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Ethnogenesis, Ethnicity, and “Cultural Refusal”: The Case of the Salasacas in Highland Ecuador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Rachel Corr  and
Karen Vieira Powers
Rachel Corr
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
Karen Vieira Powers
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Abstract

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The Salasacas are one of several indigenous peoples in highland Ecuador who consider themselves, and are considered by others, to be a distinct, homogeneous blood group. Throughout the Incaic, Spanish, and national periods, we trace their ethnogenesis from diverse origins to a single, highly unified ethnic community. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines historical and ethnographic data and follows the movement of current Salasaca anthroponyms, we identify three seventeenth-century migrations of different groups to Salasaca. These groups were still separate in the eighteenth century, and we follow their fusion into a single, exclusive, and vocal ethnic group in the postindependence period. We focus careful attention on their often novel responses to multiple historical contingencies over the course of five hundred years. Departing from writers who emphasize the political nature of ethnicity, we argue that Salasaca became a zone of cultural refusal as indigenous actors made a conscious decision to maintain a specific indigenous cultural identity.

Resumen

Resumen

Los salasacas son uno de varios grupos indígenas de la sierra ecuatoriana, que se consideran y son considerados un grupo distinto de sangre homogénea. En este artículo trazamos la etnogénesis salasaca a través de los periodos de dominación incaica, española y nacional, como un pueblo con diversos orígenes que se gestaron en una comunidad étnica unificada. Para ello, utilizando una metodología interdisciplinaria que combina datos históricos y etnográficos, y siguiendo el movimiento de los antropónimos de la comunidad Salasaca actual, identificamos que en siglo XVII hubo migraciones de tres diferentes grupos a Salasaca. Aunque aún separados en el siglo XVIII, nuestro análisis nos permitió trazar cómo estos grupos se fusionaron en un grupo étnico único, exclusivo e independiente durante el periodo posterior a la independencia. Nuestra atención se centra cuidadosamente en las frecuentes y novedosas formas en que la comunidad Salasaca ha reaccionado a través de quinientos años a múltiples contingencias históricas. A diferencia de investigadores que enfatizan la naturaleza política de la etnicidad, nosotros postulamos que Salasaca se convirtió en una zona de rechazo cultural, en la que actores indígenas decidieron conscientemente mantener una identidad cultural indígena específica.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 47 , Issue S1: Special Issue , 2012 , pp. 5 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

We would like to acknowledge Frank Salomon, Deborah Truhan, and LARR's three anonymous reviewers for their incisive critiques of earlier drafts of this article. We thank the Center for Latin American Studies at University of Arizona for providing Powers with a venue for presenting our manuscript and discussing it among undergraduate and graduate students. We also thank Susan Deeds and Kevin Gosner for the advice that led to our collaboration. In Ecuador, we are indebted to both national and regional archivists, especially to Grecia Vasco de Escudero, director of the national archive, as well as to Father Fabián Areos, chancellor of the diocese of Ambato. We are also grateful to Patricio Caizabanda, Patricia Villalva, and Gladys Almeida for their assistance with ecclesiastical documents. Funding for this research was provided by intramural grants from Florida Atlantic University (Corr) and the Fulbright Commission (Powers). Last, but most important, we express our heartfelt appreciation to the people of Salasaca for their many contributions to our research.

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