THE MYTH OF THE GRINGO CHIEF: AMAZONIAN MESSIAHS AND THE POWER OF IMMEDIACY

Abstract

In this article, I investigate the sociocultural grounding and sociopolitical position of Randy Borman, the “gringo chief” of the indigenous Cofán people of Amazonian Ecuador. Born to North American missionary-linguists, Borman grew up in Cofán communities, attended school in urban Ecuador and the United States, and developed into the most important Cofán activist on the global stage. I consider him alongside other ethnically ambiguous leaders of Amazonian political movements, whom anthropologists have described as “messianic” figures. The historians and ethnographers who write about Amazonian messianism debate the relationship between myth and reason in indigenous political action. Using their discussion as a starting point, I propose the concept of “mythical politics,” a type of transformative action that concentrates enabling forms of socio-temporal mediation in the shape of individual actors and instantaneous events. I develop my approach through a discussion of the work of Georges Sorel, Georg Lukács, and Antonio Gramsci, three theorists who debate the role of myth in political mobilization. By applying their insights to the case of Borman, I explore the relationship between myth, mediation, and rationality in Cofán politics and political movements more generally.

Key Words:

• Amazonia
• political movements
• myth
• mediation

Drafts of this paper profited from discussions with a number of colleagues: Hanne Veber, Soren Hvalkof, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Evan Killick, Norman Whitten, Jay Simmelink, Jamon Halvaksz, Jill Fleuriet, Laura Levi, and four anonymous Identities reviewers. For their financial support of my research, I thank the University of Chicago, Macalester College, the Field Museum of Natural History, the National Science Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. Finally, I express my deepest gratitude to all of my Cofán consultants—especially Randy Borman.

Notes

1. The political-economic-ecological transformation of northeastern Ecuador and neighboring Cofán territory in Colombia has been the topic of a number of books and articles (e.g., Fundación Zio-A'i 2000; Kimerling 1991; Ramírez 2002; Vickers 2003).

2. Although most of my conversations with Borman occurred in English, I conducted the majority of my fieldwork in A'ingae, which has yet to be classified in a known linguistic family. All Cofán quotations are direct translations from A'ingae.

3. Leaders of Ecuador's national indigenous movement also propose a concept of mythical-millennial transformation, which they describe with the Quechua term pachakutik (Whitten 2003). Cofán people, however, maintain a loose and sometimes antagonistic relationship with the national indigenous movement, which they feel has placed them in a client role. I have never heard the word pachakutik uttered by Cofán people except in reference to representatives of the Pachakutik political party, which campaigns throughout Ecuador.