Subjects of reparation : victimhood, gender and indigenous identifications in La Guajira, Colombia

• Main Author: Jaramillo Salazar, Pablo
• Published: University of Manchester 2010
• Subjects: 306
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.520719

This thesis analyses the production and transformation of gendered ethnic and racial identifications in La Guajira (Colombia) in the context of the reparation of victims affected by the armed conflict in the country. The study concentrates on the category of 'victim' as an articulator of ethnic, racial and gender hierarchies, and as a device to politicise the caring relationships on which affiliation and belonging depend. The thesis traces the definition of indigeneity in La Guajira to cultural and biological mixture (mestizaje) and class formation, which were part of the efforts of subsequent powers to control the region during the 20th century through the engagement of masculine authority. Neoliberal policies, multiculturalism and paramilitary violence orchestrated a decline of the local elites that self-identified as 'mixed' and triggered a process of social mobilisation around victimhood, led mainly by women. Women's engagement in the post-victimisation process corresponded both to local notions of feminine mediation for the family and to transnational hegemonic discourses that place women as central actors in the reconstruction of 'communities'. Legal and political actions served as a locus to frame people as 'indigenous victims' and inscribe feminised and racialised forms of agency that underpinned reparation as a democratisation enterprise. Victimhood elicited the articulation of reparation efforts with forms of social welfare (mainly Conditional Cash Transfer programmes) and developmental strategies, which brought about strongly normative notions of 'family', commoditised caring relationships. The dissertation is based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork (2007-2008) with leaders, families and communities forming part of the indigenous organisation, the Wayou Women's Force. Fieldwork also involved other local and national indigenous leaders and governmental and non-governmental actors and representatives.