Indigenist anthropology in Ecuador since the 1970s: political, religious, and technocratic commitments

Abstract

This article is an attempt to answer some questions about the opportunities and obstacles faced when doing social science in politically and economically unstable places; the insertion of the researcher in the social and political processes that he/she is trying to analyze; and the difficulties faced by indigenous anthropologists regarding academic participation and production in Ecuadorian anthropology. One of the findings of this article is that the same actors that helped organize the indigenous movement in Ecuador, the progressive Catholic Church and the left, are also the main producers of anthropological knowledge. Thus, the article questions the common assumption that the left did not understand the importance of culture and ethnicity for contemporary politics. Finally, the complex relationship of Ecuadorian academics with the indigenous movement and the political effects of these tensions are analyzed.