Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-05, Section: A, page: 1793.

Director: William Wright Kelly.

This dissertation looks at the formation and use of Indian identity at the periphery of the Argentine nation-state. I examine the daily practices and public rituals of residents of Amaicha del Valle, a town which is both a rural municipality--dependent on the provincial government--and comunidad indigena--a collective indigenous association common in the Andes but not in Argentina.

Many Amaichenos are ambivalent about embracing an Indian identity. This is due in large part to a history of discrimination and exclusion of Indian populations in Argentina since independence. It was only under the populist regime of Juan Domingo Peron that the government tried to incorporate marginal populations as sources of electoral support. Regional intellectuals and politicians represented Indians as exotic remnants of the past. In the recent years, Amaichenos have appropriated these representations of Indian identity and used them for political purposes (to gain local decision making power), for economic purposes (to attract tourism, jobs, and funding), and as a cultural asset (to identify with a glorified past that grants them distinctiveness and legitimacy of their common territory). The less privileged members of the community, particularly non elite women, are the most eager to embrace Indian identity. In doing so they have begun to forge connections with other indigenous populations and movements in the Americas.