Ideology, History, and Action in Cotocollao, a Barrio of Quito, Ecuador (Andes, Urbanism, Marginality, Ethnicity, Symbolism)

This dissertation is a historical and political anthropological study of social action and the social organization of meaning in Cotocollao, a sector of Quito, Ecuador. The thesis forwarded in this work is that social actors simultaneously shape and are shaped by forms of hegemonic ideological discourse which compete with nonhegemonic cultural beliefs and practices. I therefore look at public responses of some urban, working class mestizo and indigenous residents of Cotocollao to poverty, powerlessness, and ideological themes such as mestizaje (social race mixture), and marginality by concentrating on the following domains: (1) the political-economic system that forms the framework for Ecuadorian ethnic and class relations and the phenomena of urbanization and uneven development; (2) the history of sector Cotocollao, which has experienced a gradual transition from being a rural center for the control and appropriation of indigenous agricultural labor to being a marginal, ethnically diverse urban area of Quito; (3) the public responses of two segments of the population of Cotocollao: the indigenous Runa who are for the most part inactive in barrio politics but who express protest and political awareness through masked dance performances; and the mestizos, who effect political change through community organization and minimal clientelism; and (4) the individual responses of three lower-class women of Cotocollao to poverty and misfortune. The conclusion reached in this study is that while the imposition of State forms of domination acts to reduce cultural diversity to an extent, the process is by no means unidirectional. The urban residents of Cotocollao use their cultural repertoires creatively to alter and modify the ideological structures of the State.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Fine, Kathleen Sue

• Anthropology, Cultural

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8623295

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70696