In this edited volume David Maybury-Lewis brings together 11 essays that raise timely issues related to indigenous peoples in newly defined pluriethnic states across Latin America. A theme running throughout the book is the way in which indigenous peoples have redefined and politicized their identities and achieved greater visibility and agency in their relationship with the state. This theme is explored in three different settings: situations of violence against indigenous peoples, situations of conflict between indigenous peoples and the state, and situations in which indigenous organizations play a part in civil society.

Jennifer Schirmer, Maria Clemencia Ramirez, Jean Jackson, and Bartholomew Dean all explore the issue of indigenous peoples in situations of violence and political conflict. Schirmer develops the notion of “sanctioned Maya,” in other words, the way the military defined who is an appropriate Maya in its reordering and disciplining of indigenous community life. This author contributes an insightful perspective on an imposed identity in a situation of extreme political violence. Ramirez explores problems of juridical and political recognition of cabildos in the Colombian Amazon, where emergence of new ethnic groups challenges definitions of ethnic belonging amid violent situations of paramilitarism and drug trafficking.

Jackson studies indigenous organizing across Colombia and the significant constitutional changes there regarding indigenous rights. Nevertheless, indigenous peoples continue to face conflicts over land demarcation, political violence, drug trafficking, and clashes over development projects. Interestingly, the emergence of indigenous federations created among indigenous peoples the possibility of recognizing an identity that transcended the local community. Dean’s analysis of Peruvian Amazonian indigenous societies highlights the struggle against state-sponsored ecological abuses, discrimination, and violence. Although the emergence of indigenous federations has mobilized indigenous peoples, the state has been slow at recognizing cultural specificity, and development schemes do not contemplate the native peoples’ interests.

Relations between indigenous peoples and the state have been marked by opposing practices of assimilation and recognition of cultural specificity. Paul H. Gelles examines the Peruvian Andean case, in which indigenous identity is shaped by state intervention and the interplay of an Andean worldview in conjunction with local, national, and transnational factors (economic, cultural, and social). In the Ecuadorian case, Theodore Macdonald Jr. explains the unlikely alliance between Indians and the military and the redefinition of ethnic groups as “nationalities.” He also documents how indigenous organizations in Ecuador are active in mobilizing their constituents across class and ethnic lines.

Jerome M. Levi presents an analysis of microregional politics and examines the Zapatista movement in Chiapas and Tarahumara organizing in Chihuahua. His historical account of the Zapatista movement sheds light on how indigenous peoples become politicized as a result of complex relations with mestizo politicians, the Catholic Church, Protestant groups, and peasant unions. Maybury-Lewis focuses on Brazil, where indigenous peoples are a small minority and where the state has combined practices of assimilation, protection, and militarization of indigenous territories. In this case, demarcation and protection of indigenous lands interfere with developmentalist projects and colonization. In response to threats to their territory, Brazilian Indians have received the support of NGOs and the Church, but the geographic and cultural difficulties of organizing federations are significant.

Although the Kuna of Panama constitute a case of strong ethnic identity and autonomy, the state has failed to support their attempt at self-governance. James Howe describes how the Kuna developed political strategies to fend off major development and tourist enterprises that threatened their territory and autonomy. Although they have strengthened their organizations and sense of agency, they face paramilitiaries, environmental degradation, and changes that threaten their cultural continuity. A similar, but less successful case is found in Paraguay, where, as Richard Reed describes, there is an absence of national indigenous organizations, and leaders have been co-opted by political parties and subject to paternalistic politics.

Bret Gustafson questions the ways in which neoliberal culturalism has dealt with the indigenous population in Bolivia. He highlights the complexities of alliances and tensions between indigenous organizations, political parties, the state, and NGOs. Gustafson, for Bolivia, and Dean, in the Peruvian case, consider bilingual education as a tool for achieving cultural survival and civic participation. Despite the differences between Bolivia and Peru, in both cases the presence of NGOs, indigenous federations, and human-rights groups granted legitimacy to intercultural bilingual education. In the case of Bolivia, Gustafson asserts that “Indians—now as much protagonists as objects—are being redefined from class subjects into ‘intercultural’ citizens” (p. 276).

In all of the cases addressed in this book what is contested is how much power Indians might wield to face major threats to their territory, identity, and livelihood. This volume builds on the growing literature on indigenous peoples and on their organizations and relations with the state, and it contributes insightful articles by authors with extensive fieldwork experience in Latin America.