The Construction of the ‘Self’ in Conflicts around Land in Contemporary Tarabuco (Bolivia)

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2009 a brand new constitution was approved in Bolivia which gives indigenous peoples the right to self‐governance according to their customs. The right to self‐governance was incorporated into the Native Indigenous Peasant Autonomy (AIOC) framework. Eleven municipalities across the country elected to adopt the new AIOC framework with a view to institutionalizing their own norms and political practices. However, in most of the municipalities the process led to internal disputes and tensions. This article focuses on the municipality of Tarabuco so as to bring to light the dynamics of these conflicts, and some of their underlying causes. Three different social organizations within the Tarabuco municipality — the peasant union, the indigenous communities and the neighbourhood assemblies — are fighting over the values and norms that should regulate the new social order. Those values and norms are closely linked to different organizational memberships, based on different interpretations of the meaning of land, territory, property, agricultural work and knowledge. The three organizations are competing over material and immaterial resources in a process of conflictive construction of political subjectivities. At the same time, in order to access the rights offered by the new dispensation, the Tarabuco local constitution is required to respond to the identity and identification criteria proposed by the AIOC. This article contributes to an understanding of the manner in which local actors deal with these forms of identity categorization in the design of values and norms of their society.