Contested Community: Indigenous Land Rights and Identity Politics in Eastern Bolivia

Veronika Groke interrogates the concept of the comunidad indígena (indigenous community) and the role it plays within contemporary Bolivian discourse by examining its relation to the history and social life of a Guaraní community in Bolivia. While this concept is firmly embedded in contemporary discourse, different people and interest groups have varying understandings of its meaning and purpose. By showing the comunidad (community) to be a multifaceted complex of diverging and sometimes competing ideas, desires, and agendas, Grokes provides new insight into the actions and motivations of the various vested interest groups and highlights the political tensions related to culture, identity, and development.