THE LAND WITHIN Indigenous Territory and the Perception of Environment

IWGIA By describing the fabric of relationships that indigenous peoples weave THE LAND WITHIN with their environment, this book attempts to define a more precise INDIGENOUS TERRITORY AND notion of indigenous territoriality. Beyond a natural environment from I PERCEPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT T H E L A N D W I T which to obtain the necessary natural resources for subsistence, for NDIGEN indigenous peoples the territory is a space made up of an intricate network of social ties which not only interrelate human groups. Other Alexandre Surrallés OUS elements of the biosphere, such as plants, animals, mountains, etc., Pedro García Hierro can also be part of these social networks, given that they are regarded TE editors RR as persons attributed with a will and emotions similar to that of human IT beings. ORY The territoriality of an environment imbued with feelings, AND memories, subjectivities and bonds consequently begins deep within the person who experiences it. An attack on the territorial rights of P E RC indigenous peoples is also therefore an attack on human rights. This state E P of affairs provides unusual implications for the legal development of TI O indigenous rights to their territories, the defence of the status and N protection required by these areas, many of which are now formally titled. OF THE A large part of the work of titling the South American indigenous territories may now indeed be completed. However this book aims to EN demonstrate that, in addition to management, these territories involve V I RO many other complex aspects that must not be overlooked if we are to N avoid the risk of witnessing these territories and the people who inhabit M ENT them turned into further victims of productionism. A LE Alexandre Surrallés X AND R E S URR INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR ALL ISBN 87-90730-80-1 INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS ÉS, PED RO THE LAND WITHIN Indigenous territory and the perception of environment Alexandre Surrallés & Pedro García Hierro - editors - Copenhagen 2005 THE LAND WITHIN - Indigenous territory and perception of environment Editors: Alexandre Surrallés and Pedro García Hierro Copyright: The authors and IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) 2005 – All Rights Reserved Editorial Production: Alejandro Parellada Cover: Gredna Landolt Prepress and Print: Centraltrykkeriet Skive A/S Skive, Denmark ISBN: 87-91563-11-9 ISSN: 0105-4503 Apart from the unpublished text by Philippe Descola and some minor changes in a few of the chapters, this book is the english version of the book Tierra adentro. Territorio indígena y percepción del entorno published by IWGIA in Spanish, 2004. The English translations of each contribution have been revised and accepted by the authors. This book has been produced with financial support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS Classensgade 11 E, DK 2100 - Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: (45) 35 27 05 00 - Fax: (45) 35 27 05 07 E-mail: [email protected] - Web: www.iwgia.org THE LAND WITHIN - The editors of this book would like to express Indigenous territory and perception of environment our gratitude to the authors for their interest and professionalism, which has facilitated our work tremendously. We would also like to thank the translators Elizabeth Ewart, Cruz Farina and Ca- therine V. Howard for their excellent work. We are also grateful to Gredna Landolt for adding a touch of art to these pages and to Alejandro Parellada of IWGIA for his enthusiasm in this project. CONTENTS Introduction Pedro García Hierro and Alexandre Surrallés ................................................................. 8 PART I - Cosmos, Person and Society Ecology as Cosmological Analysis Philippe Descola ........................................................................................................ 22 Perspectivism and Multinaturalism in Indigenous America Eduardo Viveiros de Castro ....................................................................................... 36 PART II: Surroundings Uncles and Nephews: Yagua Concepts of Kinship among Living Things Bonnie and Jean-Pierre Chaumeil ............................................................................. 76 The Growth of Family Trees: Understanding Huaorani Perceptions of the Forest Laura Rival ................................................................................................................ 90 Kin Paths in an Alien World Yaminawa Territory and Society Oscar Calavia Sáez .................................................................................................. 110 Intimate Horizons Person, Perception and Space among the Candoshi Alexandre Surrallés ................................................................................................. 126 Paths between Worlds Space and Cosmos in Tsachila Territoriality Montserrat Ventura i Oller ..................................................................................... 150 Geography and Historical Understanding among the Nasa Joanne Rappaport .................................................................................................... 158 Writing History into the Landscape: Yanesha Notions of Space and Territoriality Fernando Santos-Granero ....................................................................................... 170 PART III: The Action Ground Territoriality, Ethnopolitics, and Development: The Indian Movement in the Brazilian Amazon Bruce Albert ............................................................................................................ 200 Territory as Body and Territory as Nature: Intercultural Dialogue? Juan Álvaro Echeverri ............................................................................................. 230 Indigenous Territories: Knocking at the Gates of Law Pedro García Hierro ................................................................................................ 248 The Editors ......................................................................................................... 277 8 THE LAND WITHIN - INDIGENOUS TERRITORY AND PERCEPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT INTRODUCTION Pedro García Hierro and Alexandre Surrallés 1. In applying the provisions of this Part of the Convention, governments shall re- spect the special importance for the cultures and spiritual values of the peoples concerned of their relationship with the lands or territories, or both as applicable, which they occupy or otherwise use, and in particular the collective aspects of this relationship. 2. The use of the term ‘lands’ in Articles 15 and 16 shall include the concept of territories, which covers the total environment of the areas which the peoples concerned occupy or otherwise use. ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous Peoples Article 13 fter several decades of political activism to legitimise the remnants of their A historical territories, indigenous peoples should be asking themselves, “So what happens now?” This question, raised by institutions and individuals alike who have been following this process, assumes that the titling of indigenous lands has generally reached an acceptable point and that this initial stage (the consolidation of the right to territory) has been achieved. The answer seems quite obvious. Ownership of the land implies full enjoyment of a modus vivendi the au- tonomous continuity and evolution of which has been threatened for a long time. But is this assumption realistic? Is it true that, with title in hand, indigenous peoples will automatically be able to apply their territorial visions to reviving their own production models, their latent social networks and the combination of interests on which their concept of territoriality is based? We must begin by emphasising that the indigenous lands legitimised over the past few years are unacceptable both in terms of quantity and quality because, in many cases, rather than comprising integral territories or habitats, they are mere- ly superficial lands, community archipelagos or marginal spaces. Also worth mentioning is the fact that this legal recognition is not backed up by safety mechanisms capable of controlling the colonial mentality with which national societies INTRODUCTION 9 relate to indigenous territories. Furthermore, superimposed on indigenous territorial space are now many other spaces in which alternative identities and sym- bolic ties have been built, where specific social relationships - regulated by very different mechanisms and interests to those of indigenous peoples - have been woven. In particular, there are the State’s administrative districts, with their in- tangible reserves and areas, their assignation of property, concessions and rights to their allies, or their peculiar distribution of the public services system based on cost-benefit criteria which, in turn, exercises pressure on spatial occupation trends as well as on the configuration of the indigenous territory itself. But there are also a number of territories in the hands of businesses and market forces (local, re- gional, national and global) which are organised to suit their own ends, recon- structing the space according to the role assigned to local natural resources. In the midst of this confusion, indigenous peoples run the risk of losing con- trol over their spatial decisions and turning their titled territories into ‘object- spaces’ ready to be exploited by other agents with whom they interact. It is on this point that many of the post-titling questions converge and complicate the answer to

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