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The Politics of Identification in a Shrimp Conflict in Ecuador: The Political Subject, "Pueblos Ancestrales del Ecosistema Manglar" [Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem]

Abstract:

Due to the success of Ecuadorian and (Latin American) cultural identity politics from the 1990 onwards, claims to indigeneity in this region have become a powerful basis for securing collective land rights. Recent literature on ethnic-racial identities provides many fascinating examples of "indigeneity" that challenge dominant conceptions of this category. The present case study counters the hegemonic assumption that considers ethnic identifications within a single racial category. Here, the social movement identified with the political subject "Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem" has transcended the "racialized" divisions usually linked to ethnic identities by articulating a contested ethnic discourse based on the concepts of "ancestrality" and "peoplehood" in order to demand collective rights. This political subject is self-represented as "Ancestral Peoples" who belong to a specific natural ecosystem while being constituted from a "multiracialized" group. © 2013 by the American Anthropological Association.