The Latin American Indigenous Struggle against Western Narrat ...

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Abstract

Since the 1990s, Latin American Indigenous groups have mobilized to create a vibrant politics of ethnic identity, to oppose globalization, and to demand that their settler states recognize their autonomy and their rights. For Latin American Indigenous groups, the political, economic, and environmental effects of globalization have mirrored the upheaval of the Conquista. Neoliberal interests in oil, mines, and water privatization have threatened Indigenous lands and the sustainability of their land-based cultures. These threats have provoked massive protests and accelerated the significant political organization of Latin American Indigenous confederations. The traumatic effects of globalization—toxic pollution of native lands, the neoliberal redefinition of Indigenous lands as market-available to resource development, and the commodification of the commons—have ignited the demand for a different definition of Indigenous citizenship. Analyses based on the Indigenous historical experience with settler nations have led to new initiatives to define what Indigenous citizenship in settler nations means. In redefining the notion of citizenship, they are seeking a fundamentally better balance between the state and its Indigenous societies.