“Being Flexible”: Reflections on How an Anthropological Theory Spills into the Contemporary Political Life of an Amazonian People

Authors

Stine Krøijer, University of CopenhagenFollow

Keywords

Amazon, oil, oil palms, cosmology, transformation, Ecuador

Abstract

This article examines the work of William T. Vickers and describes how his theory about the flexible adaptation of the Siona-Secoya to their forested environment has spilled into their contemporary political life. Based on recurring fieldwork among the Secoya in Northeastern Ecuador, the article shows that “being flexible” has become a particular way of talking about and managing relations to powerful outsiders such as representatives of oil companies and government officials. The article brings together ethnography on the Secoya’s relationship to Occidental Petroleum Company in 1999–2001 and their turn to oil palm cultivation as subcontractors to a plantation company after 2010. I argue that practices of flexibility are tied to a view of the cosmos as being in constant transformation and that the Secoya seek to continue to “be themselves” by way of changing.

Este artículo examina el trabajo de William T. Vickers y describe cómo su teoría acerca de la adaptación flexible de los Siona-Secoya a su ambiente arbolado, se ha vertido en su vida política contemporánea. Basado en trabajo de campo recurrente entre los Secoya en el noreste de Ecuador, el artículo muestra que el «ser flexible» se ha convertido en una manera particular de hablar y manejar las relaciones con terceros poderosos como representantes de industrias petroleras y oficiales de gobierno. El artículo reúne etnografía de la relación de los Secoyas con Occidental Petroleum Company en 1999–2001 y su cambio al cultivo de palma de aceite como subcontratistas de una compañía de plantación después del año 2010. Expongo que las prácticas de flexibilidad están atadas a una visión del cosmos en constante transformación, y que los Secoya buscan continuar «siendo ellos mismos» a través del cambio.

Recommended Citation

Krøijer, Stine (2018). "“Being Flexible”: Reflections on How an Anthropological Theory Spills into the Contemporary Political Life of an Amazonian People", Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America: Vol. 15: Iss. 1, Article 13, 46-61.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol15/iss1/13