Lucas Savino's Decolonizing Patagonia: Mapuche Peoples and State Formation in Argentina traces the development of Mapuche activism in the province of Neuquén (in southern Argentina) from the 1970s through the present day. The book considers Indigenous political identity formation in the context of neoliberal multiculturalism—defined as “a selective recognition of Indigenous rights” intended to make such rights compatible with “a broader neoliberal order of capitalist accumulation” (p. 9). Savino argues that neoliberal multiculturalism has at times opened up new spaces for Indigenous political participation in Argentina, a country long mythologized as homogenously white. At the same time, Argentina's embrace of neoliberal multiculturalism has allowed state institutions to absorb, contain, and stifle radical movements for Indigenous sovereignty.Savino's study is situated within a broader theoretical literature on Indigenous politics in Latin America. As such, it brings Argentina and the Mapuche into a scholarly conversation from which they have been largely absent. However, Savino is also attentive to the particularities of the Argentine case. The demographic minority of Argentina's Indigenous population (who comprise only 2.4 percent of the overall population) and the country's unique history of provincial political autonomy set the stage for Savino's discussion (p. 6).Chapters 1 and 2 provide a broad historical overview. Chapter 1 tackles the historiography of race, citizenship, and neoliberalism in Latin America, while chapter 2 delves into the history of Argentine state formation. Savino helpfully positions Latin American concepts like indigenismo and mestizaje as precursors to multicultural neoliberalism, tracing how dominant narratives about racial belonging have conditioned Indigenous peoples' access to citizenship and political belonging. Chapter 2 displays a strong command of the scholarly literature on Argentine state formation. However, the actions and agency of Indigenous peoples remain largely absent, giving the impression that state formation was something that happened to Indigenous people—not something that they shaped and participated in. Considering this book's focus on Indigenous politics, Savino could have strengthened his analysis by engaging more deeply with the historical and anthropological literature on Indigenous diplomacy and multiethnic frontier governance in the Pampas and Patagonia.Chapters 3 through 5 move into the present day, examining the complicated relationship between neoliberal multiculturalism, Mapuche political participation, and collective identity. Chapter 4 is particularly effective in this regard. In this chapter, Savino uses a series of case studies to highlight how the politics of neoliberal multiculturalism have invited Indigenous activism to an extent but also placed stark limitations on activist endeavors. For example, Savino highlights a recent push for Mapuche comanagement of national parks. Under a neoliberal multiculturalist regime, state institutions have come to see the Mapuche as having a “special relationship of respect” with nature and therefore as crucial to national park administration (p. 128). However, more radical demands for territorial autonomy and direct administrative control have been denied and, in some cases, have led to the end of comanagement altogether. Clear, engaging, and informative, this chapter would serve as a fantastic introduction to the concept of neoliberal multiculturalism and its real-world impacts for undergraduates or graduate students. Taken together, chapters 3 through 5 show how the shared goal of territorial autonomy has informed the development of a collective Mapuche political identity. Because these calls for territorial autonomy go beyond the bounds of acceptable Indigenous activism under neoliberal multiculturalism, the rise of this new political identity has corresponded with a rise in state violence and repression.One key contribution is Savino's decision to study Mapuche activism at a provincial scale. Savino convincingly argues that a national scope is inadequate for the Argentine case and more generally for Indigenous minority contexts. Because Argentina has no nationwide Indigenous organization, Savino argues, national-level studies tend to reproduce scholarly blind spots and reinforce a narrative of Indigenous absence. Savino instead employs a combination of documentary evidence and participant observation to provide a window into local-level neuquino politics. The scope of the archival research is impressive and provides Savino with an on-the-ground vision of Mapuche activism over the past 50 years. While personal interviews with Mapuche leaders clearly informed the study, the voices of Savino's interlocutors are only occasionally present in the text. The few direct quotations drawn from interviews add incredible dimension to Savino's work; more such quotations would have been a welcome addition.Although Decolonizing Patagonia is not strictly speaking a history book, historians of modern Latin America will find much to admire about it. Those who study race, state violence, and the formation of collective identities—either in historical perspective or in the present day—will appreciate this book's clear, readable analysis of Indigenous politics and state responses. This book is a welcome contribution to the small but rapidly growing English-language scholarship on Indigenous politics in the Southern Cone. Savino's clear prose and helpful signposting make this a strong choice for undergraduate and graduate courses in Latin American history and politics.
Read full abstract
Dec 20, 2023
Jiangkun Qin + 1
Open Access
