A Culture of Solidarity?

Abstract

In this article, based on interviews, ethnographic data, and documentary evidence, I examine the case of a Bolivian-Iranian hospital in the context of south-south scientific and economic collaboration. This hospital provides a lens through which we can understand the tensions between local and global processes. Medicine, in particular, has become a site where such alignments are made visible and tangible: the term ‘biogeopolitics’ helps to describe this process. I use the hospital as a way to illustrate what theory from the south might look like ethnographically, and conclude with a discussion of the contradictions and promises of theory from the south within south-south collaborations.

• Bolivia
• Iran
• biogeopolitics
• interculturality
• theory from the south

Notes

1. Mentisan is a locally commercialized Bolivian herbal salve, paracetamol is a biomedical product, and wira-wira is a well-known Andean herb used for home treatments of colds and other maladies.

2. Venezuela has provided some of the funds for these programs.

3. A ch’alla is a blessing done on a building and people within it at propitious times of year, often to ask for pachamama’s (often glossed as the Andean “earth mother”) good wishes in the months and year to come. Often a small packet filled with incense, coca leaves, cigarettes, a dried llama fetus, and small sugar models of important items is burned and then buried on the grounds. The walls and doors are decorated with flowers, confetti, and streamers. Generally, copious amounts of beer and grain alcohol are consumed, with the participants themselves also draped in streamers and wreathed in flowers. These are common in governmental facilities and private homes in Bolivia during particular festival events, most notably the Aymara New Year at the end of June, in early August, and around Carnival. In my previous research, I observed many ch’allas in laboratories, research institutes, university facilities, and hospitals. In June 2012, at the time of the Aymara New Year, the hospital was decked out and properly ch’alla’d.

4. Collaborar is widely used in Bolivia. Literally translated, it means “to collaborate.” But there are subtle implications of the term in Bolivian Spanish. Specifically, it is often used to indicate how a higher-status actor is financially aiding or contributing to a project or a request by a lower-status actor, and therefore creating social ties and bonds of reciprocity. In this case, Iran is higher status, due to greater wealth and awareness on the global stage. It is not simply a neutral term, but one that conveys an insightful social analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kate Centellas

Kate Centellas received her PhD from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on bioscientific and biomedical research in contemporary Bolivia, and how it relates to postneoliberal and pluralist processes of identity formation, knowledge production, governance, and citizenship.