Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
Cited by SciELO
Access statistics
Related links
Cited by Google
Similars in SciELO
Similars in Google
Share
Revista Colombiana de Antropología
Print version ISSN 0486-6525
Abstract
ANGOSTO FERRANDEZ, LUIS FERNANDO. LOST WORLD, FOUND PARADISE: PLACE, IDENTITY AND PRODUCTION IN GRAN SABANA, VENEZUELA. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2013, vol.49, n.1, pp.11-43. ISSN 0486-6525.
The bases of a type of production enmeshed in the capitalist system emerged in Gran Sabana during the twentieth century, but still nowadays a part of its ancestral Pemon inhabitants maintain a notably autonomous economy of subsistence. In order to explain this situation, in this article I identify how exoticising narratives of place and identity constructed around the Gran Sabana and its ancestral inhabitants have contributed to consolidate a reductionist polarisation that approaches all social issues in the region through an analytical distinction between 'indigenous' and 'non-indigenous' spheres. In addition, I examine material foci that, independently from those spheres of analysis, structurally diversify the inhabitants of Gran Sabana. I argue that taking these material foci of social diversification into account should be crucial for those who seek solutions to existing problems in the region.
Keywords : Gran Sabana; Pemon; indigeneity; Venezuela.