Disciplining the Past, Policing the Present: The Postcolonial Landscape of Ecuadorian Nostalgia

Abstract

________________________________________________________________The present article assesses the complex reconfiguration that studying the past signifies when one becomes visibly aware of the enormous political and cultural implications that such an endeavor entails. To this end, I will use the Ecuadorian landscape as an entry point or particular case to understand these larger theoretical problematics within a more empirically grounded ethnographic framework. I will rely heavily on my own previous assessments of particular reconfigurations of the past in the Ecuadorian imaginary through the production of the archaeological site of Cochasquí (Benavides, Making Ecuadorian Histories: Four Centuries of Defining Power, 2004a); the Indian movement's historical recovery of their pre-Hispanic past; the representation of a troubling pre-Hispanic homosexual harem of young coastal boys known as the enchaquirados; and the more recent representation of Guayaquil's national identity over the last century. All of these studies have viewed the manner in which the differing communities of the Ecuadorian nation-state utilize the past in conscious and unconscious forms to legitimize their own political ambitions. More concretely even, these studies exemplify the manner in which archaeological discourse is used to identify itself as the most rightful heir to assessing and understanding the national past, and ultimately, defining what being Ecuadorian means or should be all about. ________________________________________________________________Résumé: Le présent article évalue la reconfiguration complexe lorsqu'il s'agit d'étudier des faits avenus en considération des implications politiques et culturelles considérables d'une telle tentative. Pour en venir à mon propos, je vais recourir à la situation qui prévaut en Équateur en tant que point de départ, afin de comprendre ces problématiques théoriques dans le cadre d'une approche ethnographique plus empirique. Je me propose de recourir massivement à mes propres analyses des reconfigurations particulières ayant prévalu dans l'imaginaire équatorien en tenant compte des résultats de l'investigation du site archéologique de Cochasquí (Benavides, Making REVIEW

La guadúa que se corta: paisajes culturales y patrimonio construido en la costa ecuatoriana (Manabí, Ecuador)

“…yectos de desarrollo local, en los que existen múltiples actores. El patrimonio cultural en el sector costero del Ecuador se encuentra en una situación compleja, en la que estructuras estatales postmodernas y el reforzamiento identitario de las comunidades locales con su dialéctica política (Benavides 2009(Benavides , 2013, dentro de los parámetros de la globalización y fórmulas postcoloniales. En ese sentido debemos entender la construcción de discursos dualistas entre realidades prehispánicas y posthispánicas,…”

Hacienda ruins as sites of difficult memory in Chimborazo, Ecuador

“…Many of these ruins, including the hacienda houses of Chimborazo, are parts of an existing milieu de me´moire in Nora's sense-a landscape of heritage still in active use by local people in remembering what took place in the abandoned buildings. The hacienda houses of Chimborazo can be seen as part of the broader archaeological heritage of Ecuador, which has been used in a wide variety of ways by rural communities to reinforce their own claims to authority over, and intimate relations with, local places (Bauer, 2012;Benavides, 2009Benavides, , 2011McEwan et al, 1994). In contrast to prehispanic ruins, however, the remains of hacienda houses are tangible 'imperial debris', in the sense that Ann Stoler uses this term.…”