Campos (Jan 2008)
La mala fe potorera. Apóstatas, donecillos y dinámicas étnicas en Chiquitos
Abstract
The expulsion of the Jesuits from Chiquitanía in 1767 had a strong impact in the history of region, but it was not enough to stop the processes of homogenization and “chiquitanization” that the missionaries had started. Actually, these processes can be tracked until a period before the Jesuit presence. Nevertheless, Zamuco-speaking groups which remained living in the forests of Chiquitanía until the beginning of 20th century are often presented as “preserved” from this homogenizing influence. This paper, in contrast, aims to demonstrate that the missionary impact was much stronger among the Zamuco than generally admitted. Indeed, it produced both an “ethnogenetic” process and the reconfiguration of ethnic groups, fostering new forms of “socio-peripheric dependence”, as described by B. Susnik. The study of the Potoreras, a Zamuco-speaking people who lived in this region in the late 18th century, allows to rethink previously established simplistic approaches about the history of the current Ayoreode of Eastern Bolivia.
