Browsing by Subject "eco-cultural pluralism"

Despite active Indigenous movement in the country, Ecuadorian governments have continued to exploit natural resources with increasing speed legitimising extractivism as a means to social development. Indigenous women are gradually taking leadership positions in the predominantly male-dominant Indigenous movement in Ecuador, and Amazonian Indigenous women have strengthened ties with other groups as well. The research questions of this thesis participate in the post-developmentalist discussion on extractivism and alternatives, resistance and finding solidarities to fight against subordination and destruction of territories, knowledge, culture, bodies and life. Drawing from feminist political ecology’s critical decolonial and intersectional feminist perspective, the thesis analyses, what “truths” the Ecuadorian state is creating about development, Indigenous peoples and their territories, and what the possible implications to Amazonian Indigenous women are. It is also interested in what strategies Indigenous women use to resist the extractive policies justified with those “truths”, and what kind of spaces of resistance they are creating. By doing this, the thesis tries to answer, how Ecuador’s extractive policies affect eco-cultural pluralism in Ecuadorian Amazonia. The main method for analysis is a Foucauldian strand of critical discourse analysis, complemented with elements of qualitative content analysis. The primary data collected for this thesis consists of government development plans and official communication, as well as of a report, statements and social media publications by Indigenous organisations and collectives. In Ecuadorian governmental discourses further expansion of extractivism(s) is still justified with economic and social development, especially in the areas of impact. What is new in the governmental discourses is the wide dismissal of Indigenous peoples’ existence and conceptualisations of “good living”. Dismissing topics, such as Indigenous peoples’ rights to their territories, and discrediting Indigenous knowledge suggests that citizen participation and eco-cultural pluralism are supported only as far as they do not threaten the development of strategic sectors of the state. Amazonian Indigenous women resist extractivism with multiple strategies. They are building solidarities by establishing alliances with ecofeminist groups, international environmental NGOs and human rights organisations. By tying their ethno-territorial demands into global climate and social justice discourses Indigenous women are opening a shared space able to mobilise larger crowds for their cause. Thus, while making visible the embodied impacts of patriarchal extractivism, Indigenous women are also simultaneously decolonising feminism. Although hegemonic government discourses embrace nationalist imaginaries and identities related to extractivisms, the resistance of Amazonian Indigenous women may cultivate common ground of understanding with the rest of the Ecuadorian society and international community.