Mutaciones territoriales y etnogénesis. La emergencia de la nación yanawara en el contexto del proyecto minero Las Bambas (Perú)

Abstract

Based on several field studies, this article analyses the complexity of the recent (re)emergence of the indigenous Yanawara identity in the context of the Las Bambas mining project in the Peruvian Andes. It attempts to show that the phenomenon of ethnogenesis observed is not simply a circumstantial political instrument of the anti-mining struggle. The article firstly sets out the context surrounding the media exposure of the Yanawara position. Secondly, it shows that their arguments were initially based on culture and heritage and originated in territorial mutations. They were promoted in particular by certain members of the local elite, namely the teachers, before spreading in various ways among the local population. Finally, we study the process by which this identity reconstruction was “positioned” in the political sphere, but also depoliticized in certain circumstances, and we question the prospects of the Yanawara as a multifaceted identity resource.

Keywords

• ethnicity
• mining
• Andes
• Peru
• socio-environmental conflicts