicas en el marco de una única categoría racial. El movimiento social identificado con el sujeto político “Pueblos Ancestrales del Ecosistema Manglar” ha trascendido las divisiones “racializadas,” normalmente asociadas con las identidades étnicas, a través de la articulación de un contra-discurso étnico basado en los conceptos de “ancestralidad” y “pueblos.” Este sujeto político se auto-representa como “pueblos ancestrales” que pertenecen a un ecosistema natural específico, y al mismo tiempo está constituidos por un grupo “multi-racial.”

Due to the success of Ecuadorian and (Latin American) cultural identity politics from the 1990 onwards, claims to indigeneity in this region have become a powerful basis for securing collective land rights. Recent literature on ethnic-racial identities provides many fascinating examples of “indigeneity” that challenge dominant conceptions of this category. The present case study counters the hegemonic assumption that considers ethnic identifications within a single racial category. Here, the social movement identified with the political subject “Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem” has transcended the “racialized” divisions usually linked to ethnic identities by articulating a contested ethnic discourse based on the concepts of “ancestrality” and “peoplehood” in order to demand collective rights. This political subject is self-represented as “Ancestral Peoples” who belong to a specific natural ecosystem while being constituted from a “multiracialized” group.

En torno a la literatura testimonial latinoamericana ha surgido un áspero debate sobre las cuestiones de legitimidad, representación, relaciones de poder y posturas solidarias. Nosotros, al escribir From the Mines to the Streets: A Bolivian Activist's Life (Desde las minas a las calles: la vida de un activista boliviano), enfrentamos ese tipo de problemas, en la medida que nos tocó afrontar la necesidad de tomar en cuenta tanto las expectativas de los lectores del norte global como los requerimientos de los editores de esos países, y de adoptar una forma acorde a la tradición narrativa “occidental” para que sea más fácil de vender en los mercados globales. En este artículo discutimos cómo manejamos esas tensiones durante el proceso de traducción y elaboración del libro. Al final la experiencia nos convenció de que, a pesar de los desafíos y obstáculos, la literatura testimonial puede contribuir a propósitos educacionales y al activismo político de investigadores con compromiso social.

Latin American testimonial literature has given rise to acrimonious debate on issues of voice, legitimacy, representation, power, and solidarity. We grappled with these issues in our recently completed book, From the Mines to the Streets: A Bolivian Activist's Life, as we faced the practicalities of production, the expectations of northern reviewers, and the requirements of northern publishers that we reshape the original testimonio into a more marketable western narrative. In this article, we discuss how we managed these tensions. Our experience convinces us that even though problematic, testimonios can contribute to both educational and activist agendas of engaged social researchers.

Este artículo examina el impacto de los procesos de descentralización política sobre comunidades indígenas del altiplano boliviano. Enfatizando la creación de nuevos municipios rurales, describo las maneras en que las nuevas concepciones y prácticas de la vida cívica impactan formas locales de producción social, las cuales hace años han entretejido las comunidades indígenas dentro de la nación y más allá de la misma. Examino estas experiencias del nuevo panorama administrativo para entender mejor la textura del espacio cívico y político bajo el neoliberalismo y su situación posterior.

This article examines the impact of processes of political decentralization upon rural indigenous communities of the Bolivian highlands. Focusing on the creation of new rural municipalities, it traces the ways in which new imaginings and institutions of national civic life engage local modes of social production that have long entangled indigenous communities and subjects within the nation and beyond. This work discusses what these experiences of this emerging administrative environment can tell us about the texture of civic and political space under neoliberalism and its aftermath. I am particularly interested in a curious synergy between neoliberal modes of governance and indigenous techniques of community reproduction. The result, in the case outlined here, has been a surprising rescaling of the indigenous social order that both enacts and confounds neoliberal imaginings of indigenous democracy.