In this paper I examine the cultural politics of international development among Ecuadorian indigenous federations. Many critiques, focused on the national or international scale, have portrayed development as monolithic, homogenizing, and depoliticized. However, when specific practices and discourses of development are examined, particularly among locally based rural peoples' organizations, it becomes clear that development is a diverse process, and its meaning is highly contested. I argue that, for Ecuadorian indigenous organizations, international development provides an idiom for negotiating civil and resource rights. This process is demonstrated through an institutional ethnography of an indigenous federation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which highlights the ways that the federation uses the discourses of nationalist development and environmentalism in order to contest official understandings of citizenship and the nation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlvarezSDagninoEEscobarA, 1998, “Introduction: the cultural and political in Latin American social movements”, in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements Eds AlvarezS EDagninoEEscobarA (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 1–29
2.
BebbingtonA, 1996, “Movements, modernizations and markets: indigenous organizations and indigenous strategies in Ecuador”, in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements Eds PeetRWattsM (Routledge, London) pp 86–109
3.
BebbingtonA, 2000, “Reencountering development: livelihood transitions and place transformations in the Andes”Annals of the Association of American Geographers90495–520
4.
BebbingtonA, 2002, “Geographies of development in Latin America?”, in Latin America in the Twenty-first Century: Challenges and Solutions Ed. KnappG (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX) pp 105–148
5.
BebbingtonAThieleG, 1993NGOs and the State in Latin America: Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development (Routledge, London)
6.
BebbingtonA JCarrascoHPeralboLRamónGTrujilloJTorresV H, 1992Actores de una Década Ganada: Tribus, Comunidades y Campesinos en la Modernidad [Actors of a decade won: tribes, communities, and peasants in modernity] (Comunidec, Abya-Yala, Quito)
7.
BebbingtonA JCarrascoHPeralboLRamónGTrujilloJTorresV H, 1993, “Fragile lands, fragile organizations: Indian organizations and the politics of sustainability in Ecuador”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series18179–196
8.
BonnettA, 2000White Identities: Historical and International Perspectives (Prentice-Hall, Harlow, Essex)
9.
BourdieuP, 1977Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
BrownM P, 1997RePlacing Citizenship: AIDS Activism and Radical Democracy (Guilford Press, New York)
12.
BryskA, 2000From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and International Relations in Latin America (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
13.
CarrièreJ, 2001, “Neoliberalism, economic crisis and popular mobilization in Ecuador”, in Miraculous Metamorphoses: The Neoliberalization of Latin American Populism Ed. DemmersJFernández JilbertoA EHogenboomB (Zed Books, London) pp 132–149
14.
CONAIE, 1999Las Nacionalidades Indígenas y sus Derechos Colectivos en la Constitución [The indigenous nationalities and their collective rights in the constitution] Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Avenida de los Granades 2553, Quito, Ecuador
15.
CONAIE, 2001Las Nacionalidades y Pueblos y sus Derechos en la Legislación Nacional e Internacional [The nationalities and peoples and their rights in national and international legislation] Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Avenida de los Granades 2553, Quito, Ecuador
16.
ConklinB AGrahamL R, 1995, “The shifting middle ground: Amazonian Indians and eco-politics”American Anthropologist97695–710
17.
CooperFPackardR, 1998, “Introduction”, in International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge Eds CooperFPackardR (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 1–41
18.
CowenM PShentonR W, 1996Doctrines of Development (Routledge, London)
19.
CowenM PShentonR W, 1998, “Agrarian doctrines of development: part 1”Journal of Peasant Studies2549–76
20.
DagninoE, 1998, “Culture, citizenship, and democracy: changing discourses and practices of the Latin American Left”, in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements Eds AlvarezS EDagninoEEscobarA (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 33–63
21.
de la TorreC, 1997, “Populism and democracy: political discourses and cultures in contemporary Ecuador”Latin American Perspectives23(3) 12–24
22.
DiskinM, 1991, “Ethnic discourse and the challenge to anthropology: the Nicaraguan case”, in Nation-states and Indians in Latin America Eds UrbanGSherzerJ (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX) pp 156–180
23.
EscobarA, 1992, “Planning”, in The Development Dictionary Ed. SachsW (Zed Books, London) pp 132–145
24.
EscobarA, 1995Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
25.
EscobarA, 1999, “After nature: steps to an antiessentialist political ecology”Current Anthropology40(1) 1–30
26.
FergusonJ, 1990The Anti-politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
27.
GarcíaM E, 2003, “The politics of community: education, indigenous rights, and ethnic mobilization in Peru”Latin American Perspectives30(1) 71–96
28.
García CancliniN, 1995Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN)
29.
GuptaA, 1998Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
30.
HallS, 1990, “Cultural identity and diaspora”, in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference Ed. RutherfordJ (Lawrence and Wishart, London) pp 222–237
31.
HallS, 1996a“On postmodernism and articulation: an interview with Stuart Hall”, in Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies Eds MorleyDChenK H (Routledge, London) pp 131–150
32.
HallS, 1996b“Introduction: who needs ‘identity’?”, in Questions of Cultural Identity Eds HallSdu GayP (Sage, London) pp 1–17
33.
HoselitzB F, 1952, “Non-economic barriers to economic development”Economic Development and Cultural Change1(1) 8–21
34.
HudelsonJ E, 1981The Expansion and Development of Quichua Transitional Culture in the Upper Amazon Basin PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York
35.
KeckMSikkinkK, 1998Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY)
36.
LaclauEMouffeC, 1985Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (Verso, London)
37.
LiT M, 2000, “Articulating indigenous identity in Indonesia: resource politics and the tribal slot”Comparative Studies in Society and History42(1) 149–179
38.
LuceroJ A, 2003, “Locating the ‘Indian problem’: community and nationality in Ecuadorian indigenous politics”Latin American Perspectives30(1) 23–48
39.
MacdonaldT J, 1999Ethnicity and Culture Amidst New “Neighbors” (Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA)
40.
MooreD S, 2000, “The crucible of cultural politics: reworking ‘development’ in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands”American Ethnologist26654–689
41.
MouffeC, 1992, “Democratic citizenship and the political community”, in Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism, Citizenship, Community Ed. MouffeC (Verso, London) pp 225–239
42.
OrtnerS B, 1995, “Resistance and the problem of ethnographic refusal”Comparative Studies in Society and History37(1) 173–193
43.
PerreaultT A, 2000Shifting Ground: Agrarian Change, Political Mobilization, and Identity Construction Among Quichua of the Alto Napo, Ecuadorian Amazonia PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
44.
PerreaultT A, 2001, “Developing identities: indigenous mobilization, rural livelihoods, and resource access in Ecuadorian Amazonia”Ecumene8381–413
45.
PerreaultT A, 2003a, “Changing places: transnational networks, ethnic politics, and community development in the Ecuadorian Amazon”Political Geography (in press)
46.
PerreaultT A, 2003b, “Making space: community organization, agrarian change, and the politics of scale in the Ecuadorian Amazon”Latin American Perspectives30(1) 97–122
47.
PerreaultT ABebbingtonA JCarrollT, 1998, “Indigenous irrigation organizations and the formation of social capital in northern highland Ecuador”Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers Yearbook241–16
48.
PiggS L, 1992, “Inventing social categories through place: social representations and development in Nepal”Comparative Studies in Society and History34491–513
49.
PrattM L, 1994, “Transculturation and autoethnography: Peru, 1615/1980”, in Colonial Discourse/Postcolonial Theory Eds BarkerFHulmePIversonM (Manchester University Press, Manchester) pp 24–46
50.
RadcliffeS A, 1996, “Imaginative geographies, postcolonialism, and national identities: contemporary discourses of the nation in Ecuador”Ecumene323–42
51.
RadcliffeS A, 1999, “Reimagining the nation: community, difference, and national identities among indigenous and mestizo provincials in Ecuador”Environment and Planning A3137–52
52.
RadcliffeS AWestwoodS, 1996Remaking the Nation: Place, Identity, and Politics in Latin America (Routledge, London)
53.
RahierJ M, 1998, “Blackness, the racial/spatial order, migrations, and Miss Ecuador 1995 – 96”American Anthropologist100421–430
54.
RogersM, 1995Images of Power and the Power of Images: Identity and Place in Ecuadorian Shamanism PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
55.
RogersM, 1996, “Beyond authenticity: conservation, tourism, and the politics of representation in the Ecuadorian Amazon”Identities3(1 and 2) 73–125
56.
RostowWW, 1960The Stages of Economic Growth (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
57.
SachsW, 1992The Development Dictionary (Zed Books, London)
58.
SantanaR, 1995QCiudadanos en la Etnicidad? Indios en la Política o la Política de los Indios [Citizens in ethnicity? Indians in politics or the politics of Indians] (Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito)
59.
Santos GraneroFBarclayF, 2000Tamed Frontiers: Economy, Society, and Civil Rights in Upper Amazonia (Westview Press, Boulder, CO)
60.
SchildV, 1998, “New subjects of rights? Women's movements and the construction of citizenship in the ‘new democracies’”, in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements Eds AlvarezS EDagninoEEscobarA (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 93–117
61.
Selverston-ScherM H, 2000Ethno-politics in Ecuador: Indigenous Rights and the Strengthening of Democracy (Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO)
62.
ShivaV, 1989The Violence of the Green Revolution: Ecological Degradation and Political Conflict in Punjab (Research Foundation for Science and Ecology, Dehra Dun)
63.
SmithC, 1997, “The symbolics of blood: Mestizaje in the Americas”Identities3495–521
64.
StutzmanR, 1981El mestizaje: an all-inclusive ideology of exclusion”, in Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador Ed. WhittenN EJr (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL) pp 45–94
65.
SwyngedouwE, 1997a, “Excluding the Other: the production of scale and scaled politics”, in Geographies of Economies Eds LeeRWillsJ (Arnold, London) pp 167–176
66.
SwyngedouwE, 1997b, “Neither global nor local: ‘glocalization’ and the scale of politics”, in Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local Ed. CoxK R (Guilford Press, New York) pp 137–166
67.
Van AusdalS, 2001, “Development and discourse among the Maya of southern Belize”Development and Change32577–606
68.
WarrenK B, 1998Indigenous Movements and their Critics: Pan-Maya Activism in Guatemala (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
69.
WattsM J, 1998, “Nature as artifice and artefact”, in Remaking Reality: Nature at the Millennium Eds BraunBCastreeN (Routledge, London) pp 243–268
70.
WattsM J, 2001, “Petro-violence: community, extraction, and political ecology of a mythic commmodity”, in Violent Environments Eds PelusoN LWattsM J (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY) pp 189–212
71.
WhittenN E, 1976Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and Adaptation of Ecuadorian Jungle Quichua (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL)
72.
WhittenN E, 1981, “Amazonia today at the base of the Andes: an ethnic interface in ecological, social, and ideological perspectives”, in Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador Ed. WhittenN E (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL) pp 121–161
73.
WhittenN E, 1985Sicuanga Runa: The Other Side of Development in Amazonian Ecuador (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL)
74.
YapaL, 1996a, “Improved seeds and constructed scarcity”, in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements (Routledge, London) pp 69–85
75.
YapaL, 1996b, “What causes poverty? A postmodern view”Annals of the Association of American Geographers86707–728
76.
YasharD, 1996, “Indigenous protest and democracy in Latin America”, in Constructing Democratic Governance: Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s Eds DomínguezJ ILowenthalA F (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD) pp 87–122
77.
YasharD, 1998, “Contesting citizenship: indigenous movements and democracy in Latin America”Comparative Politics31(1) 23–42
78.
YasharD, 1999, “Democracy, indigenous movements, and the postliberal challenge in Latin America”World Politics5276–104
79.
YúdiceG, 1998, “The globalization of culture and the new civil society”, in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements Eds AlvarezS EDagninoEEscobarA (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 353–379
80.
YúdiceG, 2001, “From hybridity to policy: for a purposeful cultural studies”, editor's introduction in Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural ConflictN García Canclini, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN) pp ix–xxxviii
