Between the State and Indigenous Autonomy: Unpacking Video Indígena in Mexico

This essay unpacks the complex emergence of video indígena , or state-sponsored small media, at the height of official pluralism in Mexico in the early 1990s. A government video program created in a transitional institutional setting colludes with the indigenous autonomy movement---through the work and visions of individual video makers and cultural activists---to produce a social form and process that has gained international recognition while confronting particular challenges in indigenous communities.     

An Interview with Juan Jose García, President of Ojo de Agua Comunicación

This is an interview with Zapotec video maker Juan Jose Garcia, president of the award-winning media organization Ojo de Agua Comunicacion, in Oaxaca, Mexico. He presents a brief history of native video in Mexico and discusses issues such as indigenous video production and circulation, thematic content, communal practices, relation to indigenous communities, funding, and current projects of his group.     

Competing political visions and Bolivia’s unfinished revolution

In Bolivia, there is a growing conflict between indigenous peoples and multinational corporations, particularly those in extractive industries. Evo Morales’s government is in the middle of the conflict and that makes the ongoing political situation very confusing. The ambiguity derives from the fact that the popular mobilizations did not go far enough; they were not sufficient to reconstitute a stable, alternative form of political rule.     

The Gran Poder Parade and the Social Movement of the Aymara Middle Class: A Video Essay

The parade for the patron saint of the parish of Gran Poder is the largest city-wide folklore event in La Paz, Bolivia, in which tens of thousands of indigenous Aymara and mestizo residents of the city participate in dances that tie them to the nation's indigenous past. The sequences of images discussed in this article focus on a dance fraternity composed of members of the prosperous urban Aymara middle class (or cholos ) who use their indigenous costumes and dance movements as vehicles in which they enter and display their modernity. Using harshly exaggerated masks that relate social subordination to racial difference, the performance of the Morenada by today's well-to-do Aymaras revisits the cultural marginalization and hardship they experienced in their own migration to La Paz from the rural countryside. Wearing a series of expensive outfits and ostentatious costumes, these dancers vividly flaunt their distinction from the Western-mestizo middle class, and its signs of well-being.     

Landscape Ideologies,Indigenous Governance,and Land Use Change in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 1960–1992

In recent years, states have ceded governance over large territories to indigenous organizations. This article examines the history of an early case of territorial governance (dating from the 1970s) to probe the social, political, and environmental processes that occur when an indigenous social movement becomes a governing body. It argues that indigenous organizations can quickly learn to “see like states” (Scott 1998) without adopting the particular visions promoted by the state that facilitated their new role. In the case explored here, indigenous leaders created landscape improvement schemes that went beyond those promoted by the state and others in terms of changing the legibility of land use and tenure categories. Furthermore, their schemes had significant impacts on forest cover as evidenced by remotely sensed images. These processes challenge theories that position the state as the primary arbitrator of human-environmental relations as well as theories that dichotomize between states and indigenous organizations.     

Surnames in Bolivia: A study of the population of Bolivia through isonymy

In Bolivia, the Hispanic dual surname system is used. To describe the isonymic structure of Bolivia, the surname distribution of 12,139,448 persons registered in the 2006 census data was studied in 9 districts and 112 provinces of the nation, for a total of 23,244,064 surnames. The number of different surnames found was 174,922. Matrices of isonymic distances between the administrative units (districts and provinces) were constructed and tested for correlation with geographic distance. In the 112 provinces, isonymic distances were correlated with geographic distance (r = 0.545 ± 0.011 for Euclidean, 0.501 ± 0.012 for Nei's, and 0.556 ± 0.010 for Lasker's distance). The multiple regression of the surname effective number (α), equivalent to the allele effective number in a genetic system, was nonsignificant on latitude and longitude; however, it was highly significant and negative on altitude (r = ?0.72). Because the Andes extend from north to south in west‐central Bolivia, random inbreeding was lowest in the eastern districts, and highest in mountainous western Bolivia. Average α for the provinces was 122 ± 2; for the districts, it was 216 ± 29, and for the whole of Bolivia it was 213. The geographical distribution of α in the provinces is compatible with the settlement of subsequent groups of migrants moving from east and north toward the center and south of Bolivia. The relative frequency of indigenous surnames is correlated positively with altitude. This suggests that the country was populated by recent low‐density demic diffusion over a low‐density indigenous population. This may have been a common phenomenon in the immigration to tropical South America. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Mainstreaming Arabs: Filmmaking as image making in tales from Arab Detroit

The documentary video, Tales from Arab Detroit, is enjoying a rare blend of critical and popular success. This essay is an attempt to explain why the video is so popular with American audiences (Arab and non‐Arab alike). Special attention is given to (1) the representational strategies the makers of Tales used to shape their video; (2) the identity politics underlying these strategies; and (3) how interpretive differences among the filmmakers culminated in a video that resembles, in unforeseen ways, the Arab community it depicts. The essay doubles as a critique of “main‐streaming,” a representational technique that dominates sympathetic portrayals of Others in American popular media. Tales, it is argued, possesses all the strengths and weaknesses of this technique.     

From the Ground, Looking Up: Report on the Video nas Aldeias Tour

ABSTRACT  This report compares two recent media events centered on the iconography of Amazonian indigenous peoples to highlight the cultural activism of the collaborative video project, Video nas Aldeias. [Keywords: Amazonia, Video nas Aldeias, indigenous media, cultural activism]     

With or without the camera running: the work of Inuit film-making

This article argues for the critical evaluation of indigenous media, art, and aesthetic practices within local trajectories of meaning-making. Drawing on ethnographic research in Arctic Canada with a notable Inuit video and film production company, Igloolik Isuma Productions, I emphasize the value of focusing on locally defined processes of filmic production and on relational bounties accrued outside the camera's field of vision. Indigenous media-making emerges as a collaborative, adaptive, intercultural, and improvisational practice, one akin to Inuit traditions of hunting, carving, garment-sewing, tool-making, and story-telling, and celebrated for its ability to foster unique environmental relationships, material practices, and perceptual orientations. Exploring the compound and relational workings of indigenous media invites critical reconsideration of the generative potentials it holds for the practitioner-inhabitants of indigenous communities, anthropologists, and mainstream audiences more broadly.     

The Impact of Traditional Lifestyle, Provenance and Contact History on Plant Use Knowledge and Management: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Two Small-Scale Societies from the Bolivian Amazon

It is well known that ethnobotanical knowledge can vary significantly among societies. However, it often remains difficult to fully capture the factors underlying differences in perceptions of usefulness. A quantitative ethnobotanical study was conducted in Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Sécure (TIPNIS), Bolivia, to compare the plant use knowledge and management of the Yuracarés and Trinitarios, two indigenous groups that share the same living environment. Results show that the Trinitarios have higher knowledge of plants from anthropogenic environments and maintain a significantly larger pharmacopoeia than the Yuracarés. By contrast, the Yuracarés are more knowledgeable of wild flora and particularly excel in their knowledge of wild food plants. I relate these differences to: (1) cultural heritage, customs and practices; (2) ethnomedicinal system; (3) (historical) mode of subsistence; (4) provenance; (5) history of contact with Western society; and (6) modernization and social position. I argue that although contemporary Yuracarés are semi-sedentary, their plant use knowledge and management reflect their previous semi-nomadic foraging lifestyle. Similarly, Trinitarios’ current plant use knowledge and management reflects their legacy of having developed one of the most advanced pre-Colombian agricultural societies in the tree savannahs of Moxos.     

Podophyllum Peltatum and Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians: William Bartram’s Preservation of Native American Pharmacology

Historians have examined the significant contributions John and William Bartram made to 18th- and 19th-century knowledge of indigenous North American flora. However, the Bartrams’ contribution to medicinal botanical knowledge, particularly William Bartram’s compilation of Indians’ knowledge on the preparation and use of medicinal botanicals, is not well-known. In addition, while William Bartram’s contemporaries relied on his accounts of medicinal botanicals, they rarely acknowledged Bartram or Indians in their own works. Contemporaries plagiarized Bartram’s writings and used his exquisite illustrations to ornament their own publications. This paper reconstructs William Bartram’s careful collection and recording of medicinal botanical knowledge that became part of late 18th- and early 19th-century American pharmacology, as well as provides evidence for 54 Bartram-identified indigenous species and the pirating of William Bartram’s work by contemporaries.     

On Sanctuary

The author reflects on a sanctuary site in Davao City, Philippines, where 750 Lumad—indigenous peoples from several mountain tribes of Mindanao—sought sanctuary from the violent, lawless forms of militarization and paramilitarization that overwhelmed their communities in 2015. Dizon weaves interviews done with Lumad at the sanctuary site with the Lumad’s long history of struggle against corporate globalization; and also with a summary of contemporary media artists from the Philippines and its diaspora who are working to document the vibrant resistance of Lumad to their violent displacement and dispossession. She reflects on her practice as a USA-based media artist from that diaspora, and on why she forges solidarities with those who are most vulnerable to the processes of globalization today.     

Genetic defects or generative prototypes? Competing models for livestock improvement in southern Bolivia

Following neo-liberal 'structural adjustments' in Bolivia, peasant llama-herders are expected to become entrepreneurs and their animal products to compete in global markets. To facilitate the entry of llama produce into global trade, scientifically trained experts working for NGOs give herders 'capacity-building' courses in livestock management and organize livestock shows to teach them about animal conformation. This article examines negotiations and accommodations between indigenous knowledge and science, and in particular focuses upon competing claims to knowledge about herd management and animal improvement. While experts look to improve animals from without – through hybridization with animals from other areas, which also constitutes exchanges in genetic capital – herders expect improvement to come from within – placing emphasis on the unity of their herds as reproductive groups and regarding animals condemned as 'defective' by experts as generative prototypes that indicate the herds' fertility.     

“Only slaves climb trees”

Professional and popular publications have increasingly depicted native peoples of Amazonia as “natural” conservationists or as people with an innate “conservation ethic.” A few classic examples are cited repeatedly to advance this argument with the result that these cases tend to be generalized to all indigenous peoples. This paper explores the premise that many of these systems of resource conservation come from areas of Amazonia where human survival depends on careful management of the subsistence base and not from a culturally imbedded “conservation ethic.” Where resource constraints do not pertain, as in the case of the Yuquí of lowland Bolivia, such patterns are unknown. Finally, the negative consequences of portraying all native peoples as natural conservationists is having some negative consequences in terms of current struggles to obtain indigenous land rights.     

The Same,but Different: Indigenous Knowledge Retention,Erosion, and Innovation in the Brazilian Amazon

This study explores how indigenous knowledge (IK) might be retained and/or changed among contemporary indigenous peoples. Through semi-structured interviews and quantitative analyses of long-term changes in artistic knowledge among three geographically displaced Kaiabi (Kawaiwete) we found an association between language proficiency and gender with greater IK retention, and formal schooling with IK erosion. Six mechanisms of innovation in knowledge of basketry and textiles among men and women were documented. A mixed mode of collaborative learning and knowledge transmission involving diverse actors emerged from community workshops and group forums. Innovative mechanisms for cultural transmission have taken advantage of media, technology, and non-indigenous support organizations to expand weaving knowledge of basketry designs. Our results illustrate how indigenous peoples actively shape cultural transmission and change, as well as the role that public policies and academic research may play in these processes.     

Bilingual Education Policy and Practice in the Andes:Ideological Paradox and Intercultural Possibility

Recent developments in language policy and education reform in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, paralleling similar developments in the United States and elsewhere, have opened up new possibilities for indigenous languages and their speakers through bilingual intercultural education. Examining the use and meanings of the term interculturality in policy documents and short practitioner narratives, this article explores the ideological paradox inherent in transforming a standardizing education into a diversifying one and in constructing a national identity that is also multilingual and multicultural. It concludes with implications for educational practice in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.     

Transnational Storytelling: Human Rights, WITNESS, and Video Advocacy

Video is increasingly utilized by human rights groups as a component in their advocacy strategies. This article looks at how video is used for a range of local, national, and transnational human rights audiences—both traditional and alternative. Drawing on a case study from the Philippines, it considers the challenges and issues faced by WITNESS (www.witness.org), its locally based human rights partners, and other similar organizations as they create and use video as visual evidence, testimony, and moral story before local, international, and transnational human rights audiences. These challenges include the contextualization of stories and sight bites, dilemmas of moving testimony between advocacy and media arenas, and the difficulties of establishing an ethical relationship, a community of witness, at a distance. This article is written in a personal capacity, although it draws on my experiences working as Program Manager at WITNESS.     

Social media user’s knowledge on soil plant relationship in Saudi Arabia

The study aimed to investigate the soil-plant relationship by looking at knowledge levels of social media users. The study examined the relationship between the users’ characteristics and their knowledge on soil-plant relationship. Online survey was designed and distributed to gather the data. The number of response was received from 383 respondents where 375 participants provided completed information and the remaining eight responses were eliminated due to quality standards. The results show most of the participants (68.8%) are moderately depend on social media to acquire knowledge on soil-plant relationship and indicated “Twitter” as the highly utilized platform followed by the “Youtube”. Meanwhile, 48.8% of the participants indicated that social media have a high impact on their knowledge-based information on soil-plant relationship and agricultural contents. Inferential analysis shows there was a significant positive relationship (p < 0.01) between independent variables; Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat and the degree of trust on these platforms, and the level’s knowledge on soil-plant relationship (dependent variable). Only 13% of the variance accounted for the impact of social media on participants’ agricultural knowledge-base can be predicted from the combination of participants’ reliance on a set of social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Snapchat). The study revealed the trust and confidence of the users using social media on agricultural information/soil plant relationship had a medium effect in social and educational research.     

Wild pigs and their widespread threat to biodiversity conservation in South America

Wild pigs, including wild boar (Sus scrofa) and feral domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica), are associated with negative impacts in their native and introduced ranges. We compiled wild pig occurrence reports and utilized Maximum Entropy modelling to predict their potential distribution in ecoregions overlaying Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. An analysis of their observed and potential distributions was carried out in relation to four biodiversity hotspots and 3766 protected areas to estimate the number of units and percent area currently and potentially invaded. Among biodiversity hotspots, Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests included 44.7% of wild pig records. The proportion of suitable area was 85% in Atlantic Forest, 61.3% in Cerrado, 37.5% in Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests, and 5.6% in Tropical Andes. The number of protected areas with known wild pig presence was led by Uruguay (100%), followed by Chile (20.3%), Argentina (15.8%), Paraguay (9.5%), Bolivia (6.5%), and Brazil (4.7%). The proportion of protected areas with predicted wild pig presence was highest in Uruguay (100%), followed by Paraguay (72.6%), Brazil (58.0%), Argentina (57.4%), Chile (42.2%), and Bolivia (35.9%). Our work represents the first assessment of wild pig potential distribution in South America and highlights the potentially devastating impacts of wild pigs on the regional biodiversity and national conservation targets, especially at mega-diverse areas. We present a dynamic web application that can be readily consulted by scientists, managers and decision makers to improve wild pig control and risk mitigation actions in the study region.