Highland Indians and the State in Modern Ecuador

For the past two decades Ecuador has arguably been home to Latin America’s strongest indigenous movement and most effective national-level indigenous organization. Highland Indians and the State in Modern Ecuador places the growth of this indigenous movement in historical and comparative context, tracing the shifting engagement between indigenous peoples and the Ecuadorian state through the postindependence period. As an edited collection, it is exceptional for both the uniformly high quality of the contributions and the overall coherence of the volume. The first part moves chronologically from independence to the present day. By tracing the intertwined processes of state formation and indigenous mobilizations, the first nine chapters not only contribute to our understanding of Indian-state relations but collectively provide one of the most compelling histories of modern Ecuador. Because the case studies are so well contextualized, connected, and focused on the book’s central theme, they provide the reader with a coherent...