Average Rating: 5
This is, quite simply, a stunning little book. Zibechi analyses the indigenous Aymara community in Brazil and its social and political manifestations in the light of the indigenous struggles against the state and capital. In this he applies some postmodern methods of analysis exceptionally well. This is particularly impressive given that they are usually used abysmally. His analysis ranges from the contrasts between society and the state, Aymara community structures and methods of organising, social control in the absence of state crime prevention (or, more accurately, active state criminality), NGOs as agents of elite creation and gives a comparative example of indigenous social movement cooptation and absorption in Ecuador. In this analysis Zibechi makes some exceptionally pertinent observations such as the distinction between dispersion: power being spread throughout the community and fragmentation: groups are divided into different sections with leaders and dominated and co-opted more easily by state functionaries. Another notable strength of the text is its identification of the goals of state and capital to separate, or create fetishes, of community functions that are divorced from their social context. He identifies in the Aymara an attempt to reintegrate back into the community the political, economic and social functions that have effectively been stolen by the state. This is also done without glorifying all things indigenous. The only areas I saw as problematic were in the often implied and occasionally stated contrasts between Marx’s work and classical Marxism. With the huge disjuncture between Marx’s writings in his early years and the later stages of his career you can clearly see the basis of classical Marxism in his later work. This is being rather picky though. Amazing book. Highest recommendation.
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