Memories, Identity, and Indigenous/National Subjectivity in Eastern Peru

Authors

  • Hanne Veber

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/dl.v8i12.113618

Keywords:

memory, subjectivity, nationality, ethnogenesis, Amazonia, Asháninka

Abstract

In Latin America the forging of national identities has been
problematic, especially in countries where large indigenous
populations have remained marginalized through colonial ideologies
of exclusion. This is changing, however, as processes of
globalization are reshuffling old orders and indigenous people
become active participants in new social movements of their own
making. Founded on shared experience and emergent feelings of
solidarity, a new political body is created, defined by indigeneity and
shared interests vis-à-vis the state. Based on autobiographical
narratives from Asháninka leaders in the central Amazon of Peru,
the paper looks at the memory-identity nexus and the way it is
reflexively tied to the process of forging new political subjectivity as
Asháninka and Peruvian citizens. Even if indissolubly linked with a
verifiable past, Asháninka memories are also the products of
signifying processes associated with the present, with hopes and
dreams, and with the production of meaning in the context of decolonization.

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Published

2007-01-01

How to Cite

Veber, H. (2007). Memories, Identity, and Indigenous/National Subjectivity in Eastern Peru. Diálogos Latinoamericanos, 8(12), 23. https://doi.org/10.7146/dl.v8i12.113618

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