Comparative indigeneities in contemporary Latin America: an analysis of ethnopolitics in Mexico and Bolivia
Loading...
Files
Full Text E-thesis
Date
2020
Authors
Warfield, Cian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
This thesis engages in a comparative analysis of two key ethnopolitical case studies
drawn from Bolivia and Mexico. The intention is to critically evaluate the politically
diverse ways in which Indigenous groups respond to the challenge of coloniality as
they seek to restore their ethnic rights. The 2011 TIPNIS conflict between President
Evo Morales (2006-2019) and lowland Indigenous communities reveals the difficulties
faced by Bolivia’s former Indigenous president who struggled to find equilibrium
between ethnic rights and national economic development. While Morales himself
claimed to represent the interests of all Bolivian ethnic groups, the TIPNIS conflict
showed that a policy of neoextractivism in combination with territorial development
intersected with the struggle for ethnoterritoriality to reproduce scenes of chaos,
conflict and socio-territorial change which sometimes distorted, at other times,
enhanced his image as an Andean-decoloniser. Comparatively, in 2003, the Zapatista
social justice movement bypassed Mexican state relations in order to satisfy their
search for ethnoterritoriality. While the Zapatistas struggled in the midst of this
pursuit against a global capitalist framework, which they claim, masquerades as
international free-trade alliances and foreign corporatism, the rebels have become an
important ethnopolitical model of resistance in the context of a neoliberal Mexico.
Conceptually framed around notions of place and space, this interdisciplinary study
uses a broad range of theoretical approaches (decolonial theory, discourse theory,
utopia studies) which facilitates an innovative reading of key speeches, declarations,
government policy documents, communiqués and locally-sourced journalistic material
and relies on a range of scholarship drawn from cultural studies, political science,
anthropology and philosophy. Through its comparative design, this thesis not only
generates fresh and original perspectives on contemporary ethnopolitical activity
between Mexico and Bolivia but also reveals the challenges, opportunities, similarities
and differences which shape diverse forms of ethnopolitcal resistance across the
region today.
Description
Keywords
Indigeneity , Mexico , Bolivia , Ethnopolitics , Latin America , Place , Space
Citation
Warfield, C. 2020. Comparative indigeneities in contemporary Latin America: an analysis of ethnopolitics in Mexico and Bolivia. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.