Cowboys and Indians andComuneros

Policy-Positioned Ascriptions of Ethnicity, Identity and History in Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID2988293
AuthorsWilliam Alexander (0000-0003-0510-5373, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author), William L Alexander
Year2006
Volume12
Issue2
Pages139-165
Publication date2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-4630 • E-ISSN: 1363-0296
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13504630600583320
OpenAlexW1994969440
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited47

This paper explores contradictions between state and local discourses over the origins of Chile's ‘agricultural communities’ (comunidades agrícolas). An ‘indigenous history’ constructed through the authoritative voice of economic development and environmental policy is contrasted with local identification with the Chilean cowboy and copper mining culture. I argue that the influence of labour unions and state-peasant relations (the political economy in which the communities developed) and the complexities of family economic subsistence strategies in a region of scarce resources (the political ecology in which their livelihood is reproduced) must be considered as important factors in the incongruities presented by these competing histories and identities. ‘Policy-positioned ascriptions of ethnicity’ and identity is my term for racial attributions engendered by proscriptive assistance that reifies images of a ‘non-capitalist Other’ positioned in contrast to ideals of modernization

Agriculture · Ecological modernization · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Indigenous · Livelihood · Modernization theory · Peasant · Political ecology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Indigenous Cultures and History · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America · Ecology

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