Abstract

Latin American indigenous movements increasingly speak of “plurinationalism” in demands for state transformation. The concept—as yet solidified in legal or territorial orders—exists in tension with disputed meanings of “autonomy,” raising questions about indigenous territorial rights, citizenship, and natural resources. Bolivia’s new constitution elevates both concepts to official status in the context of struggles over natural gas. Following David Maybury-Lewis’s call for rethinking the state, I consider how Bolivians are rethinking historicities of space to transform cartographies of a “plurinational state.” Though raising fears of ethnic partitioning, the Guaraní case suggests that hybrid plural and indigenous territorialities are emergent.

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