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Return of the Yumbo: the indigenous Caminata from Amazonia to Andean Quito
Author(s) -
Whitten Norman E.,
Scott Whitten Dorothea,
Chango Alfonso
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1997.24.2.355
Subject(s) - indigenous , amazon rainforest , drama , latin americans , politics , action (physics) , sociology , ethnology , history , anthropology , media studies , political science , law , art , visual arts , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
The indigenous march in Ecuador in 1992 (the Caminata) from upper Amazonia to Andean Quito is one of many similar counterhegemonic events taking place over the past decade in Latin America. It began as a peaceful, pragmatic movement to gain land usufruct and soon became a veritable theater of symbolic action. In this article we portray, explicate, and analyze the symbolic dimensions of this march as they were externalized and dramatized in indigenous discourse during and after the Caminata. We also discuss the national audience reaction to this ritual drama by drawing from disseminated interpretations in the national media and discuss the political aftermath of indigenous movements in Ecuador through June 1996.