A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Constructions of Tacana Indigeneity: Regionalism, Race and Indigenous Politics in Amazonian Bolivia Esther Lopez Pila Thesis submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology University of Sussex January 2014 2 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature Esther Lopez Pila 3 University of Sussex Esther Lopez Pila Thesis submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology Constructions of Tacana Indigeneity: Regionalism, Race and Indigenous Politics in Amazonian Bolivia Summary This dissertation is based on eighteen months of field work in Amazonian Bolivia, and situated in the discourse around the construction of indigenous identity in a neoliberal state. It focusses on a lowland people and their historical and contemporary relationship to the state which is aligned to the contemporary indigenous movement. It does this through an ethnographic and historical study of Tacana people, members of an indigenous group who originate in the tropical piedmont of the Bolivian Andes. A central focus of the work is on the relationships which Tacana people have built with different ethnic, social and political groups in their territory. This focus helps to elucidate the overarching issue at the centre of the thesis: the tensions between the Tacana and other indigenous groups, namely highland Aymara and Quechua who have migrated into the region (colonos). The relationship between Tacana and colonos has become increasingly conflictive since the advent of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, which emphasizes its origins in Bolivia’s strong highland-lowland regionalism. This thesis therefore also examines the strong regionalist sentiments found in Bolivia, as expressed in the contrasting concepts of camba (lowland) and colla (highland) which are themselves further tied to more recent efforts to forge local identities, such as an Amazonian identity. The thesis shows how these efforts, which transgress local, historical and racial boundaries, entail an implicit criticism by lowland populations of the government in the Andes. A related point is that constructions of race and mestizaje have developed differently in the highlands and lowlands. Through a close analysis of such racial relationships the thesis shows how lowland groups such as the Tacana more readily align with lowland mestizo people than with other indigenous groups, especially those who originate in the highlands. Democratization processes and neoliberal policy changes have created spaces for tensions to take shape here and become clearer by discussions around identity, heritage and belonging, brought up by the indigenous movement and heavily informed by NGOs. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 7 List of Images, Maps and Photos .................................................................. 9 Acronyms and Abbreviations ..................................................................... 11 Introduction - Indigeneity in Contemporary Bolivia ................................... 15 Central Themes and Contributions ................................................................................... 20 Indigeneity and Indigenous Identity ................................................................................. 21 Who defines ‘Indigenous’? – The Permitted Indian and the Ecological Indian ............ 24 Representation: Bolivian Indigeneity in Andean Concepts .......................................... 27 Authenticity: The Right to Represent ........................................................................... 30 Highland-lowland Regionalism ......................................................................................... 31 Chapter Set-Up ................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 1 - Locating Tacana People in the Amazon .................................... 41 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 41 The Usage of Terms and Labels ........................................................................................ 44 The Tacana People of this Study – History, Location and Contexts.................................. 45 Amazonian Studies and Contemporary Indigenous Politics ............................................. 51 Tacana People in Amazonian Research ........................................................................ 53 Tacana Cosmology in Geography - Rurrenabaque Holds up the Sky ........................... 55 Migration, Missionization and Ethnogenesis of Tacana Groups ...................................... 60 The Missions of Apolobamba ....................................................................................... 60 Indigenous Politics and its Incompatibility with the Reality of Amazonian Groups ......... 66 Chapter 2 - Where Tacana People Locate Themselves ................................ 69 Settlement and Identity: ‘Being’ Tacana .......................................................................... 70 The Town of Rurrenabaque .............................................................................................. 74 Tacana Comunidades – Infrastructure and Organisation and Activities ......................... 78 The Comunidad Carmen Florida ................................................................................... 83 5 The Comunidad Tumupasa ........................................................................................... 86 The Comunidad Buena Vista ......................................................................................... 88 Geography and Collective Identity in Linguistic Terms ..................................................... 89 The People of the Comunidades ................................................................................... 89 Being Humble ................................................................................................................ 91 Chapter 3 - The Crude Camba of the Amazon and the Genteel Camba of Santa Cruz– Setting the Grounds for Regionalisms ..................................... 94 ‘El Oriente’ - Santa Cruz as the Representative of the Bolivian lowlands ........................ 95 The Establishment of Provinces and Departments in Bolivia ........................................... 97 Non-Indigenous Settlers of the Amazon and Santa Cruz – The Crude Camba vs. the Genteel Camba ............................................................................................................... 102 A Bolivian Middle Class Emerges – The Chaco War (1932-1935) ................................... 105 The ‘Forgotten’ Amazon in Bolivia Today ....................................................................... 109 Chapter 4 - Indian Mothers and White Fathers - Camba as Kinship in the Amazon ................................................................................................... 112 Upgrading the Image of the Amazon ............................................................................. 114 Tacana People and the ‘Amazonian Project’ .................................................................. 116 Camba as Kinship –Tacana People and their Mestizo Patrónes .................................... 118 ‘Camba’ as a Political Tool.............................................................................................. 120 La Manera Camba (The Camba Way) ............................................................................ 122 Of Camba and Colla in Rurrenabaque and Tumupasa ................................................... 126 Tacana People’s Mistrust of the State ............................................................................ 129 Tacana People’s Mistrust of TCOs .............................................................................. 130 Chapter 5 - “The Colonos come like Termites to take our Land.”- Struggles over Land and ‘Ways of Being’ in an Amazon Municipality ...................... 134 Rural Municipalities and the Popular Participation Law (LPP) ....................................... 136 “Evo is not sending down the IDH funds” – The Municipal Summits as a Political Tool 139 Of ‘Humble’ Tacana People and ‘Cunning’ Colonos ....................................................... 141 “The Colonos have Become more Aggressive” - The Struggle over Land ....................... 144 6 Chapter 6 - “Some Families have a Bit more.” – Race, Mestizaje and Social Classes ..................................................................................................... 150 The Andean Indian as the Status Quo ............................................................................ 153 Constructing