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Indigenous Women's Activism, Ecofeminism, and Extractivism: Partial Connections in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2019

Andrea Sempértegui Open the ORCID record for Andrea Sempértegui [Opens in a new window]
Andrea Sempértegui*
Affiliation:
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany
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Abstract

Over the last two decades, Latin America has witnessed a massive expansion of resource extraction. One of the most significant countermovements to emerge out of this context in Ecuador features a strong base and leadership of indigenous women from the Amazon. In their collective effort to resist extractivism, Amazonian women have drawn from elements of ecofeminist discourse and, in the process, situated their own claims within the broader indigenous territorial struggle. Ecofeminism has been transformed through this allyship as well, becoming more inclusive of indigenous women's perspectives. To shed light on these complex relationships, this article applies the framework of “partial connection” from feminist anthropology. It shows how postcolonial encounters between the state, missionaries, environmental activists, and indigenous communities in the Amazon carved out unique spaces for indigenous self-organization and politics. The historical analysis of such spaces, I argue, is crucial for grasping the allyship between Amazonian women and ecofeminists today. Rooted in a combination of positions that are partially, asymmetrically, and ambiguously connected, the allyship between Amazonian women and ecofeminists is best understood as a form of partially connected relationship.

Keywords

Indigenous womenecofeminismstate extractivismenvironmental movementsindigenous politicsEcuadorian Amazon
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 197 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association, 2019

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Footnotes

I would like to thank William Callison for feedback that immensely improved this article.

References

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