Indigenous transformations in the comunidad nativa: rethinking kinship and its limitations in an expanding resource frontier

In Of Mixed Blood, Peter Gow sets out an account of the transformations of kinship and the construction of social relations among Indigenous, mainly Yine (Piro), people of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the early 1980s, when Peru’s “Comunidades Nativas” (“Native Communities”) were receiving their new official titles. We revisit Peter’s proposition by comparing it our more recent ethnographic engagements with Indigenous Asháninka/Ashéninka communities in the region. While tracing continuities from his observations, we also show how social relations now play out in different ways, as certain important resources have become scarcer and the need for money is increasingly central for people’s wellbeing. This new context is framed by the expansion of the extractive frontier, a different legal regime of access to land and resources in Comunidades Nativas, and expanding Indigenous groups living in smaller and increasingly degraded areas. In this context, we see not the embracing of new forms of overarching solidarity linked to Comunidades, but rather the shrinking of familial units within these titled territories. The article reflects on Peter’s propositions through vignettes that show how processes of making and unmaking social relations and creating new identities play out in different settings while still maintaining an internal coherence

Questões sobre a política do "Vivir Bien" na Amazônia indígena

Este ensaio propõe uma solução para o dilema imposto aos povos indígenas quando estes participam da política moderna. Por um lado, as organizações políticas indígenas são criticadas pelo uso de conceitos euro-americanos nas intervenções que realizam especificamente para expor suas demandas políticas. Por outro lado, questiona-se a credibilidade desses mesmos grupos quando suas representações não correspondem às ideias de indianidade dos Estados e das ONG’s. Tendo como base pesquisas etnográficas realizadas entre grupos ashaninka, a sociedade amazônica de maior população, o autor convida para uma análise que olhe para além da política refratada nos discursos indigenistas propostos pelos Estados e pelas ONG’s, e que dê conta de analisar as práticas políticas que são invisíveis a essas críticas: as práticas cotidianas do kametsa asaiki (‘viver bem’), centrais para o processo de criação dos seres humanos ashaninka. O autor conclui que, mesmo que a natureza política do kametsa asaiki seja invisível para o Estado e para as ONG’s, ela ainda tem efeitos importantes que, esses sim, são visíveis

Between care and conflict: relations of resource extraction in the Peruvian Amazon

The article examines the ‘contradiction’ between indigenous Amazonian people's opposition to hydrocarbon extraction and their participation in different scales of logging. It considers the literature on conflicts over resource extraction from the experiences of Joel Bardales, an Ashéninka man who leads both logging ventures and protests against hydrocarbon extraction. While scholarly debates emphasise collective responses, the article emphasises individual experiences as they motivate different strategies vis-à-vis resource extraction. Joel's statements, stemming from a context of a relational moral economy, reveal a position that does not reject resource extraction, but its refusal to engage in reciprocal relationships of care

Julián's choice: of Jaguar-Shamans and the sacrifices made for progreso in Peru's extractive frontier

In May 2010, Julián Miranda, an Indigenous Asháninka shaman, died hours after killing a jaguar-shaman. Despite knowing that it could kill him, he killed a jaguar-shaman to protect his cows, an investment to support the much-desired progreso ('progress') of his children and grandchildren through education. Julián's choice was one of personal sacrifice driven by the hardships he experienced in the degraded forests of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the Peruvian Amazon. My examination of his decision to kill the jaguar-shaman engages with the multi-disciplinary literature on how local peoples engage with the expanding extractive frontier in Latin America. The emphasis most literature places on social movements and - to a lesser extent - on the ontological characteristics of these conflicts needs to be counterbalanced by individual experiences like Julián's for a deeper understanding of the multiple local experiences of large-scale resource extraction and the different strategies through which people pursue their desired futures

Hybrid houses and dispersed communities: negotiating governmentality and living well in Peruvian Amazonia

Focused on one officially recognised Ashaninka Comunidad Nativa (‘Native Community’) on the Ucayali River in Peruvian Amazonia, the article examines indigenous responses to the demands and expectations of being part of the Peruvian state and the associated techniques of government. The article traces the origins of such communities to the 1974 Law of Native Communities, showing how their form and function has been produced through the constant interplay between external and internal conceptions of the proper organisation of communal life. Drawing on Lévi-Strauss’ notion of bricolage as well as more recent discussions of ‘indigenous creolisation,’ hybridity and the ‘openness’ of Amerindian societies the article emphasises the productivity of focusing on the everyday constructions of hybrid forms rather than distinct categories. In a final section it draws out the implications of this understanding to recent political discussions and uses of the concept of Buen Vivir (‘living well’). In this way it argues that while emphasising and projecting particular ideas of indigenous culture may be one strategy for indigenous survival and action, the ability to combine and mix new forms of living remains a key component of contemporary indigenous lives in Amazonia

Healthcare of Indigenous Amazonian Peoples in response to COVID-19: marginality, discrimination and revaluation of ancestral knowledge in Ucayali, Peru.

Editorial - No abstract available

Kametsa asaiki : the pursuit of the 'good life' in an Ashaninka village (Peruvian Amazonia)

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the pursuit of kametsa asaiki (‘the good life’) in an Ashaninka village by the Bajo Urubamba River (Peruvian Amazonia). My study centres on Ashaninka social organization in a context made difficult by the wake of the Peruvian Internal War, the activities of extractive industries, and a series of despotic decrees that have been passed by the Peruvian government. This is all framed by a change in their social organization from living in small, separated family-based settlements to one of living in villages. This shift presents them with great problems when internal conflicts arise. Whilst in the past settlements would have fissioned in order to avoid conflict, today there are two related groups of reasons that lead them to want to live in centralised communities. The first is their great desire for their children to go to school and the importance they place on long-term cash-crops. The second is the encroachment of the Peruvian State and private companies on their territory and lives which forces them to stay together in order to resist and protect their territory and way of life. I suggest that this change in organisation changes the rules of the game of sociality. Contemporary Ashaninka life is centred on the pursuit of kametsa asaiki, a philosophy of life they believe to have inherited from their ancestors that teaches emotional restraint and the sharing of food in order to create the right type of Ashaninka person. Yet, at present it also has new factors they believe allow them to become ‘civilised’: school education, new forms of leadership and conflict resolution, money, new forms of conflict resolution, intercultural health, and a strong political federation to defend their right to pursue kametsa asaiki. My thesis is an anthropological analysis of the 'audacious innovations' they have developed to retake the pursuit of kametsa asaiki in the aftermath of the war. I show that this ethos of living is not solely a communal project of conviviality but it has become a symbol of resistance in their fight for the right to have rights in Peru

Learning from adaptive collaborative management: A participatory tool to support adaptive and reflective learning in multi-stakeholder forums

Multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) are, by definition, organized attempts at collaboration. Given the current interest and investment in MSFs in development and conservation circles, CIFOR worked with subnational MSFs organized for more sustainable land and resource use in Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Peru. Research revealed that although much optimism is placed on MSFs, their organizers believed their forums fostered equity simply by inviting more actors to the table and thus placed little effort on addressing the power inequalities between their participants. Recognizing this challenge, and taking lessons from adaptive collaborative management, CIFOR researchers embarked on a collaboration with MSF participants to develop an adaptive and reflexive learning tool to allow forum participants to monitor and reflect on their work. The purpose of this reflection is to learn from the past, consider progress and obstacles to further progress, and collectively plan how to achieve the MSF’s goals in the future. The chapter presents a synthesis of the research findings that led to tool development, the tool’s development process, and the effort to use ACM more effectively in participatory monitoring