Abstract

ANGOSTO FERRANDEZ, LUIS FERNANDO. LOST WORLD, FOUND PARADISE: PLACE, IDENTITY AND PRODUCTION IN GRAN SABANA, VENEZUELA. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2013, vol.49, n.1, pp.11-43. ISSN 0486-6525.

The bases of a type of production enmeshed in the capitalist system emerged in Gran Sabana during the twentieth century, but still nowadays a part of its ancestral Pemon inhabitants maintain a notably autonomous economy of subsistence. In order to explain this situation, in this article I identify how exoticising narratives of place and identity constructed around the Gran Sabana and its ancestral inhabitants have contributed to consolidate a reductionist polarisation that approaches all social issues in the region through an analytical distinction between 'indigenous' and 'non-indigenous' spheres. In addition, I examine material foci that, independently from those spheres of analysis, structurally diversify the inhabitants of Gran Sabana. I argue that taking these material foci of social diversification into account should be crucial for those who seek solutions to existing problems in the region.

Keywords : Gran Sabana; Pemon; indigeneity; Venezuela.

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