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'Es Una Comunidad Libre': Contesting the Potential Of ‘ES UNA COMUNIDAD LIBRE’: CONTESTING THE POTENTIAL OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHEASTERN BOLIVIA Veronika Groke A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2012 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2549 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License ‘ES UNA COMUNIDAD LIBRE’: CONTESTING THE POTENTIAL OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHEASTERN BOLIVIA by Veronika Groke THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS August 2011 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Veronika Groke, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 90,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2002 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September 2004; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2004 and 2011. (If you received assistance in writing from anyone other than your supervisor/s): I, …..., received assistance in the writing of this thesis in respect of [language, grammar, spelling or syntax], which was provided by …… Date ……. signature of candidate ……… 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date …… signature of supervisor ……… 3. Permission for electronic publication: (to be signed by both candidate and supervisor) In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Add one of the following options: (i) Access to printed copy and electronic publication of thesis through the University of St Andrews. Date …….. signature of candidate …… signature of supervisor ……… A supporting statement for a request for an embargo must be included with the submission of the draft copy of the thesis. Where part of a thesis is to be embargoed, please specify the part and the reasons. Abstract This thesis is a study of a Guaraní community (comunidad) situated in the Department of Santa Cruz in the southeastern lowlands of Bolivia. The thesis uses the concept of ‘comunidad’ as a focus of investigation. While this concept is one that is familiar and firmly embedded in contemporary discourses throughout Bolivia, the meanings which different people and interest groups attach to it and the purposes which they ascribe to it are far from unanimous. Apart from the physical and legal entity, comprising a group of people, the land on which they live, and the legal title for its ownership, a comunidad is a multifaceted and multilayered complex of diverging and sometimes competing ideas, desires and agendas. Questioning the concept of ‘comunidad’ in this way opens up new perspectives on what people are doing and why that could easily be overlooked in continuing to assume that we know what we are talking about when talking about a ‘comunidad indígena’ in Bolivia today. The thesis explores the case of Cañón de Segura by eliciting and bringing together the various claims and perspectives that impact on the lives of its inhabitants (comunarios). Starting with a historical overview to situate the comunidad within Bolivian and Guaraní history, the thesis moves into an ethnographic discussion of the comunarios’ own perceptions and meanings of ‘comunidad’, followed by an exploration of various outsiders’ perspectives on the same topic that impact on the comunarios’ lives in different ways. The aim of the thesis is to illustrate the overlap and entanglements between these different positions in order to show how the different perspectives on the meaning and purpose of a Guaraní ‘comunidad’ all contribute to shape the actual realities of people’s lives ‘on the ground’. To my mother, Ilse Groke. In loving memory of my father, Karl Groke. Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................................................1 Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................................4 Map ................................................................................................................................6 Introduction – Beginnings..............................................................................................7 Part I: The Comunidad in History – History in the Comunidad..................................27 Chapter 1. Debates and Backgrounds ......................................................................28 Chapter 2. From Cautiverio to Comunidad: The Case of Cañón de Segura............53 2.1 The ‘Comunarios’ of Itakua and the Fight over the ‘Chapel’ .......................54 2.2 The Case of Itakua in the Memory of the Comunarios .................................70 Chapter 3. ‘Tenemos nuestra historia’: A Case of History Objectified ..................82 Part II: Living Tranquilo, Doing What We Want: Comunarios’ Ideas about ‘Comunidad’ ................................................................................................................92 Chapter 4. ‘No nos dejaban trabajar’: The Importance of Being Able to Work in Peace ........................................................................................................................93 Chapter 5. The Fiesta and the Reproduction of Sociality ......................................107 Chapter 6. Reflections of Kinship and Mobility in the Spatial Organisation of Cañón .....................................................................................................................124 Chapter 7. Tensions and Aspirations: The Making of Cañón as an Ongoing Process ................................................................................................................................138 Part III: Multiple Perspectives: Negotiating Different Meanings of ‘Comunidad’ ...150 Chapter 8. (N)GOs and the Economy of Proyectos...............................................151 Chapter 9. Beautiful Culture, ‘Shitty Indians’, or What Have the Guaraní Ever Done for Me?: Karai Takes on ‘Comunidad’........................................................166 Chapter 10. Changing Alliances: The Elusive ‘Position’ of Guaraní Comunidades within Local and Regional Politics........................................................................183 Chapter 11. Dueños, Duendes, Bichos: Supernatural Agents in Cañón and the Politics of Place-Making........................................................................................197 Conclusions................................................................................................................213 Bibliography ..............................................................................................................221 Appendices.................................................................................................................238 Appendix 1: Itakua.................................................................................................239 Appendix 2: The Unlikely Case of the Cattle Theft ..............................................247 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although many more people have – in one way or another – contributed to the completion of this thesis and I am thankful to them all, there are some to whom I am particularly indebted. In St Andrews, they include those members of staff and fellow postgraduates who, over the years, commented on project and chapter drafts in the pre- and postfieldwork writing-up seminars. I am particularly grateful to Tristan Platt, Christina Toren, Adam Reed, Huon Wardle, Eileadh Swan, Giovanna Bacchiddu, Chris Hewlett, Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti, Phil Kao, Anthony Pickles, Moisés Lino e Silva, Máire Ní Mhórdha, Jan Grill, Jeanne Féaux de la Croix, Daniela Castellanos, Eleni Bizas, Ioannis Kallianos, Rosie Harrison, Fiona Hukula, Hsin-Chieh Kao, Giuseppe Ciancia, Nádia Heusi, Nina Holm Vohnsen, Qing Qing Yang, Huw Lloyd-Richards, Alexander McWhinnie, Cornelia Nell, Linda Scott, Conrad Feather and Stacy Hope for sharing writings and insights and for creating a feeling of community that made engaging in academic exchanges a pleasure. I would also like to thank Mark
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