Colonial dialectics: The making of state and the transformation of South American indigenous peoples organization

Abstract

This article has as its objective to put forward some hypotheses about the dialectical relationships between two social processes. On the one hand, the nationbuilding process in Brazil and on the another hand the transformation of the South American indigenous social organizations. Our starting point is a specific ethnographic background, the Chaco/Pantanal (floodable swamps in central Brazil). We make a critique of some evolutionist and structuralist views on state building and indigenous peoples leadership, demonstrating how the segmentary organization and the reciprocity logic are interwoven into colonial social-historical dialectics.