‘Some Time From Now They’ll be Good Farmers’: Rethinking Perceptions of Social Evolution in an Area of Interethnic Contact in Lowland Bolivia

Abstract

This article discusses the terms in which ethnoracial difference is understood in a context where migrants from the highlands of Bolivia have come into contact with an indigenous group in the lowlands. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2010 found that these differences were not normally discussed in terms of inherent and unchangeable characteristics, but rather in terms of a fluid position in a hierarchy of human development. This hierarchical scale is described and enacted locally in terms of practices and social relationships. Commerce, social organization, and cultural production are indicators of a group’s social progress. As groups change their practices, they change their position in the hierarchy. Further, changes in the local context are expected to encourage groups to change their practices. This contrasts with national discourses that generally focus on the opposition of white and Indian and see change in terms of race mixture – mestizaje – between these opposing designations. In these national discourses, the attributes of whiteness or indigeneity are seen to be fixed and essential characteristics, and difference is achieved through degree of biological and cultural mixture. I conclude by suggesting that each of these conceptions of social difference have historical antecedents that date back to the colonial encounter and may contribute to our understanding of present-day national politics.

Keywords:

• Bolivia
• indigeneity
• Mosetenes
• ethnoracial difference
• social hierarchy
• mestizaje

Acknowledgments

This article has benefited from comments of and discussion with a number of people, particularly Daniela Ricco, Isabelle Combès, Matt Gildner, Isabella Radhuber, Elizabeth Ryan, Peter Wade, and Nancy Postero, as well as two anonymous reviewers. I am, as always, indebted to dozens of people in and around the Mosetén TCO, who contributed their time, energy, and insight.

Notes

[1] The legal figure of TCO was created in 1996 in response to pressure from international organizations, NGOs and social movements, as a form of collective landholding that allowed indigenous peoples to control extensive territories and prohibited their sale. The expressed intention behind this form of landholding was to preserve natural resources and indigenous cultures.

[2] All translations are by the author.

[3] Significant waves of Trinitario Mojeños have migrated as part of a millenarian movement in search of the Sacred Hill. For more on this movement, see Lehm Ardaya (1991).

[4] The word he uses in Spanish is ‘dejados’ from ‘dejar,’ ‘to leave.’

[5] The word he uses in Spanish is ‘incitado’ from ‘inciter,’ ‘to incite,’ ‘to provoke,’ or ‘to encourage.’

[6] Cholo is a term that refers to Aymara or Quechua migrants living in urban areas. Their position is seen to be between that of Indians and mestizos, even if their biological ancestry is not mixed. For a detailed description of the meaning of Cholo in La Paz, see Soruco-Sologuren (2006).

[7] Most historians of the Andes have focused on whites, Indians, and the myriad categories that arise as a result of mestizaje, but the presence of blacks in colonial Charcas has garnered some recent attention; see from Brockington (2006); Olson (2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chuck Sturtevant

Chuck Sturtevant is at the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, Taylor Building A13, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UB, UK (Email: [email protected]).