Producing leaders: An ethnography of an indigenous organisation in the Peruvian Amazon A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Humanities 2016 Chantelle Murtagh School of Social Sciences/Department of Social Anthropology Contents Contents.................................................................................................................... 2 List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................... 4 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 6 Declaration and Copyright statement ........................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 Producing leaders ................................................................................................ 13 Invisibility and the state ........................................................................................ 15 The indigenous movement ................................................................................... 22 New indigenous leaders....................................................................................... 26 The role of communities and resistance ............................................................... 28 Leadership in Amazonia ...................................................................................... 30 Speech and the production of people .................................................................. 34 FENAMAD and visibility ....................................................................................... 38 My fieldwork and me ............................................................................................ 39 Outline of chapters ............................................................................................... 45 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................... 49 Regional and Political Context ............................................................................. 49 The Madre de Dios region of Peru ....................................................................... 49 Brief history of the region ..................................................................................... 50 Current land distribution ....................................................................................... 55 Indigenous peoples and Native communities in Madre de Dios ........................... 60 Structure of indigenous political organisation ....................................................... 65 The Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and Tributaries (FENAMAD) . 67 FENAMAD Regional Congress ............................................................................ 75 Elected leaders .................................................................................................... 79 How do communities construct their ideas about FENAMAD? ............................. 80 Líder or dirigente?................................................................................................ 84 Why organise political action through indigenous organisations? ......................... 87 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................... 95 The interplay of power between leaders and communities ................................ 95 Interethnic versus intra-ethnic relations ................................................................ 96 2 The debate surrounding the Congress ............................................................... 100 The Congress .................................................................................................... 106 Congress – Day 1 .............................................................................................. 107 Congress – Day 2 .............................................................................................. 111 The importance of “doing right” by your community ........................................... 114 Presence in the communities ............................................................................. 117 Becoming-other ................................................................................................. 124 Mobility as indigenous practice .......................................................................... 125 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................. 130 Producing leaders, producing people ............................................................... 130 The construction of inside and outside spaces for interaction ............................ 131 The outside and the others ................................................................................ 136 Otherness within the Federation ........................................................................ 145 Discourse and reconstituting an inside space for indigenous affairs .................. 149 Autonomy .......................................................................................................... 153 Producing leaders .............................................................................................. 154 Becoming a leader ............................................................................................. 158 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 164 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................. 166 Producing knowledge and constituting power ................................................. 166 Knowledge, agency and empowerment ............................................................. 167 Case study 1– The “reivindicación del Pueblo Ese Eja” ..................................... 171 Steps to reclaiming Ese Eja ancestral lands ...................................................... 173 Celebration of the Anniversary of the Tambopata National Reserve .................. 180 Case study 2: The establishment of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve .......... 183 Amarakaeri Communal Reserve and REDD+ .................................................... 187 Amazon Indigenous REDD+ .............................................................................. 189 Diferente pollera pero la misma chola? .............................................................. 194 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 196 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................................. 200 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 200 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 206 Word Count: 79,383 3 List of Illustrations Figure 1: Map of hydrocarbon blocks and forestry concessions in Madre de Dios ………………………………………...………………………………………59 Figure 2: Map of native communities and Territorial Reserve of Madre de Dios ……………………………….………………………………………………..62 Figure 3: Organigram of indigenous organisation from local to international .......67 Figure 4: FENAMAD offices in Puerto Maldonado …………………………………68 Figure 5: Leader receiving Bartolome de Las Casas Prize from Prince Felipe IV in Spain (1997) …………………………………………………………….…..69 Figure 6: Organigram of structure of the FENAMAD ………………………….…...71 Figure 7: Press Conference in the Andrew Gray Auditorium of FENAMAD (6 June 2013) ………………………………………………………………….…….. 75 Figure 8: Leaflet “Que es la FENAMAD?” produced by FENAMAD ……………..83 Figure 9: Extract from article in El Comercio (28/10/2007) …..………...………... 89 Figure 10: Indigenous mobilisations in Puerto Maldonado (2008) ………………...92 Figure 11: Indigenous leaders addressing the protestors in the Plaza de Armas in Puerto Maldonado (2008) ………………………………………………….92 Figure 12: Indigenous mobilisations in Puerto Maldonado (2009) …………......….93 Figure 13: Leaders in FENAMAD Congress (December 2012)..………………….109 Figure 14: Boy in Shintuya holding a balloon from the health campaign.………..142 Figure 15: FENAMAD Congress in Puerto Maldonado (January 2013)……...…..149 Figure 16: Leaders attending FENAMAD Congress (2013) ……………………....159 Figure 17: Leaders attending FENAMAD Congress (2013) …………….......…....160 Figure 18: Photos from the desfile for the National Independence Day celebrations in Puerto Maldonado (28 July 2013) …………………………………... 162 Figure 19: Leader taking notes during FENAMAD Congress (2013) ….……...…163 Figure 20: Meeting in native community Infierno (7 July 2013) ……………….…175 Figure 21: Newly elected Committee de la Nación Ese Eja (7 July 2013)……….176 Figure 22: President of the Comité de la Nación Ese Eja and FENAMAD leader at