Abstract

AVILA GONZALEZ, Natalia Estefanía  and  ZENDEJAS ROMERO, Sergio. Peasants? “We are who we are today because of the resistance we undertook.” Identification formation as part of a struggle of opposition in María la Baja, Colombia, 2014-2020. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2022, vol.58, n.2, pp.164-190.  Epub May 01, 2022. ISSN 0486-6525.  https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472x.1987.

This ethnography focuses on the struggle of certain cultivators from María la Baja to defend their ways of life against the agro-industrial expansion of oil palm monoculture, and proposes an approach centred on the formation of self-identifying “peasant” claims in conflict-ridden situations. We analyse the contentious formation of both shared and dissenting aspects of such self-identifying claims as part of their fight, as discursive expressions and pillars of their organising practices intended to forge, through an NGO, alternative and opposing responses. Instead of assuming a cohesive group based on an essential, pre-existing identity that ensures collective action, we study how those cultivators tried to diminish disagreements as well as foster and stabilise the shared aspects of such claims in order to strengthen the organisation of their fight.

Keywords : peasants; identifications; identification claims; discourse effects; Colombia.

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