The Environmental Activism of Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon
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University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) 2019 “Nosotras Como Mujeres”: The Environmental Activism of Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon Leta Rowan University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Rowan, Leta, "“Nosotras Como Mujeres”: The Environmental Activism of Indigenous Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon" (2019). Honors Theses. 1220. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1220 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “NOSOTRAS COMO MUJERES”: THE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON Leta Rowan ©2019 A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies Croft Institute for International Studies Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College The University of Mississippi Oxford, Mississippi April 2019 Approved by: ___________________________________ Advisor: Dr. Kate Centellas ___________________________________ Reader: Dr. Oliver Dinius ___________________________________ Reader: Dr. Marcos Mendoza i Abstract Across Latin America, indigenous organizations have mobilized against environmental destruction inflicted upon their communities. Environmental destruction brought about by climate change and extractive industries has been especially devastating in the Western Amazon- the most biologically diverse region of the Amazon and home to a diversity of indigenous populations. The efforts of indigenous organizations in the Western Amazon, notably the Ecuadorian Amazon, have been successful in affecting progressive environmental policies as a means to protect their natural environments and standards of living. Indigenous women specifically have played a significant role in addressing the climate injustices affecting their communities and have employed rhetoric that distinguish themselves as indigenous women living in the Amazon as a means to advocate for environmental justice. Through the use of symbolic boundaries and collective consciousness raising, the subjects in question advocate for political and social change by employing the stereotypes associated with indigenous women of the Two-Thirds World. Their intersectionality plays a role in their disproportional subjection to environmental destruction in relation to dominant social groups, but is also employed as a means to assert their connection to their natural environment and authority in protecting it from exploitation. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………………..……...1 Chapter II: Two-Thirds World Feminism and Indigenous Social Movements……………….….…..5 Chapter III: Environmental Degradation in the Ecuadorian Amazon ……………….……....……....16 Chapter IV: Analysis………...…...………………………………………………….…………...…..24 Data and Methodology…………………………………..…………………….…………....24 Blog Posts………………………...………...……………………………………………….31 Videos………………………...……………………….…………………………………….35 Sustainable Development Proposals……………..………………..………………………..40 Chapter V: Conclusion……………………………...……………………………….……...............48 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………50 iii Chapter 1 Introduction The Western Amazon is the most biologically diverse region of the world (Finer 2008). It hosts not only a great number of plants, insects, amphibians, and wildlife of all kinds, but also a diversity of indigenous populations, including groups living in voluntary isolation, who have inhabited these territories for generations. Also home to the Amazon, however, are hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of oil reserves sought after by a booming industry. This industry, propelled by record prices and high global demand, has lead to devastating environmental and social impacts that have disproportionately affected the indigenous groups living in or around land occupied by multinational oil corporations’ industry sites (Finer, 2008). Second only to Peru with 72% of their Amazonian territory apportioned into oil blocks, the Ecuadorian government has allocated approximately 65% (~52,300 km2) of its Amazonian territory for extractive activities (Finer 2008). These blocks overlap with the ancestral or titled lands of ten indigenous groups, but it is primarily the national government, not the indigenous groups that live on this land, that allows corporations to establish their oil sites. The groups affected, however, have organized in response to the environmental injustices that have been disproportionately felt by vulnerable populations (Cuomo 2011). Across Latin America, there have been a series of indigenous mobilizations centered around the environmental destruction brought by extractive activities, but the indigenous organizations in Ecuador have played a significant role in the nation’s progressive, environmental policies. 1 This thesis examines the strategies used by indigenous environmental activist networks facilitated by women living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I pose the questions: what strategies were employed by the activists, and what do these strategies reveal about global gender, racial, and economic inequality? In answering this question, I first provide explanations of the underlying theoretical framework of this thesis. By outlining an explanation of intersectional feminism (MacCormack 1979; Crenshaw 1990), especially the feminism apparent in the Two- Thirds World (Mohanty 2003), I hope to display the value of studying a particular case as a means to understand the universal. Then, I contextualize and explain the stereotypes that have been associated with indigenous peoples in order to pursue a non-essentializing, cross-cultural critical analysis. I explore how the women, an especially vulnerable social group following the theory of intersectionality, have employed collective consciousness-raising using the framework of symbolic boundaries as an activism strategy. By performing identities founded in colonial stereotypes, the activists create a collective identity while emphasizing the differences between themselves and their oppressors as a means to create social and political change (Cherry 2010; Polletta 2001; Ulloa 2005; Ulloa 2008; Valivia 2007). Indigenous women specifically have mobilized to address climate injustices affecting their communities and have adopted rhetoric that appeal to their identity as indigenous women living in the Amazon as a means to advocate for environmental justice. The intersectional identities of indigenous women of the Ecuadorian Amazon have left them exceptionally vulnerable to political disenfranchisement and exploitation by dominant groups. These women, however, have utilized their identities and the stereotypes that have been historically associated with them as a means to enact social and political change relating to their natural environments. Through the use of symbolic boundary work and collective identity formation, the subjects in 2 question advocate for political, social, and cultural change by employing the stereotypes associated with indigenous women of the Two/ Thirds World (Mohanty 2003; Cherry 2010; Arora-Jonsson 2011). By using a specific case to study environmental activism lead by Amazonian indigenous women, this thesis hopes to pursue a more inclusive form of feminist scholarship that highlights feminist activism of indigenous groups across the globe. In the third chapter, I provide a more empirical explanation of environmental degradation and environmental movements in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In the third, I outline environmental activism in Ecuador, and the role indigenous organizations played in the country’s progressive environmental policies. Lastly, in examining these cases, I employ a content analysis of first- hand reports of indigenous environmental advocacy groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In analyzing blog posts, short video documentaries, and sustainable development proposals, I have noticed the emergence of a few key themes relating to multinational corporations/capitalism, resource extraction, climate change, gender roles, and communal relations. In their advocacy, the activists have targeted multinational oil corporations and the government institutions that allow their extractive activities as the primary contributors to the environmental destruction facing their communities. While some groups consider climate change to be the biggest threat to their ways of life, they all consider extractive activities and the government institutions that permit them to be the underlying cause of their environmental woes. In their activism, they establish symbolic boundaries (i.e. reaffirming the distinctions between themselves and the other) as a means to distinguish themselves as a collective identity (Cherry 2010; Arora-Jonsson 2011). In raising the collective consciousness as women living in the rural Ecuadorian Amazon, the women perform the characteristics/qualities imposed upon them post-Conquest to establish their authority over their natural environment and the foundation 3 of their advocacy (Ulloa 2005). In maintaining the Eurocentric nature|culture divide and their inherent connection with their natural environment as indigenous women, the activists use their identities as a tool to