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Letter to the Editor

The decades-long battle over the fate of the remains of an 8,500-year-old human known as Kennewick Man may be nearing an end. Last week, the US government determined that the remains are Native American and are thus governed by a law that provides for the repatriation of Native American remains and cultural artefacts.

This article first examines the ways in which coca leaf acquired an important symbolic value in forging a counter-hegemonic discourse that wove together various strands of class and cultural identity struggles in the Chapare province, Bolivia. The second line of enquiry that runs through this article deals with the conflicts that arose when the coca union mutated into a governing political party. Now that the coca growers' leader, Evo Morales, is President of the Republic he is obliged by the international community to reduce the amount of land under coca cultivation. To do this President Morales has had to rhetorically pull coca leaf apart from Andean tradition. This presents a challenge to the integrity of indigenous-peasant based movements in the Chapare because it brings attention to their constructed nature and thus questions the authenticity of the originario identity.

This symposium takes as its point of departure two books by Massimo Livi Bacci, Conquest and El Dorado in the Marshes, published in English in 2008 and 2010. Livi Bacci assesses widely varying estimates of the demographic dimensions of the collapse of the native populations following their contact with Europeans and elucidates the proximate causes of that catastrophe. Drawing on models that combine production potential with demography, environment, and technology, Shripad Tuljapurkar discusses analogous historical experiences of the populations of Polynesia and the social transformation they entailed. David S. Reher argues that explanations of the estimated demographic dynamics need to take into account the negative fertility responses of the indigenous population to the disruption of their traditional way of life. Focusing on the biological aspects of immunity to diseases such as smallpox, Andrew Noymer demonstrates that infectious diseases alone could not account for the Indios' population collapse. The contributions to this symposium are based on presentations at a session at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, held in Dallas, Texas, that examined the demographic consequences of the Spanish Conquest of the Caribbean region and of South America in light of the two books.

In the national consciousness, Ecuador is a mestizo nation. However, it is also an ethnically diverse nation with sizable minorities of indigenous and Afrodescended peoples. In national surveys, there is also a considerable minority who self-identify as bianco (white). Although there is strong evidence of continuing discrimination and prejudice toward both indigenous and Afro-descended peoples, there is little public discussion or political action addressing such issues. The emergence of a powerful and resilient indigenous movement in the late 1980s gained international interest and acclaim in the 1990s, in part because of the peaceful mobilization efforts and effective bargaining tactics of the movement. However, indigenous leaders usually have not engaged in a discourse of racismo and/or di scriminación. There has been much less social movement solidarity and activism among Afro-Ecuadorians, but their leaders commonly employ a discourse of racismo and discriminación. In August and September 2004, a survey of more than eight thousand adult Ecuadorians was conducted in regard to racism and related topics. In this research, we use several measures from this survey that focus on awareness of and sensitivity to issues of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Self-identification of respondents enables us to contrast the responses of whites, mestizos, Indians, and Afro-Ecuadorians to the measures. Other independent variables of interest are level of education, the region in which the respondent resides, and whether the respondent lives in an urban or rural area. Regression results show differences among the ethnic groups in levels of awareness of racism, but more powerful predictors are level of education and rural residence. En la conciencia nacional, Ecuador es una nación mestiza. Al otro lado, es una nación de etnicidades diversas que incluyen minorías numerosas de indígenas y afrodescendientes. Además, encuestas nacionales y el censo de 2001 muestran que hay una minoría considerable que se autoidentifica como blancos. Mientras que existe evidencia fuerte que sigue siendo discriminación y prejuicio contra los indígenas y afroecuatorianos, hay poco discurso público sobre el tema. El surgimiento de un movimiento indígena poderoso y resistente en los años 1980 y 1990 ganó respecto nacional e internacional, en parte debido a las movilizaciones pacíficas y sus tácticos efectivos de negociación con el gobierno. Sin embargo, dirigentes del movimiento indígena no hablan un discurso de racismo y discriminación. Con respecto a la población afroecuatoriana, ha sido mucho menos activismo y solidaridad, pero sus dirigentes, al contrario de los líderes indígenas, sí hablan un discurso de racismo y discriminación. En agosto y septiembre de 2004 se realizó una encuesta única de más de ocho mil ecuatorianos adultos que se trata del tema de racismo y asuntos asociados. En este análisis, usamos variables de la encuesta que miden conciencia y sensibilidad a los temas de racismo, prejuicio y discriminación. Autoidentificación de los encuestados nos permite contrastar las respuestas de blancos, mestizos, indígenas y afroecuatorianos. También, otros variables independientes de interés usados en el análisis son nivel de educación, región del país y residencia urbano versus rural. Nuestro análisis muestra diferencias entre los grupos étnicos con respecto a sus niveles de conciencia y sensibilidad a racismo, prejuicio y discriminación. Sin embargo, lo que es de más importancia en explicar los actitudes sobre estos temas son el nivel de educación y residencia rural.

Cooperatives and socially responsible corporations are being hailed as possible correctives to the socioeconomic and ecological exploitation of transnational capitalism. AmazonCoop—a cooperative linking indigenous Brazil nut harvesters and the multinational firm The Body Shop through trade and development projects—capitalized on indigenous symbolism to generate significant material benefits for both parties. At the same time, however, it made indigenous people more vulnerable and dependent, failed to promote participatory development, masked the effects of unfavorable state policies, and perpetuated discriminatory distinctions among indigenous people. Furthermore, the cooperative did not provide an organizational framework to ameliorate the vulnerabilities of indigenous identity politics or transform symbolic capital into enduring political-economic change. This case strongly supports arguments that cooperatives must be rooted in participation, democratic member control, and autonomy if they are to promote \"fair globalization\" or social transformation rather than institutionalize existing patterns of exploitation.

This article analyzes the impact of state policies since the 1970s on household food security in several Mapuche communities in the Araucania region of Chile (Region IX). The author highlights key transformations in the national economy and food system and endeavors to link those to local phenomena, in particular the absorption of the local livelihood strategies and food systems into capitalist markets and the high incidences of food insecurity. The article concludes that a reconceptualization of macroeconomic and indigenous policies are required to rebuild the material and social foundations of rural Mapuche communities that provide the bases from which their inhabitants can reconstruct a mutually beneficial relationship with the broader Chilean society and avert the continued acceleration of tension and violence. El propósito del presente artículo es analizar a partir del regimen militar el impacto de las políticas macroeconómicas e indígenas sobre la seguridad alimentícia en tres comunidades Mapuches de la región de la Araucanía (IX región), Chile. El autor resalta las transformaciones claves en la macroeconomía y el sistema alimentario nacional y procura vincularias a las realidades locales, en particular a la integración de las estrategias de sustento familiar y los sistemas alimentícios locales a los mercados capitalistas nacionales, y a las altas incidencias de inseguridad alimentaria en las comunidades. El trabajo concluye que es preciso reconceptualizar las políticas macroeconómicas e indígenas con el fin de fortalecer las bases materiales y sociales de las comunidades rurales Mapuches que representan el asiento desde el cual sus habitantes podrían reconstruir una relación fructífera con la sociedad mayor e impedir una intensificación de la tension y violencia que caracteriza la coyuntura actual.

Numerous commentators have referred to the process which brought newly elected indigenous president Evo Morales to power as a revolution. This social revolution’s primary referent is the Bolivian Revolution of 1952 which freed indians from their serf-like status and overthrew the creole oligarchy. The paper explores the memories and stories of the Aymara-speaking people of Pocobaya and neighbouring communities about the mid twentieth-century events. In these accounts extreme violence plays a major role in marking the exceptionality of the events and accounting for the rupture of communities, elevating what occurred to the level of mythic history. In their accounts, Pocobayeños make scant reference to the Revolution but accord themselves a major role in overthrowing the landlords: they become major protagonists in history and not simply bystanders, transforming themselves from victims to heroic agents. As twenty-first century Pocobayeños contemplate their present and future in the days of the latest Bolivian revolution, they do so through the lens of history: for them the events of the mid twentieth century are indeed a major point of reference; but it is not a history that will be easily recognized by historians and politicians.

This article reviews recent neoliberal agrarian legislation in Latin America in terms of the advances and setbacks for women's and indigenous movements. Institutional reform of the agricultural sector has been heterogenous in part because of the role of these movements. In the twelve countries studied, the new legislation favors gender equity except in Mexico. The indigenous movement scored notable successes in Ecuador and Bolivia but suffered apparent setbacks in Mexico and Peru in the defense of collective land rights. The article also explores why the slightest progress toward gender equality was made in some of the countries with large indigenous populations and strong indigenous movements.