Creating Community: Land Titling, Education, and Settlement Formation Among the Ashéninka of Peruvian Amazonia

Abstract

RESUMEN Este artículo analiza tanto el proceso como los efectos del proceso de titulación de las tierras indígenas por parte del pueblo Ashéninka en el Perú. Aquí se toman en cuenta las relaciones entre el estado y los grupos indígenas y se muestra cómo estas relaciones pueden ocurrir en múltiples maneras, difiriendo no sólo entre distintos grupos nativos sino también al interior de un mismo grupo étnico. El artículo compara las diferentes historias de varias comunidades Ashéninka; tanto las que han luchado por la obtención de derechos a la tierra como las que han buscado su reconocimiento oficial como parte de un proceso de formalización legal. En comunidades del segundo tipo el artículo muestra que el deseo de lograr una mejor educación para sus hijos es el fundamento de la búsqueda del reconocimiento oficial. El artículo toma en cuenta los efectos que conlleva para los Ashéninka el vivir en comunidades oficialmente reconocidas. Concluye que las identidades y acciones comuna les pueden ser no una motivación sino mas bien la consecuencia en la comunidad de un reconocimiento oficial de derechos a la tierra. This article analyzes the process and effects of land titling in Ashéninka communities in eastern central Peru. Through this analysis the article considers the relationship between nation states and indigenous groups and shows how this relationship can occur in multiple ways, differing not only between distinct indigenous groups but also within a single ethnic grouping. The article compares accounts of Ashéninka communities that have had to fight for their rights to land with the experiences of communities that have sought official recognition as part of an established legal process. In these latter communities the article argues that it is the Ashéninka's desire for schooling that underpins their wish to gain official recognition. The article also considers the effects that living in defined settlements is having and concludes that communal identities and action can be a result of the recognition of land rights rather than an impetus for land rights claims.

Autonomy and Leadership: Political Formations among the Ashéninka of Peruvian Amazonia

“…2. While the autonomy of families is notable they are still interconnected, particularly through the cultural institutions of beer drinking parties and trading partnerships that, I argue (Killick 2005), work at the local and distant level respectively to draw individuals and families into wider networks while allowing them to maintain their autonomy and independence. 3.…”

“…While many people appeared resigned to the exploitation that they suffered at the hands of outsiders, they were adamant that if their children learned how to read and, most of all, how to work with numbers, then they would not be cheated in the future. It was this desire for education that is, I argue, at the centre of the Ashéninka's current willingness to move into officially recognised and relatively nucleated settlements (Killick 2008). In the same way that this desire for education overrides people's desire to live apart so people are willing to cede a certain authority to a particular individual in order to achieve this end.…”

La comunidad en los tiempos de la Comunidad: bienestar en las Comunidades Nativas asháninkas

“…Cabe resaltar que hay estudios sobre las razones por las cuales diferentes grupos asháninkas han buscado titular sus Comunidades. Mientras que Hvalkof (1998) y Hvalkof & Veber (2005) recalcan que estos procesos se dan para defender su territorio e identidad étnica, Killick (2008) argumenta que la motivación principal para su titulación es que el Ministerio de Educación les dote de un profesor para sus escuelas. Sin embargo, estos análisis no nos dicen mucho sobre la forma en que los diferentes grupos asháninkas entienden a la figura de la Comunidad Nativa una vez que ya han logrado titular una parte de su territorio.…”

State of play: The political ontology of sport in Amazonian Peru

“…Soccer in particular has historically offered an arena where ethnic and other groups can integrate themselves into the nation, at the same time functioning as a cultural site for the articulation and negotiation of competing visions of abstract concepts such as "citizenship," "democracy," "equality," and "capitalism." If the challenge of "creating community" or collective identities from autonomous, dispersed households is an important issue for Amazonianist scholars and indigenous peoples alike (e.g., Killick 2008), the cohesive effects of sport would seem a promising place to start. While the condition of modernity is often associated with individualization (e.g., Beck and BeckGernsheim 2002), the Urarina are typical of a number of Amazonian peoples whose "traditional" sociality is highly individualistic and for whom the notion of "the collectivity"-and the formation of bounded, categorical identities-is most quintessentially "modern."…”