Who are the Indians?

Reconceptualizing Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Role of Social

Science in Latin America
Strategies for Survival: The Psychology of Cultural Resilience in Ethnic Minorities. by Peter
Elsass; Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America. by E. Jean Matteson Langdon; Gerhard
Baer; "Tambo: Life in an Andean Village. by Julia Meyerson; I Spent My Life in the Mines:
The Story of Juan Rojas, Bolivian Tin Miner. by June Nash; Domination and Cultural
Resistance: Authority and Power among an Andean People. by Roger Ne ...
Review by: Les W. Field
Latin American Research Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1994), pp. 237-248
Published by: The Latin American Studies Association
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 WHO ARE THE INDIANS?
ReconceptualizingIndigenous Identity,Resistance,and the
Role of Social Science in Latin America

Les W Field
Universityof New Hampshire

STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVAL:THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CULTURAL RESILIENCE

IN ETHNIC MINORITIES. By PeterElsass. (New York:New YorkUniver-
sityPress, 1992. Pp. 263. $35.00 cloth.)
PORTALS OF POWER: SHAMANISM IN SOUTH AMERICA. Edited by E. Jean
MattesonLangdon and GerhardBaer.(Albuquerque: UniversityofNew
Mexico Press, 1992. Pp. 350. $35.00 cloth.)
'TAMBO: LIFE IN AN ANDEAN VILLAGE. By JuliaMeyerson. (Austin: Uni-
versityof Texas Press, 1990. Pp. 265. $30.00 cloth,$14.95paper.)
I SPENT MY LIFE IN THE MINES: THE STORY OF JUANROJAS,BOLIVIAN TIN
MINER. By JuneNash. (New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1992.
Pp. 390. $49.00 cloth,$18.50 paper.)
DOMINATION AND CULTURALRESISTANCE:AUTHORITYAND POWERAMONG
AN ANDEAN PEOPLE. By Roger Neil Rasnake. (Durham, N.C.: Duke
UniversityPress, 1988. Pp. 321. $39.95 cloth.)
NATION-STATESAND INDIANS IN LATIN AMERICA. Edited by Greg Urban
and JoelSherzer.(Austin:UniversityofTexas Press,1991.Pp. 355. $37.50
cloth,$14.95 paper.)

Social science analysis and representationof the indigenous peo-

ples called "Indians" is undergoingan importanttransformation.'A new
literatureis challengingthemoreestablishedconceptualizationof indige-
nous peoples as precariouslybalanced on the precipiceof culturalextinc-
tion. This body of work is representedby several of the titlesgrouped
hereforreview.The newerperspectivesfocuson the processual natureof
indigenous identities,those always transformingcollective self-repre-
sentationsof particularsocial groups as indigenous. Such identitiesare

1. Indigenous peoples and movementsin Latin America employ the termindfgenaas a

self-description,while indio (Indian) is a deprecating term-except when used to defy
hegemonic stereotypesin the same manner that words like niggeror queer are used by
radicalized artists,intellectuals,and othersin the United States.I am using indigenous
people
here as a neutraltermand Indian only in an ironicand criticalsense.

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LatinAmericanResearchReview

determinedthroughspecificand varyingformsof resistanceto domina-

tion by the political and economic power structuresof Latin American
nation-states.At present,both-the newer and older styles of analyzing
indigenousethnicityin Latin Americaare increasinglyaligned withpolit-
ical movementsforindigenous rights,led by a new generationof indige-
nous leaders. These resistancemovementsembody strugglesover iden-
tityand thus are livingproofthatindigenous peoples are not necessarily
disappearing.
The more established school, or what I call the "culturalsurvival
position," is exemplifiedhere by Peter Elsass and a number of the con-
tributorsto the Urban and Sherzer and the Langdon and Baer collec-
tions.2Social scientistsworkingfromthis stance assume the authorityto
identifydiscrete,named indigenous societiesthatexistin given locations
and to assign to these societiesfixedculturaltraits,particularlylanguage,
worldview and its rituals,social organization,and leadership. The cul-
tural survival perspective embodies an essentialism in which cultural
traitsor traditionsconstitutethe "essences" ofbeing Indian and function
as Cartesian coordinatesagainst which the degree of "Indianness" of a
group can be determinedby social scientists.To the extentthatthe coor-
dinates change or remainstable over time,theydeterminethe chances for
the survival or assimilation of any specific Indian group in the larger
society in which the Indians find themselvesembedded.
This position evolved fromtwo sources: the problematicset forth
by Franz Boas in the United States,which tightlybound language, mate-
rial culture,and culturalidentitiestogether;and Britishstructuralfunc-
tionalism,which imagines social relationsas a homeostaticorganism in
which individual and collectivebehaviorsare definedby culturalnorms
and values in order to maintainsocial equilibrium.In contrastto earlier
traditionsin anthropology,the cultural survival school is innovativein
bringing with it a morality that motivates anthropologistsand other
social scientiststo act as advocates for the survival of indigenous cul-
tures.Turningindigenous peoples into objectsforresearchand believing
that any cultureis discreteonly insofaras it remains "uncontaminated"
by othercultureshave both come under strongattackfrompostmodern-
ists,especiallyJamesClifford.3But the politicalsea change toward advo-

2. In calling the establishedessentialistpositionthe "culturalsurvival school," I am in no

way implyingthatthis position representsthe views of Cultural Survival Internationalor
its journal. CulturalSurvivalQuarterlyhas increasinglybecome a forumforauthors,both
academic and indigenous,who are writingfrompronounced resistanceperspectives.
3. See JamesClifford,The Predicament ofCulture(Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1986). The postmodernistcritiqueis turningout to be an ever-expandingindustry.
Two otherimportantand insightfulviews are foundin JohannesFabian, Timeand theOther:
How Anthropology Makes Its Object (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983); and
George W. Stocking,ObserversObserved:Essaysin Ethnographic Fieldwork (Madison: Univer-
sity of Wisconsin Press, 1985).

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 REVIEW ESSAYS

cacy has perhaps buttressed the essentialism inherentin the cultural

survival position. More tellingstill,alliances between social scientistsof
the cultural survival school and particular indigenous political move-
mentsare highlighting the currentof essentialistthoughtflowingthrough
the ideologies of these movements.4
The analyses of the "resistanceschool" take a varietyof stances
concerningthe dynamics of constructingindigenous identity,many of
which are mapped out in the Urban and Sherzer collectionas well as in
thestudies by Roger Rasnake and JuneNash. The termresistance, as used
in these works,denotes centuriesof varyingkinds of strugglethatbegan
when Europeans successfullydestroyedprecontactpolities and the posi-
tions of authorityand control that precontactleaders had maintained
over territoryand resources.Such strugglescontinued in new formsas
colonial and republican regimes confiscatedindigenous territoriesand
resources,legislatedagainst indigenous languages, worldviews,and reli-
gious rituals,and erased the distinctiveidentitiesof indigenous peoples
fromthe constructingof nation and nationality.For many authors,the
developmentsince the conquest of numerousformsof indigenousstrug-
gle-armed conflicts, culturalrevitalization,
religiousmovements,reposses-
sion of resources,and othermanifestations-derivefromthecharacteristics
of socioculturaldifferencethatantedatecontact.
In departingfromthe cultural survival position,several authors
arguethatthestruggleto resistconfiscation and resourcesas well
ofterritory
as social and culturalassimilationintothe bottom-most economicstrataof
colonial and republicansocial ordershas been molded so stronglyby the
institutionsof colonialism that "being Indian" may have littleor no con-
nection to precontactsociocultural forms.According to this argument,
the resistance struggle itselfhas become the primarycharacteristicof
Indian ethnicity.Such authorsdescribe anti-essentialistsocioculturaldy-
namics withinLatin American nation-statesin which the self-identified
indigenous social groups continuouslyredefine(and oftenreinvent)their
identitiesin extremelyfluid ways. But even while doing so, they are
always constrainedby a struggle for resources waged between hege-
monic socioeconomic institutionsof the nation-stateand the social orga-
nizations of indigenous communities.
In the introduction
to Nation-States
and Indiansin LatinAmerica,
editorsGreg Urban and JoelSherzermake several caveats thatundercut

4. As social scientistsencounter,analyze, and representwhat theyidentifyas essential-

ism in the ideologies of indigenous political movements,they are being challenged to
enlarge theirdiscourses theoreticallyand politicallywhile retainingtheircapacity forcon-
structivecritique.For a fascinating,intellectuallyhonestencounterwith Mayan nationalist
ideology in Guatemala, see Kay B. Warren,"TransformingMemories and Histories: The
Meaning of Ethnic Resurgence for Mayan Indians," in Americas:New Interpretive Essays,
edited by AlfredStepan (Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1992).

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 Research
LatinAmerican Review

theculturalsurvivalpositionto a certainextent.They are concernedwith

conceptualizing usage of the termsindigenousethnicity and ethnicgroup
more precisely.5Justas "Indians" did not live in the Americas until
Europeans inventedthe termand its social positioning,the myriaddis-
tinctiveindigenous societies of these continentsbecame "ethnicgroups"
only as theirterritorieswere incorporatedintocolonial and laterrepubli-
can national regimesof power. Thus ethnicity and ethnicgroupshould be
understood as processual termsthat signifychanging identitiesin rela-
tion to colonialism throughhistory,ratherthan as a set of more or less
fixed social categories.6
One cannot dispute that certainindigenous cultures have disap-
peared entirely,certain indigenous populations have been genocidally
exterminated,and sociocultural assimilation has eliminated certain in-
digenous ethnic groups. These events doubtless underlie the cultural
survival paradigm, as representedin the Sherzer and Urban volume by
David Maybury-Lewisand by RichardAdams to a lesser extent.In these
essays, the authors name endangered Indian cultures (theMapuche, the
Miskitu) and theirrespectiveculturalcharacteristicswithoutforeground-
ing thatnamingor those markershistorically, regionally,or in referenceto
how or whetherpeople withinthatgroup identifythemselvesas a social
unit.7This mode of analysis locks indigenous culturesand identitiesinto

5. Urban and Sherzeraccept JeanJackson'sview of ethnicgroups (influencedby Fredrik

Barth) as interestgroups operatingwithin largersocieties,among whom markersof eth-
nicityare produced throughinteractionswith othersocial sectors.This definitionassumes
the hegemonicdominationof nation-statesand theirsovereigntyover the territorial, collec-
tive,and individual rightsof the ethnicgroups embedded withineach nation-state.Brack-
etteWilliamshas greatlyenrichedthis discussion throughinsightfulconsiderationsof the
theoreticalimplicationsof class, race, and resistancein the constructionof ethnicity.See
Williams,'A Class Act: Anthropologyand theRace to Nation across EthnicTerrain,"Annual
ReviewofAnthropology 18 (1989):401-55.
6. This pointis stressedby Urban and Sherzerin the crucialdistinctiontheymake between
highlandand lowland peoples in South America:highlandgroupscompose numericallylarge
populations that have internalizedEuropean social and culturalformssince contact,while
lowland peoples (in much smallergroups) remainedmore isolated and closer to precontact
conditionsfora long time.Urban and Sherzeralso distinguishbetweenthe peoples livingon
the Pacificand AtlanticCoasts in CentralAmerica: the native societiesof the PacificCoast
were incorporatedearly on into the Spanish empireand became part of the new Hispanic
nation-states,while the AtlanticCoast peoples fellunder the influenceof the Britishempire
and eluded incorporationinto Hispanic nation-statesuntilthe twentiethcentury.
7. In several instances,anthropologistsemployed termsforindigenous groups fora long
time that in no way corresponded to those people's self-identity and consciousness. It is
interestingto note that the contemporarypolitics of resistance have created conditions
under which indigenous peoples have adopted and adapted such terms.In the case of the
"Mayans" of Guatemala, see Carol A. Smith, GuatemalanIndiansand theState,1540-1988
(Austin: Universityof Texas Press 1990).On the "Mixtecs" of Oaxaca, see Michael Kearney,
"Mixtec Political Consciousness: From Passive to Active Resistance," in Rural Revoltin
Mexico and U.S. Intervention, edited by Daniel Nugent (La Jolla,Calif.: Center for U.S.-
Mexican Studies),113-24. On the "Ohlones" ofCalifornia,see Les W. Field, Alan Leventhal,
Rosemary Cambra, and Dolores Sanchez, 'A ContemporaryOhlone Tribal Revitalization
Movement,"CaliforniaHistory71, no. 3 (Dec. 1992):412-31.

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a dualism of survival versus extinctionin which social scientistsinevita-

bly play the role of experts. Other essays in Nation-Statesand Indians
clearlysuggestthatsuch a dualism is not useful in analyzing many,ifnot
most,historicalindigenous groups,whose existenceshould be seen more
as an ensemble of possibilitiesfortransformation.
PeterElsass, a psychologistand anthropologicalfield-worker, de-
velops a sophisticated cultural survival perspective based on research
among several Indian and African-Americanpopulations.8 In Strategies
forSurvival:ThePsychology
ofCulturalResilience he
in EthnicMinorities,
seeks to identifyhow and why particular groups survive assimilation
into national societies (which are representedin his cases by Christian
missionariesand statebureaucracies) betterthan others.Workingin the
distinctive,mixed highland-lowland region of northeasternColombia
dominated by the massive Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Elsass exam-
ined the divergentfortunesof the highland Arhuacos and the lowland
Motilon. He finds that the Arhuacos' hierarchicalsocial organization,
characterizedby the leaders' coercive powers and controlover knowl-
edge of ritual and group history,serves as a farbetterbasis forcultural
survival than the egalitarian social relations and communal living ar-
rangementsof the Motilon. Using the central symbols of the Arhuaco
loom (structure,control)versus the Motilon longhouse (anarchy,chaos),
Elsass argues eloquently that the acculturationof an indigenous people
produces mentalstatesakin to clinical depression and acute anxiety.His
case study of the village of Chemescua, populated by "halfway assimi-
lated" Arhuacos, illustratesthis analysis with hauntingimages of social
and individual anomie and alienation,particularlyin relationsbetween
men and women.
While one may dispute or defend Elsass's conclusions about hier-
archy,social control,and the survival of Indian cultures,his analysis is
problematicin its stance on culture and history-that is, tradition.He
perceives that indigenous groups invent and reinventtraditions as a
part of the reproduction of their identities but finds the fact that the
Arhuaco wear more traditionalclothingand speak theirlanguage more
fluentlynow than fiftyyears ago unsettling rather than analytically
illuminating.He explains, "In tryingto understand Indian survival, it is
difficultto unveil structuresthey have always possessed, one reason
being thatIndians do not presenttheirpast in such a way thatit can be
included in historicalresearch with time as a linear measure" (p. 94).
Aside fromthe inabilityto establish "structuresthey have always pos-
sessed" for any social group anywhere, Elsass's approach implies that
European and Euro-American observers must leave behind questions

8. For the purposes of this essay, I am not discussing Elsass's African-Americancase

studies, which forman importantpart of his argument.

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Latin AmericanResearchReview

about the historicalconstructionof traditionand "read Indian culture

here and now."9
Elsass's analysis returnsseveral times to shamanism, which he
considers the most importantfoundationforIndian identityand its sur-
vival. The contributorsto PortalsofPower:Shamanismin SouthAmerica,
edited by Jean Matteson Langden and Gerhard Baer, also portraysha-
manism as central to indigenous identityand a rational and practical
instrumentforachievingand reestablishingsocial harmonyand individ-
ual-health.In the firstnine essays in thebook, contributorsdocumentthe
key role of shamanism in indigenous cosmovision (Donald Pollock,Jean
Langdon, Bruno Illius, GerhardBaer), the nature of shamanic powers in
the clearlyvisionaryexperientialworld of shamans (Waud Kracke,Pablo
Wright,Michel Perrin),and the aestheticdimensions of shamanic ritual
practicein the mediums of music, incantation,and the plastic arts (Jon-
athan Hill, Dominique Buchillet).Most impressivein this collection are
Langdon's detailed cosmology of the Siona of the Colombian Putumayo,
in which shamans have developed a will to power throughvisionary
knowledge; Perrin'sanalysis of gender,sexual deviance, and dreams as
power bases for Guajiro shamans; and Hill's revisionistassessment of
Wakuenaicuringrituals,whichchallengesthe scientific and artisticcanons
of Westernculture.
Most of the contributorsto PortalsofPower,like Elsass, treatIndian
culturesas discreteand historicallycontinuousunitsand shamanismas a
markerof indigenous identity,perhaps implyingthat changes in sham-
anistic activitiesin any given indigenous societycould endanger its cul-
tural survival. Such an assessment is questioned by the last threeessays
in the volume (those by Luis Eduardo Luna, by Robin Wrightand Jon-
athan Hill, and by Maria Clemencia Ramirez de Jaraand Carlos Ernesto
Pinzon Castafio). Luna describes indigenous shamanism as practiced
among Amazonian mestizos,suggestingthatthe ritualsand cosmovision
of indigenous shamanism are not necessarilybound up with the identity
or survival of any indigenous group per se. Hill and Wrightdocumenta
syncreticmillenarian movement among the Wakuenai that spread to
manydifferent ethnicgroups in one Amazonian region,manifestingitself
as both a political and spiritual movement. Finally,Jara and Castafio
detail the role played by shamanism in the contemporarycreationof the
Sibundoy ethnicgroup,primarilythroughthe relationshipbetween sha-

9. Recentinfluentialwork has stronglylegitimatedindigenous systemsthatrecounthis-

toricalinformation,both as historicalliteratureand as data thatcan be used to analyze and
confirmthe constructionof indigenoustraditionsand identities.See JoanneRappaport, The
PoliticsofMemory(Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1990); Frank Salomon, Native
Lordsof Quito in theAge of theIncas (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1986); and
Rethinking andMyth:SouthAmerican
History onthePast,editedbyJonathan
Perspectives Hill
(Urbana: Universityof Illinois Press, 1988).

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 REVIEW ESSAYS

mans fromthe Sibundoy valley and the dynamics of popular culturein

Colombia. These articlesdisentangleshamanism fromthe idea of "pure"
and distinctindigenous culturesand underscoreshamanism's complex
role in transforming and inventingindigenous identities.
Several thought-provoking essays in Urban and Sherzer's Nation-
Statesand Indiansin LatinAmericastressthe complex relationshipsamong
indigenousethnicity, itsculturalmarkers,and thepoliticsofidentity.Jean
Jacksonshows how CRIVA, an activistpolitical group, is attemptingto
constructa common ethnicidentityamong previouslydistinctTukanoan-
speaking groups in the Colombian Amazon. Using a pan-Indianistideol-
ogy borrowedlargelyfromindigenousconfederationsoperatingelsewhere
in Colombia, the leadershipof CRIVA is workingto grafta new political
agenda onto the traditionalsocial organizationand leadershipofdisparate
Tukanoan groups whose territoriesremained isolated into the twentieth
century.Because CRIVA'sleaders are in factTukanoans,theyare caughton
the horns of a dilemma between these two contradictoryagendas. In a
contrastingcase, Ant6nioCarlos de Souza Lima shows how the Brazilian
state "Brazilianized" indigenous Amazonian groups by using indigenist
ideologies.10He explains how employingan assimilationistformof indi-
genismoto build the Braziliannation-staterequiredthe stateto definethe
special citizenshiprightsof the people called "Brazilian Indians," which
defeatedthe ultimategoal of assimilatingindigenouspeoples.
In two importantcontributions,Greg Urban and Jane Hill effec-
tivelychallenge the assertion that language is a markerof indigenous
identity.Urban skillfullycontraststhe situationsin Paraguay and Peru by
using census statistics.In 1981,40 percentof the Paraguayan population
spoke only Guarani (the indigenous language) while 52 percent were
bilingual in Spanish and Guarani. Yet only 1 percent of Paraguayans
identified themselves as indigenous. In the same year, 73 percent of
Peruvian citizens spoke only Spanish, 16 percentwere bilingual with an
indigenous language (mostlyQuechua), and only 9 percentwere mono-
lingual in an indigenous language. But most sources cite the indigenous
population in Peru as accounting for35 to 45 percentof the total popu-
lation. Hill's case is even more startling.She describes a large popula-
tion of speakers of Nahuatl located in the Malinche region of central
Mexico who neitheridentifythemselvesas indigenous nor are identified
as such by the Mexican state. Rather,the Malinche folkcall themselves
"Mexicanos" and theirlanguage "mexicano."And theybrag thattheyare

10. Indigenism(indigenismoin Latin America) connotesa heavilyromanticizedidealiza-

tionofthepre-ColumbiancivilizationsoftheAmericas.Indigenismoin thepast has charac-
terized anti-hegemonicintellectualcurrentsin Mexico, Nicaragua, the Andean countries,
and Brazil. But it may have played a more significantrole in servingas a means forpolitical
and economic elites to appropriateindigenous culturesfornation-buildingideologies that
end up maintainingthe subalternstatus of indigenous peoples.

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LatinAmerican
Research
Review

the "trueMexicans" in orderto asserta special relationshipwiththe state

that exploits theirlabor.11Afterexamining these cases, assimilation of
indigenous identitiesinto nation-stateslooks (and sounds) curiouserand
curiouser,at least to social scientists.
Such findingsare not necessarilyproblematicfor authors of the
resistanceschool because fromtheirperspective,the assimilationof Euro-
pean institutionsand socioculturalformscan actually play a key role in
In Domination
resistancestruggles. Authority
and CulturalResistance: and
Poweramongan AndeanPeople,Roger Rasnake focuses on the Yuras, an
indigenous ethnicgroup of the southernBolivian altiplano. Among the
Yuras, transformationof the role of traditionalindigenous leaders, or
kurakas,duringthefivecenturiesofEuropean politicaland economicdomi-
nation has been centralto ethnic identity.The Yuras became a distinct
social entitybased on the ayllu,the local kin group widespread in the
Andes, followingthe historicalfragmentation of large indigenouspolities
produced by the Spanish throughoutLatin America. During the colonial
and early republicanperiods, the kurakas acted as agents of the state in
extractingresourcesand labor fromtheirfellowYuras while attemptingto
influencethe policies of the stateelite.In the contemporaryera, although
thekurakas (now called kuraqkuna, or elders) stillserve the state,theyalso
functionas symbolsof Yura resistanceto assimilationinto the social and
culturalmainstreamwho "createand recreatea model ofYura organization
and ethnicity."The analyticstrengthsof Rasnake's ethnographylie in two
areas: his meticuloushistoricalrecountingof consentand contestationby
individualkurakaswhen faced with the implantationand maintenanceof
colonial and republican regimes in the Yura region, and his insightful
symbolicanalysis of how contemporarykuraqkunamobilize resistanceto
assimilationthroughcommunal rituals.
Rasnake's work in the Yura region,where indigenousidentityand
resistanceare crisplydefinedand powerful(ifnot "pure"),typifiesanthro-
pologists' preferencefordescribingthe "mostIndian" socioculturalareas.
Historian Thomas Abercrombieinsightfullyexplores (in the Urban and
Sherzer volume) the dynamics of resistanceand cultural interfaceelse-
where in Bolivia,where thelines between indigenousand nonindigenous
identities are much less sharply drawn. Abercrombiefinds that what
definesIndian and Hispanic identitiesin highland Bolivia involves con-
siderable mutual internalizationof the culturalcharacteristicsattributed
to each group. The relationshipbetween ethnicidentityon the one hand
and language, cosmovision, and social organization on the other are
played out in an arena of contention.As he explains,indigenoustacticsof
resistancederive from"the veryinstitutionsand doctrinesthatthe colo-

11. Hill's analysis is developed in Kenneth Hill and Jane Hill, SpeakingMexicano:Dy-
namicsofSyncreticLanguagein CentralMexico (Tucson: Universityof Arizona Press, 1986).

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 REVIEW ESSAYS

nizers imposed to erase the past and destroyresistance,"with the result

being that "modernday 'indigenous ethnicgroups' and 'indigenous cos-
mologies' are unintelligibleapart from their struggle with the state"
(p. 111).While Christiansymbols and rituals have become integralparts
ofbeing "Indian," urban Hispanic Bolivians act out partlyimagined pre-
Christian Indian rituals at Carnaval and other festivals. Such public
embracesof precontactspiritualityare,in turn,partof the way thaturban
Bolivians manifesttheiridentityas Bolivians.
EthnomusicologistThomas Turino corroboratesthis overlapping
between ethnicand nationalidentitiesin his analysis of indigenousmusic
in Peru. He finds that contemporaryindigenous music is both highly
derivativefromEuropean formsand yeta symbolicbasis forresistanceto
statepoliciesdesigned to assirnilateindigenouspeoples. Twentieth-century
indigenistaintellectualshave turnedto this syncreticpostcolonialAndean
music to representthevitalityofindigenouscultureand itsrole in shaping
a uniquely Peruvian national identity.Ironically,since such indigenismo
became statepolicy,ithas legitimizedindigenousculturalformsand main-
streamedthese formsas Peruvian. In a similarvein, Carol Hendrickson
shows how Guatemalan indigenousclothing(traje)functionsboth to label
theeconomically, and sociallyinferiorpositionofIndians and to
politically,
identifytheGuatemalanhighlandsas touristically thusdefining
attractive,
the Guatemalan nation as culturallyremarkableand exotic.
The close relationshipsamong colonialism,resistance,and indige-
nous identityand the strangeinterplaybetween nation-states'suppres-
sion of indigenous ethnicityand appropriation of indigenous cultural
markersfoundin theseexamplesfromhighlandsregionsare notnecessarily
duplicated in the lowlands. JanetHendricks'scontributionto Urban and
Sherzeron the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador details how a contemporary
organization,the Shuar Federation,has successfullyopposed expansion
of stateauthorityintoShuar territory and constructeda culturalcounter-
hegemony.Inspired partiallyby the influenceof Salesian missionaries,
the federationis a Western-type politicalorganizationthatpromoteseco-
nomic development projects recognized as "modern" by the state. In
Hendricks's view, Shuar identityis processual rather than fixed, and
thereforethe federationis a creativeformof resistancethatspringsfrom
Shuar cosmovisionand symbolicunderstanding.In thisinstance,cultural
identityis not the same as resistance;rather,cultural identityprovides
the raw materialsforresistance.12

12. For the perspectivesof the indigenous leadership on this process (among the Shuar
and otherindigenous Ecuadorian nationalities),see Confederaci6nde Nacionalidades Indi-
genas del Ecuador (CONAIE), Las nacionalidadesindfgenasen el Ecuador(Quito: Ediciones
Tincui Abya-Yala, 1989). Another recent consideration of the processes involved in con-
structingindigenous identityis found in Persistenciaindigenaen Nicaragua,edited by Ger-
man Romero Vargas et al. (Managua: CIDCA-UCA, 1992). This work focuses on western

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LatinAmericanResearchReview

James Howe's essay on the Kuna of Panama in the Urban and

Sherzercollectionresonatesto a certainextentwith Hendricks'sobserva-
tionson thebuildingof resistancethroughculturaldifference, ratherthan
vice versa. Howe describesthenuanced emergenceof contemporaryKuna
identityshaped by contactwith the Panamanian state,resistanceto that
state,and the intervention of an outside power (the United States).Every
attemptby the Panamanian state to assimilatethe Kuna provoked resis-
tance that emphasized those cultural markersdifferentiating the Kuna
most sharply frommainstreamPanamanian society.As Kuna resistance
became a struggleover land rightsand politicalself-determination, Kuna
culturalidentitydrew strengthfromthe intervention of the United States,
especially in the formof bizarrelyidealized racistrepresentationsof the
Kuna created by individual U.S. interlopers.13 Howe's case thus draws
attentionto the power of outsidersand theirrepresentations, an appropri-
ate focus forsocial scientistsengaged in studyingindigenousidentities.
The issue ofhow to representindigenousidentitiesis clearlyrelated
to the different ways thatsocial scientistsare theoreticallyand politically
positioningthemselveswithrespectto culturalsurvivaland resistancestrug-
gles. In I SpentMy LifeIn theMines,JuneNash provides a highlypersonal
testimonialof her relationshipwith the familyofJuanand PetronaRojas,
key informantsin her classic analysis of resistanceamong Bolivian tin
miners,We Eat theMines and theMines Eat US.14 In her new book, Nash
explains the dynamicbetween her methods of inquiryand the kinds of
informationproduced. As comadreto the Rojas family,Nash was drawn
into the action of her ethnographicinvestigationand the lifehistoriesof
her adopted family.Her empathic,yetnever self-indulgent, expositionof
these lives and her involvementin thempermitsNash to pursue her own
theoreticalagenda even as the book is in many senses taken over by
Juan'sand Petrona'stellingof theirown stories.
In neitherWe Eat theMines nor I SpentMy Lifein theMines does
Nash emphasize issues of ethnicidentity,although the minersare bilin-
gual speakers of Quechua or Aymara and Spanish. Their families mi-
grated fromrural areas where, as with the Yuras, individuals identify
themselvesand are acknowledged by outsidersas ethnicallyindigenous.
Rather,Nash's concern has been to generate analyses of contradictory
consciousness among the miners.Resistanceto the stateand to economic

Nicaragua, where twentieth-century elite ideologies have claimed the extinctionof indige-
nous identitynotwithstandingthe persistenceof self-identified communities.
13. Howe focuses in particular on one interloper,Social Darwinist Richard 0. Marsh.
During the 1920s,Marsh, in alliance withseveral notable anthropologistsfromthe Smithso-
nian Institution,representedthe Kuna as "a white tribe,"quite possibly the descendants of
Vikings.Accordingto Marsh et al., Kuna ancestorsconstructedthe pre-Columbianarchitec-
tural monumentsfound in Latin America.
14. See JuneNash, WeEat theMinesand theMines Eat Us (New York:Columbia University
Press, 1979).

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 REVIEW ESSAYS

exploitation,she shows, manifestsitselfin various formsas ethnic,class,

gender,and familyconsciousness, each one establishingmutually con-
flictingloyalties and behaviors held in temporarycheck by individual
calculationof self-interest.Nash's choice of ethnographictestimonialrep-
resentationis intended to advance understandingof the historicalresis-
tance strugglesof the minersat the heartof theirlives, the place of these
strugglesin Bolivian history,and theirsignificancein the overall trans-
formationof indigenous peoples in the Andes.
By contrast,Julia Meyerson's 'Tambo is an ethnographyout of
which a culturalsurvival position could organicallygrow.An artistmar-
ried to anthropologistGary Urton,Meyerson offersa detailed portrayal
of daily lifein a small indigenous village near Cuzco. Her descriptionsof
farming,toolmaking,and other aspects of daily life conflate her own
experiences with those of the people of 'Tambo. The full title of her
account is not "My Year in 'Tambo" or "My Life in 'Tambo" but 'Tambo:
Lifein an Andean Village,which thus imbues the village and its people
with a staticcharacter.Lacking historical,regional,and theoreticalcon-
texts,'Tambotends to reinforceobjectifyingviews of indigenous identities
and traditions.Readers would be shocked to discover later thatSendero
Luminoso was an active forcein and around the village, a fair proba-
bility.15
The portrayalof the village in 'Tamboencourages anthropologists
and othersto imagine thatsuch places existas independentculturalunits
and should survive as such.
The considerable theoreticaland representationaldifferencesbe-
tween the culturalsurvival and ethnicity-as-resistance schools yield pre-
dictablycontrastingformsof advocacy forindigenous peoples' rightsin
Latin American countriesand forparticularindigenous political move-
ments.Elsass contendsin Strategies forSurvivalthatadvocacy is "incom-
patible" with anthropology "because no cause can be legitimated in
anthropologicalterms per se . .. ; the rationale for advocacy is never
ethnographic;it remains essentiallymoral" (p. 212). Such a moral posi-
tioning,ifnot ethnographicallybased, derives nonethelessfroma closed
academic discourse thatestablisheswhat constitutesindigenous identity
accordingto social scientificcriteria.Elsass, to his credit,has acted as an
advocate for the Arhuaco at theirinvitation.He reflects,"Cultural sur-
vival, therefore,does not imply conservationof a preconceivedidentity
which once and for all is anchored in an objectivelyexisting,reified
culture.It implies thatthe agents of a particularcultureremainin charge
of the shaping of local history"(p. 233).
Martin Diskin argues in Urban and Sherzer's Nation-Statesand

15. An insightfulcritique of the Andeanist literaturethat 'Tambois part of and this

literature'srole in obscuring the conditions surroundingthe revolutionarywar in Peru is
found in Orin Starn, "Missing the Revolution: Anthropologistsand the War in Peru,"
CulturalAnthropology 6, no. 1 (Feb. 1991):63-92

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LatinAmericanResearchReview

Indiansthatanthropologistsmust come to termswith the political impli-

cations of the discourse about ethnicity,culture,and identityin which
theyand indigenous leaders are currentlyparticipating.Such a comingto
terms stresses the necessity for empowering the intellectualvoices of
indigenous movementsand theirleadership.Having worked among the
Miskitu of the Nicaraguan Atlantic coast during the Sandinista era-a
situation that perhaps more than any other required anthropologiststo
define themselves politically-Diskin concludes, "Part of the political
dimensionof fieldworkis advocacy."16In the course of his fieldwork,the
Miskituwithwhom Diskin worked took up arms against the Sandinistas,
with Miskitu leaders representingtheir struggle for self-determination
and land rightsas an inseparable part ofMiskituidentity.For Diskin and
formany social scientistsof the resistanceschool, academic representa-
tions of such indigenous struggles must reflectthe multiple dialogues
between social scientists,indigenous intellectuals,and the peoples living
out their indigenous identities.From an academic vantage point, this
polyvocal discourse is the most likely to produce fruitfulethnographic
work and analytic thinkingabout indigenous identitiesin the years to
come.17Whetherindigenous political movementswill benefitfromthe
advocacy and activismof social scientistsand fromtheirinnovationsin
producing social science textsremains to be seen.
In conclusion,the currentstateof social science literatureon indig-
enous ethnic identityis certainlyleading toward a more historicaland
processual view of ethnicityand away fromemphasis on fixed ethnic
markers.More and more,the arena of the nation-stateand the relation-
ship between indigenous peoples and nation-statesis the centralone for
analytic as well as political activity.This trendimplies that when social
scientistsincreasinglycouch theirwork in openly partisan language and
contexts,the relationshipbetweensocial science researchand the stateap-
paratus will likelylose the legitimacyof scientificneutralitythathelped
authorize social scientiststo define who and what is Indian. Whether
social science in Latin America has been wedded until recentlyto an
analysis of indigenous ethnicitythatis inseparable fromnation-building
and whetherdivorce proceedingsshould now be filedare the subjectsof
anothermuch more lengthydiscussion.

16. The politics of ethnographyamong the Miskitu formsthe foundational subtext in

Charles Hale, Resistanceand Contradiction:
MiskituIndiansand theNicaraguanState,1894-1987
(Stanford,Calif.: StanfordUniversityPress, forthcoming.)
17. An outstandingand innovativeexample of the possibilitiesforsuch a reconfigured
discourse is found in ZapotecStruggles:Histories,Politics,and Representations
fromJuchitdn,
Oaxaca, edited by Howard Campbell, Leigh Binford,Miguel Bartolome,and Alicia Barabas
(Washington,D.C.: SmithsonianInstitutePress, 1993).

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