Indigeneity and Indigenous Agency in Latin America

Abstract

Despite the advances and changes experienced in the field of indigenous studies, the approach to indigenous agency in the arenas of the globalized world has resulted in narratives that frequently reduce them to roles of vulnerability, assimilation and resistance. However, these approaches overshadow the complex and diverse relationships that indigenous groups have with the structures of the globalized world. Within the framework of these considerations, this paper analyzes the implications derived from the background approach to the agency of indigenous groups, and the reductionism resulting from attempts to disarticulate the negative judgments to which indigeneity has been linked. Likewise, it analyzes and discusses the contributions of post-colonialism and decoloniality to contemporary perspectives in the field of indigenous studies, the changes and challenges derived from the self-awareness developed on the epistemological and political challenges inherited from the dichotomous visions that directed the historical and anthropological canons, as well as their paradoxical contributions to the reduction of indigenous agency.