Practically Invisible

Coastal Ecuador, Tourism, and the Politics of Authenticity

Kimbra Smith

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780826503701
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Customs & Traditions
• Index: Social Sciences

The community of Agua Blanca, deep within the Machalilla National Park on the coast of Ecuador, found itself facing the twenty-first century with a choice: embrace a booming tourist industry eager to experience a preconceived notion of indigeneity, or risk losing a battle against the encroaching forces of capitalism and development. The facts spoke for themselves, however, as tourism dollars became the most significant source of income in the community. Thus came a nearly inevitable shock, as the daily rhythms of life--rising before dawn to prepare for a long day of maintaining livestock and crops; returning for a late lunch and siesta; joining in a game of soccer followed by dinner in the evening--transformed forever in favor of a new tourist industry and the compromises required to support it. As Practically Invisible demonstrates, for Agua Blancans, becoming a supposedly "authentic" version of their own indigenous selves required performing their culture for outsiders, thus becoming these performances within the minds of these visitors. At the heart of this story, then, is a delicate balancing act between tradition and survival, a performance experienced by countless indigenous groups.

Index

Page references in bold refer to illustrations.

access

—to audiences, 126, 154

—to indigenous identity, 11, 16, 36, 144, 212–13

—limitations to, 19, 21, 31, 36, 97, 179

—to symbolic capital, 11–12

Afro-Ecuadorians, 2, 17, 51, 52, 79, 84

agency

—vs. authenticity, 19

—awareness of, 25, 217

—in globalized settings, 145, 153

—identity politics affecting, 8

—limited by racialized geography, 155

—within dispositions, 127, 218

—See also serious games

agrarian reform, 40, 60, 67, 68, 104

Agua Blanca

—author’s research in, 22–23, 137, 162, 171–73, 196–98, 203–5

—change in, 151, 153

—history of, 14–20, 103–7, 104

—map of, 15

—population of, 176

Agua Blancan culture

—celebrations in, 142–43, 149–50, 183

—community in, 133, 134, 142, 143, 176, 231n15

—continuity of, 106, 107, 133, 226n2

—family in, 134–35, 135, 141

—gender roles in, 134–35, 188–90

—mingas in, 137–39, 138, 139, 140

—oral traditions in, 132–33, 157–60, 162

—social control in, 193, 196, 203, 205, 210–11

—spatial organization in, 139–41, 155

—washing clothes in, 133–37, 135

—See also fear; globalization, Agua Blancan experience of; New Year’s Eve celebrations

Agua Blancans

—archaeology as tool of, 23, 106, 164

—heritage of, 1, 71, 119

—interpracticality of, 4, 192, 209–12, 214–19, 232n4

—political organization by, 67, 68, 71–72, 144

—self-representation by, 2, 66–67, 69–70, 214–15

—strategies of, 131, 145

—See also fear; Festival de la Balsa Manteña; fluidity; globalization, Agua Blancan experience of; interpracticality; tourism

Alfaro, Eloy, 85

Álvarez, Silvia, 1, 70

Amazonian indigenous groups, 45, 49–50, 51, 52, 57, 69, 125

ambiguity

—in Festival de la Balsa Manteña, 118, 119

—as flexibility, 93–94

—of identity, 11,...