Suchergebnisse

A number of villages in the Northwest of Argentina are adopting the status of 'indigenous community'. Being recognised as such afford access to a range of legal instruments that permit communities to reclaim their territories which, despite having been occupied for generations, were taken by large landowners during periods of conflict. Activists are at the forefront of these movements and participate actively in the process of the ethnicisation of social claims common across the region. Nevertheless, the identification of rural Andeans as 'Indians' is not simple when Indians have a long history of being rendered invisible and denigrated. The manner in which these activists, whom we describe as 'cultural smugglers' have managed to reverse the stigma of being Indian and revindicate it with pride, requires closer study. They participate in a struggle against dominant local discourses in order to establish, if on a modest level, a certain level of social justice. We will explore the ways in which their discourses, which have achieved a certain amount of success in the media, are interpreted and lived by the villagers who are not altogether disposed to recognising themselves as descendants of a barbarian and pagan people. We will shed light on different representations of the Indian that coexist - and sometimes clash - in contemporary Argentine society and how these complicate the emancipation movement initiated by indigenous organisations. Adapted from the source document.