Trazando fronteras: la producción de territorios indígenas en la Amazonía peruana

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the state in the production of indigenous territories among the Arakbut of the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. The demarcation of the lands of native communities and communal reserves has allowed the state to subject Amazonian spaces and indigenous populations to its control. Not only have indigenous territories facilitated the administration of natural resources based on private interests but they have also generated new notions of territory and identity that exacerbated tensions among Arakbut communities. Nevertheless, the Arakbut have not been mere victims of state policies of the territorialization of the Amazon. They have contested the territorial authority of the state not by rejecting its territories but by appropriating them to legalize their territorial claims. In doing so, the Arakbut have played a central role in processes of state formation in the Amazon.

Keywords

• territory
• identity
• Peruvian Amazonia
• Arakbut
• state