xiii, 84 p. : maps. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Economic models applied in Latin America tend to prioritize economic growth heavily based on extractive industries and a power distribution model that affects social equity and respect for human rights. This thesis advances our understanding of the social, political and environmental concerns that influenced the formation of a movement among the Achuar people, in response to oil exploitation activities in the Peruvian Amazon. This study is based on a political ecology analysis and a review of existing literature on local and global relations of environmental issues. The Corrientes River case reveals how Amazonian indigenous people gained competence to demand recognition of their collective rights to health and citizenship. The Achuar people's mobilization was a result of frustration of sterile dialogue with the authorities, the oil companies, and the pressure exerted by local people on their leaders. This mobilization resulted in an agreement that otherwise would likely not have been reached. / Committee in Charge: Derrick Hindery, Chair; Anita M. Weiss; Carlos Aguirre

El texto analiza los sucesos que llevaron al levantamiento en 2006de la población achuar de la cuenca del Corrientes (Loreto), afectadadurante casi cuatro décadas por la contaminación ocasionadapor compañías petroleras. Examina también el comportamiento delEstado y la empresa actual a lo largo de las protestas y luego de lasuscripción de un acta de compromiso para frenar la contaminacióny remediar los estragos ambientales y sociales generados. Se haconsultado gran cantidad de material escrito relacionado con elproblema: pronunciamientos, estudios sobre la salud de la población,evaluaciones sobre la ejecución de los trabajos de remediación,actas de acuerdo, correspondencia entre las partes y otros; así comoescritos diversos que permitan ubicar el tema dentro de un marcomás amplio de análisis. Asimismo, se ha entrevistado a diversosactores vinculados con el problema. Los principales hallazgos son la fortaleza de la población organizada para demandar sus derechos,la mayor seriedad de la empresa para asumir su responsabilidad, encomparación con el Estado, y la debilidad del discurso que intentaequiparar puesta en valor de recursos con desarrollo. La principalconclusión es que el Estado no cumple su paradigma señalado enel primer artículo de la Constitución: que la defensa de la personahumana y el respeto de su dignidad son su fin supremo. / The paper analyses the events leading to the 2006 uprising of theAchuar people of the Corrientes basin (Loreto), who have sufferedfour decades of contamination due to oil exploitation. It also examinesthe Peruvian State’s and the oil company´s attitudes throughoutthe protest and after signing an agreement aiming to stop contaminationand remedy environmental and social havoc. Materials usedinclude interviews conducted with different stake holders and a widerange of written records, such as political declarations, reports onlocal people´s health´s and remediation work, agreement documentsand letters exchanged between stake holders, as well as historicaland socio economic background information. Findings highlight thestrength of organized indigenous people´s claiming for their rights;the greater commitment to assuming responsibility shown by the oilcompany´s as compared to the Peruvian State; and the weakness ofa political discourse equating development with the extraction ofnatural resources. The main conclusion is that the Peruvian Statedoes not fulfill the paradigm set in the first article of the Constitution:that the defense of the human person and the respect of its dignityare its supreme aim.

Este artículo busca discutir la dimensión política de los planes de vida indígena, tomando en consideración algunos casos de la región amazónica peruana. En concreto, se discuten tres casos específicos en que los planes de vida indígena han sido utilizados como un instrumento de autogobierno o de negociación política entre las sociedades indígenas y el Estado peruano: el del pueblo achuar, el de la Central Asháninka del Río Ene (CARE) y el de la Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP). / In this article the political dimension of the «planes de vida indígena» (indigenous life plans) are discussed in three cases from the Peruvian Amazon region. In these cases, the «planes de vida» have fulfilled a role in the process of indigenous self-government or in the negotiation of the indigenous agenda vis-à-vis the State. The three cases studied are those of the Achuar people, an Ashaninka local organization – the Central Asháninka del Río Ene (CARE) – and the case of AIDESEP, the national-level indigenous organization for the Amazon region in Peru.

Le non-humain et son ontologie sont définis dans ce mémoire en fonction des écrits de Philippe Descola et d’Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, deux figures-clés en anthropologie contemporaine sur l’Amazonie. L’animisme de Descola prête aux non-humains une intériorité humaine et les différencie par leur corps. Le perspectivisme de Viveiros de Castro, quant à lui, suppose que les points de vue différents créent des mondes et établissent ce qui est humain ou non. L’humain correspond au sujet cosmologique à la position pronominale de la première personne du singulier, ou « I », au sein d’une relation. De la sorte, un non-humain se perçoit comme un humain à cette position pronominale « I » et voit l’Autre à la position pronominale « it », position du non-humain. Dans ces deux ontologies, le non-humain est conçu comme une personne capable d’agir dans les mondes. La diversité des êtres inclus dans cette ontologie relationnelle est démontrée par des illustrations provenant de l’ethnographie achuar et araweté de ces deux auteurs. Puis, les relations de parenté, d’alliance et de prédation que les non-humains tissent entre eux et avec les humains exposent l’homologie des rapports non-humains avec les rapports humains. Finalement, l’analyse des méthodes de communication entre le non-humain et l’humain élucide comment la reconnaissance du non-humain dans une communication permet le traitement de ces êtres en tant qu’humains. Le non-humain ne serait donc pas un sujet permanent, mais temporaire le moment de l’interaction. / The non-human and its ontology are defined in this paper based on the writings of Philippe Descola and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, two key figures in contemporary anthropology concerning the Amazon. Animism, according to Descola, grants a human interiority to non-humans and differentiates them by their bodies. Viveiros de Castro’s perspectivism, meanwhile, assumes that various points of view create different worlds and establish what is human and what is not. The human corresponds, then, to the cosmological reflexive pronoun "I" in a relationship. Thus, a non-human perceives itself as a human and sees the Other to the impersonal pronoun "it", the position of the non-human. In both ontologies, the non-human is conceived as a person capable of acting in the worlds. The diversity of beings included in this relational ontology is illustrated with the ethnography of these two authors regarding the Achuar and the Araweté. Also, relationships of kinship, alliance and predation weaved among the non-humans and with the humans exhibit a homology based on human relationships. Finally, the analysis of the various methods of communication between non-humans and humans elucidates how the recognition of non-humans in a communication addresses them as humans. The non-human is therefore not a permanent subject, but a temporary one during the interaction.

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