Remaking Indigeneity: Conversion and Colonization in Northwest Amazonia.

Abstract

This dissertation is a historical ethnography of colonization and conversion in Northwest Amazonia and their relationship to emergent notions and practices of indigeneity in the region. I trace the historical configuration of the different modes of colonization and evangelization through which the indigenous peoples have been incorporated first into the rule of empire (Spain and Portugal) and later into the body politic of nation-states (Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil). Catholic missions were the main frontier institution in the region until the end of 19th Century, when they started to compete with capitalist forms of colonization, and later in the 20th Century with other forms of evangelization, most notably evangelical Christianity. In the latter case, capitalist colonization and evangelization did not map directly onto each other given that evangelical conversion of indigenous communities was conceived as a threat to the sovereignty and authority of the state, which was previously mediated by Catholic missionaries. While the predominant interpretations of the massive conversion of Puinaves and Curripacos to Christianity emphasize these changes in terms of assimilation to settler society or as the outcome of messianic traditions, this historical ethnography emphasizes the role of indigenous agency in regional processes of conversion and colonization. New forms of Christian indigeneity since the 1940s thus emerged both in relation to other colonial projects and in opposition to them, transforming social relationships within indigenous communities as well as between natives and white settlers. Indigenous appropriation of evangelical Christianity brought changes in ideas and practices related to the their past, culture, civilization, self, community, modernity and indigeneity. Conversion became a mode of subjectivation through which moral selves and communities were produced. New forms of development promoted by the state contributed to the emergence of new forms of indigenous leadership and community organization. State developmental projects and programs in the region articulated new forms of indigenous leadership and correlated ideas of what an indigenous community should be. The dissertation concludes by analyzing the political conflicts that have taken place in the region between environmental NGOs, indigenous political organization and the regional government regarding the implementation of multicultural legislation approved in 1991.