"Desde tiempos ancestrales". Construcción identitaria y territorio en la cuenca baja del río Curaray (Amazonía Ecuatoriana)

Abstract

This article analyzes how the incorpo-ration  of  an  Amazonian  territory  –  the  lower  basin  of  the  Curaray  River  –  into  the   Ecuadorian   national   state   favored   one  ethnic  group,  the  Quichua,  to  the  detriment  of  others:  the  Zaparo  and  the  Huaorani.  Following  the  expansion  of  rubber extraction beginning in 1880, this region  experienced  a  loss  of  population  when  the  rubber  trade  declined  in  the  1920s. Given its geostrategic importance, during  the  1970s  it  was  the  subject  of  a  government  recolonization  project  that  failed for a variety of reasons. It was not until  the  1990s  that  this  area  was  fully  integrated  into  the  state,  but  this  time  privileging  a  Quichua  indigenous  elite of  mestizo  origin  whose  ethnic  and  environmentalist discourse allowed them to obtain substantial resources from international development NGOs. This made it possible for them to articulate a network of Quichua communities in the territory. The central focus of this article is the occupation of a territory of great economic importance  in  the  name  of ethnoenvi-ronmentalism.