Creating Dialogues: Indigenous perceptions and forms of leadership in Amazonia by Hanne Veber (Editor); Pirjo Virtanen (Editor)Call Number: F2230.1.P65 C74 2017
ISBN: 9781607325598
Published/Created: 2017-07-21
HLAS annotation: This book gathers a series of ethnographic studies on Indigenous leaders in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and French Guiana who exemplify the creation of flexible and adaptable forms of representation to best engage with the rapid changes introduced in the Amazon by transnational extractivist practices in the world's "largest remaining frontier of natural resource exploitation, settler colonization, and financial speculation" (p. 7). Uncovering Indigenous perceptions of power and the relationship between culture and politics is at the core of this collection that seeks to explore the chasm between public discourse on Indigenous rights and state practices that prioritize fiscal balance over social policy. A theme that links all of the studies featured here is the stark contrast between the wealth of resources and the harm to the original inhabitants of this land. Most alarming are the numerous cases detailing how prospecting and drilling for oil and natural gas often takes place in areas that, until recently, were protected natural parks, and zones reserved for Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation or in the initial phases of contact. A combination of poor education, economic hardship, disappearing cultural practices, and widespread corruption create a fraught and complex situation in which Indigenous leaders attempt to delicately balance cultural and territorial integrity and incorporation into a globalized society. There are no easy answers to this struggle. The narratives in this volume demonstrate that leaders who acquire the skills to effectively engage with the state often do so at the price of becoming so removed from their roots they no longer represent their communities' best interests. The authors call for a restructuring of the understanding of Indigenous politics in Amazon studies where a landscape with multiple forms of Indigenous leadership lies at the junction between decolonization and participatory democracy. This book should be required reading to scholars of Amazonia, Indigenous politics, and applied and practicing anthropologists and their collaborators. [HLAS Contributor: Isabel M. Scarborough]