Abstract

SEGER, Sylvia M.. Peasantry, Conception of Nature, and Associated Tensions: Narratives from the Íntag Area, Ecuador. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2020, n.40, pp.129-151. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda40.2020.06.

The term “peasant” has been approached from multiple perspectives and disciplines, but has more recurrently been defined by agricultural production and land or by having a direct relationship with the land through agricultural work. The purpose of this article is to provide a different approach to peasantry, exploring subjectivities in relation to the conceptions of Nature in peasant narratives. From the context of Íntag, Ecuador, marked by the biological diversity of its forests, social heterogeneity and local resistance in a socio-environmental conflict, this article first presents how peasants express aspects of their conception of Nature and their relationship with it and, secondly, shows how they debate the tensions that exist between actors with different perspectives on Nature. This case study arises within the framework of a larger multidisciplinary qualitative investigation. The narratives are excerpts from the transcripts of some 80 informal interviews held over four years of living in the area. The people interviewed describe Nature as ‘life’, from the relationality that constitutes their peasant being in the heterogeneous Íntag context. Land and agriculture are not central to the stories. They express values, perspectives and deep understandings about the tensions between actors with different visions of caring for Nature. Here, the reflections with and from the narratives interfere with the limited premises on the peasantry, for example, with the principle of working the land, decontextualization, homogeneity, etc. In view of the environmental and civilizatory crisis, typical of the hegemonic standard of modernity, this article problematizes the peasant-Nature relationship from other logics.

Keywords : Cultural narratives; Ecuador; Nature; peasantry; peasant-Nature relationship; socio-environmental tensions.

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