Reclaiming modernity: Indigenous cosmopolitanism and the coming of the second revolution in Bolivia

Abstract

In this article I explore the emergence of complicated new forms of indigeneity in Bolivia over the last 15 years. I argue that although what I describe as a second revolution is under way in contemporary Bolivia, there is a danger that this revolution will be misread by scholars, political commentators, and others because of the prevailing tendency to interpret social and moral movements in Bolivia (and elsewhere) in rigidly neopolitical–economic terms. I offer an alternative theoretical framework for understanding current developments in Bolivia, which I describe as “indigenous cosmopolitanism”: the ability of national political leaders, youth rappers in El Alto, rural indigenous activists, and others to bring together apparently disparate discursive frameworks as a way of reimagining categories of belonging in Bolivia, and, by extension, the meanings of modernity itself.

Cite this

Mark Goodale (2006). Reclaiming modernity: Indigenous cosmopolitanism and the coming of the second revolution in Bolivia. American Ethnologist. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2006.33.4.634

@article{mark2006reclaiming,
  title  = {Reclaiming modernity: Indigenous cosmopolitanism and the coming of the second revolution in Bolivia},
  author = {Goodale, Mark},
  year   = {2006},
  journal = {American Ethnologist},
  doi    = {10.1525/ae.2006.33.4.634}
}

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