Indigenous-State Relations in the Peruvian Amazon: Between Autonomy, Integration, and the Absent State
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Authors
Ramos, Carola
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Indigenous Peoples , Peruvian Amazon , Indigenous autonomy , Territory , Decoloniality , State relations
Alternative Title
Abstract
On June 5, 2009, a confrontation between police officers and civilians near the town of Bagua, in the department of Amazonas in Peru, ended with 33 fatalities, including five Indigenous Awajún-Wampis. In the context of the Amazonian mobilizations of 2008-2009, the protesters sought to repeal neoliberal executive decrees that aimed to facilitate the further division and commercialization of Indigenous lands. The tragic events at Bagua, known as the Baguazo, catalyzed Awajún conceptualizations of new forms of relating to the state and motivate my central research question: How and to what extent are the Awajún reframing the way the Peruvian nation-state is imagined and operationalized vis-à-vis Indigenous peoples? I depart from previous depictions of the Peruvian colonial, neoliberal state, and posit that anti-colonial Indigenous strategies challenge dominant ideas of a monolithic nation-state. My research focuses on three case studies involving the Awajún people of the northwest Amazon. First, I explore how resource extraction governance structures Indigenous-state relations, highlighting a mining conflict within Awajún territory, as revealed in interviews with central and regional government agents. Second, I explore Awajún ontologies regarding territory, examining the role of territory in the Awajún construction of autonomy. Third, guided by Awajún conceptualizations of tajimat pujut (life in abundance), I investigate Awajún engagement with the local market economy. In these three case studies, I draw on a spatialized interpretation of Modernity/Coloniality/Decoloniality conceptual frameworks, and cull from interviews, participant observation, and close analysis of technical reports. My research contributes to debates about the limits of Indigenous autonomies, framing the Peruvian Amazon as a site of micropolitics beyond views of a colonized space by extractivist forces. Awajún territorial defence and visions of self-government challenge its official territorial organization under a single nation-state. Local market governance converges with Awajún aspirations of a life of productive practices without oppression, engaged in with the sustainability of the forest foremost in mind. This convergence at the local level challenges the established idea of a neoliberal state, but at the risk of reinforcing intragroup inequalities.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States