Lecture with Guilherme Bianchi (History Department/USP) Conflict, coexistence and transformation in the recent history of the Asháninka of the Peruvian Amazon
Conflict, coexistence and transformation in the recent history of the Asháninka of the Peruvian Amazon
The recent history of the Asháninka who today inhabit the tributary valleys of the upper Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon, is full of events through which we can witness at least two things. In addition to the terrible succession and continuity of state and non-state violence in the last century (from rubber tappers to guerrillas, from hydroelectric dams to organized crime, etc.), it is notable that the groups in the region managed to develop formulas of political organization that can be considered crucial to the process of rebuilding Asháninka community life in the last two decades. I will show how myths, stories, bodily transformations and other forms of producing time and memory intervene in this contemporary political activity, forms of engagement with the world that are sometimes placed within the processes of political negotiation with the Peruvian State. What can these relations tell us about the relations between indigenous politics and their histories, that is, about the convergences and divergences between worlds, and how are they evoked in the cosmopolitical processes of translation and negotiation involving different layers of the Asháninka past?