Indigenism policy, labour and the world-system dynamics

Tutelage power and indigenous peoples in neoextractivism society

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine a dimension that has been secondary in the study of interethnic relations in last decades in Brazil, the process of indigenous proletarianization (and the strategic importance of wage labor and the insertion of ethnic groups in the international division of labor). Ethnicity cannot only be thought of from the perspective of land/territory and cosmology/culture, but requires an understanding of the perspective production relations, since the indigenous workforce is essential to the constitution of global commercial chains and regional productive arrangements, and on the other hand, these are central in structuring the social organization and culture of different ethnic groups. The thesis or argument presented in the text is that there is an ongoing restructuring of the world system (under the dynamics of neoextractivism) which produces a double tendency: towards the intensification of the exploitation of indigenous labor (in the form of organized labor flows and manpower´s reserves), and another of deterritorialization and concentration of land, both are structurally related each other. The main focus of our study will be to analyze the historical role of the State and their tutelage power (in portuguese the word tutela embrace two meanings: the tutelage themselves and the “trusteeship”) in structuring and managing indigenous work flows. To do this, we will analyze the transformation of the role of neoextratvism and capitalist production oranization in capturing indigenous manpower. In this way, we intend to contribute to the study of interethnic relations and the ways in which indigenous peoples and domestic economies are integrated into the social structures of the capitalist economy, as well as to a perfomr a critical examination of the discourses and practices of State power and capital about indigenous peoples.