Allpa Mama: society-nature relations, social movements and agency
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Abstract
For the Kichwa women living at the Bobonaza and Curaray river basins, in the Pastaza Province, Ecuador, molding ceramics is not just an activity women should take care of, but it also implies a way of relating to other human and non-human beings inhabiting in their environment. It also conveys a relationship with the materials and social and symbolic structures that give meaning to their experience. Since 2012 oil extraction tenders in the Ecuadorian Amazon have been posing a threat to their life experience. In this context of threats associated to extractive concessions, a number of Kichwa women –most of them ceramists– have become politically active and put forth their voice of disagreement to advocate the preservation of their territories. This paper seeks to illustrate how Kichwa women from Pastaza establish relationships with nature and territory through their bodies and the activity of “knitting” ceramics. It is argued that the activity of molding clay is both evidence of this relationship, and of economic and political means through which Kichwa women knit social networks and become agents in defending their territories.
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