Intercultural Utopias: Public Intellectuals, Cultural Experimentation, And Ethnic Pluralism In Colombia (latin America Otherwise)

Annotation Although only 2 percent of Colombias population identifies as indigenous, that figure belies the significance of the countrys indigenous movement. More than a quarter of the Colombian national territory belongs to indigenous groups, and 80 percent of the countrys mineral resources are located in native-owned lands. In this innovative ethnography, Joanne Rappaport draws on research she has conducted in Colombia over the past decadeand particularly on her collaborations with activiststo explore the countrys multifaceted indigenous movement, which, after almost 35 years, continues to press for rights to live as indigenous people in a pluralistic society that recognizes them as citizens. Focusing on the intellectuals involved in the movement, Rappaport traces the development of a distinctly indigenous modernity in Latin Americaone that defies common stereotypes of separatism or a romantic return to the past. As she reveals, this emerging form of modernity is characterized by interethnic communication and the reframing of selectively appropriated Western research methodologies within indigenous philosophical frameworks. Intercultural Utopias centers on southwestern Colombias Cauca region, a culturally and linguistically heterogeneous area well known for its history of indigenous mobilization and its pluralist approach to ethnic politics. Rappaport interweaves the stories of individuals with an analysis of the history of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca and other indigenous organizations. She presents insights into the movement and the intercultural relationships that characterize it from the varying perspectives of regional indigenous activists, nonindigenous urban intellectuals dedicated to the fight for indigenous rights, anthropologists, local teachers, shamans, and native politicians. Introduction Frontier NaSA/NASA de Frontera : the dilemma of the indigenous intellectual Colaboradores : the predicament of pluralism in an intercultural movement Risking dialogue : anthropological collaborations with NASA intellectuals Interculturalism and lo propio : CRICs teachers as local Second-sight : NASA and guambiano theory The battle for the legacy of father Ulcuç : spirituality in the struggle between region and locality Imagining a pluralist nation : intellectuals and indigenous special jurisdiction. Explores how participants in the indigenous movement in Cauca, Colombia - including indigenous, non-indigenous, scholars, and shamans - have helped define a new sense of Colombian nationhood