Manipulating Cartographies: Plurinationalism, Autonomy, and Indigenous Resurgence in Bolivia

Abstract

Latin American indigenous movements increasingly speak of “plurinationalism” in demands for state transformation. The concept—as yet solidified in legal or territorial orders—exists in tension with disputed meanings of “autonomy,” raising questions about indigenous territorial rights, citizenship, and natural resources. Bolivia’s new constitution elevates both concepts to official status in the context of struggles over natural gas. Following David Maybury-Lewis’s call for rethinking the state, I consider how Bolivians are rethinking historicities of space to transform cartographies of a “plurinational state.” Though raising fears of ethnic partitioning, the Guaraní case suggests that hybrid plural and indigenous territorialities are emergent.

The Politics of Indigenous Participation Through “Free Prior Informed Consent”: Reflections from the Bolivian Case

“…For the construction and consolidation of the plurinational state, the principles of juridical pluralism, unity, complementarity, reciprocity, equity, solidarity and the moral and ethic principles to stop all kind of corruption are fundamentals" (Propuesta de las Organizaciones Indígenas, Originarias, Campesinas y de Colonizadores hacia la Asamblea Constituyente, Sucre, 5 August 2006, http://www.cebem.org/cmsfiles/archivos/propuesta-organizaciones-indigenas.pdf ). On Bolivian plurinationalism see also Gustafson, 2009;Tapia 2011;Fabricant and Gustafson, 2011;Tockman and Cameron, 2014;Fontana, 2014b. These conflicts might sound at first glance as though they are as a very Bolivian problem. But in fact, these issues echo debates in neighboring Peru 11 , and point to more general issues with FPIC.…”

‘Some Time From Now They’ll be Good Farmers’: Rethinking Perceptions of Social Evolution in an Area of Interethnic Contact in Lowland Bolivia

“…In the wake of the 'Cochabamba Water War' of 2001, the 'Gas War' of 2003, and the election of Evo Morales and his political party the Movimiento a Socialismo (Movement Towards Socialism, or MAS), politicians and academics alike presented Bolivia as an 'Indigenous nation' led by Bolivia's 'first indigenous president' (Albro 2005;Canessa 2006;Gustafson 2009). Opposition to MAS also took the form of a debate about whiteness and indigeneity, with lowland separatist movements claiming a whiter identity and rejecting -often violently -the idea of an indigenous nationstate (Busdiecker 2009;Fabricant and Gustafson 2011).…”

“…For academics, both nationally and internationally, this inclusive idea of indigenous citizenship entailed a broad shift in the relationship between indigenous people and the state, with the potential to include formerly marginalized indigenous people (Gustafson 2009;Mamani Ramírez 2011;McNeish 2006;Postero 2007;Prada 2007). Like MNR's project of modernizing mestizaje, the MAS's project aims to create a national identity, based on an understanding of indigeneity that opposes white to indigenous.…”

Indigenous peoples vs peasant unions: land conflicts and rural movements in plurinational Bolivia

“…as drivers of change rather than social actors involved themselves in a continuous process of adaptation to the context. In this sense, the line of interpretation was at first one of redistributive justice and development (corresponding to twentieth-century Marxist-inspired and nationalist revolutions) (Alexander 1974, Duncan and Routledge 1977, Baranyi et al 2004 and at a later stage, one of ethnic recognition (corresponding to the so-called 'new social movements' and 'neoindigenism') (Rivera 1984, Escobar and Alvarez 1992, Yashar 2005, Postero 2006, Van Cott 2007, Gustafson 2009). …”