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Intimate Sovereignty: Mennonite Self‐Government in “Green Hell” and the Politics of Belonging in Paraguay's Chaco
Author(s) -
Canova Paola
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of latin american and caribbean anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1935-4940
pISSN - 1935-4932
DOI - 10.1111/jlca.12530
Subject(s) - sovereignty , politics , state (computer science) , indigenous , frontier , context (archaeology) , population , sociology , human sexuality , gender studies , corporate governance , political science , government (linguistics) , ethnology , political economy , geography , law , archaeology , ecology , demography , algorithm , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , finance , economics , biology
During the mid‐1920s, Mennonite settlers to the Paraguayan Chaco established a system of self‐governance in a frontier region constructed and imagined at “the edge” of the state. Despite the fast‐paced economic development that has rapidly transformed the region, the Mennonites have managed to remain socially and geographically isolated from the rest of the population until recently. What sustains their contemporary model of self‐governance in a context that is rapidly changing? An examination of the key role of intimacy, explored through the strategic deployment of sexuality and the establishment of socioeconomic institutions, reveals how they have established a racialized project of sovereignty in the region, coconstructed in interdependence with the Paraguayan state. The article discusses the implications of such a model in a region inhabited mostly by indigenous peoples, and offers some theoretical reflections on the intimate role of race and sexuality in shaping nonstate projects of sovereignty.