
































Enduring Aymara Cosmovision in the Context of Development in Chile 

Review by Nell Haynes 

Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes 

by Amy Eisenberg 

University of Alabama Press, 2013

In Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes, Amy Eisenberg demonstrates how certain

kinds of development—specifically those related to mining, highway construction, and the diversion of

water sources—have impinged on the “social fabric” of Aymara communities in northern Chile. Rather

than ethnography analyzed through the lens of anthropological theory, this book is part field guide, part

historical account, and part policy recommendation. This is especially important because work about

northern Chile is limited, and English-language scholarship about indigenous people in the region is

particularly sparse.

Eisenberg  aligns  her  work  as  a  form of  public  anthropology  focused  on  social  justice  by

detailing  the  sorts  of  injustice  experienced  by  Aymara  communities,  brought  about  by  the

“modernization” of northern Chile, primarily in the 1990s. In a sense these are injustices experienced

by the most marginal population of an already marginalized region. Framing her project as an attempt

to  contribute to  understandings  of  development  impacts  on the environment  rooted  in  the Aymara

cosmovision,  she echoes what many anthropologists take for granted: the importance of autonomy,

sovereignty  over  ancestral  lands  and  the  resources  therein,  and  a  voice  for  indigenous  groups  in

contexts of environmental resources and development. She describes consequences of development as

“dehumanizing  situations”  in  which  Aymara  individuals  are  denied  rights  to  land,  water,  work,

education, and healthcare (p 32). Careful to include positive effects of development projects as well,

Eisenberg demonstrates the complexity of development projects’ impacts, while remaining clear that

most Aymara understand the impacts as overwhelmingly negative.



Eisenberg provides careful documentation of her methods, including more than 100 interviews

in 16 different communities using an 23 question interview instrument; “visual ethnoecology” using an

associated  photographer  to  document  geographical,  biological,  and  cultural  phenomena;  and

topographical  maps  and  Global  Positioning  System  information.  Eisenberg  also  emphasizes  the

collaborative nature of the research, working with Manuel Mamani M., an Aymara linguist, folklorist,

and ethnomusicologist; Roberto Jara Miranda, President of the Neighborhood Organization of Putre;

and Juana Crespo Cancino, director of the Women’s School in Putre. Beyond these collaborators, the

project  included  “community  participation,  respectful  dialogue,  empirical  fieldwork,  and  accurate

documentation of social  and environmental impacts through systematic analysis of community and

household needs, constraints, and Aymara concerns and strategies for survival” (p. 3). In keeping with

this  collaborative  method,  Eisenberg  and  her  colleagues  provided  a  preliminary  report  to  Aymara

experts, participants, and collaborators for technical review.

For individuals  interested  in  conducting  this  type  of  collaborative  and multivalent  research

aimed at policy recommendations, the methods detailed here are instructive. As a result of this research

strategy, the book primarily takes a macro approach, quickly rehearsing individual examples of how

these may affect daily life for certain individuals, in order to devote more time to the ways in which the

changes brought by development impact an “Aymara cosmovision,” writ large. Based on interviews

with Aymara-identified residents of altiplano pueblos in northern Chile, the overall result concentrates

on individuals’ declarations of their problems rather than providing descriptions of the ways their daily

lives have changed as more participant observation may have yielded.

Eisenberg focuses on connecting the Aymara worldview to the impacts of development on local

communities. Though this approach sidesteps recent debates in indigenous studies, Mapuche issues,

Aymara issues in other countries, the current government of Chile, and regional dynamics, it provides

detailed documentation of Aymara history (Chapters 1 and 2), current political subjectivity (Chapter 2),

livelihood  strategies  (Chapter  2),  cosmovision  (Chapter  3),  and  their  cultural  landscape  including

geography,  demographics,  topography,  geology,  weather  patterns,  flora,  fauna,  and  other  natural

resources (Chapter 4). Only after intricate explanation of such contextual data, does Eisenberg move on

to discuss the ways that development has impacted each of these factors, usually disrupting Aymara

ways of life and views of their place within local environmental systems (Chapters 5 and 6). We come

away with a sense of cultural landscape as a symbolic environment “where livelihoods are sustained,

where present and future generations live, and where spirits reside” (p. 150). Indeed, the landscape is

described as a part of local definitions of self and culture.

This book left me with many questions, perhaps the most important being concerned with the



ways “traditional” Aymara beliefs and lifeways become integrated into everyday modern life within

contexts of development, as well as the ways Chilean Aymara have organized, protested, or advocated

in defense of their rights. Further, this book misses an opportunity to relate the environmental changes

caused by development in this particular context to broader discussions of climate change. Yet, in other

ways the book is an important resource for anyone interested in the Aymara, in Chile, or beyond. It

provides detailed descriptions of methodology, collaborative research, and a vast amount of Aymara

cultural  knowledge.  The  detail  with  which  Eisenberg  discusses  the  continuities  between  the  long

history of the Aymara and their current views and practices is essential for any understanding of present

day  Aymara  environmental  relations.  In  fact,  within  these  pages,  a  number  of  possible  research

questions are hinted at, but left unexplored, implicitly providing indications of possible directions for

future research.

Above all, it is clear that this book would be most valuable in the hands Chilean government

land managers and developers (p. 6). Unfortunately, the national government is generally considered

unresponsive and oblivious to the north of Chile (see Frazier 2007), meaning that this resource may not

be as effective as social justice oriented readers might hope. Nonetheless, Aymara Indian Perspectives

on  Development  in  the  Andes provides  strong  encouragement  for  integrating  Aymara  voices  into

development projects, giving hope that the gulf between tradition and progress might not be impossible

to overcome.

References Cited

Frazier, Lessie Jo

2007.  Salt  in  the  Sand:  Memory,  Violence,  and  the  Nation-State  in  Chile,  1890  to  the  Present.

Durham: Duke University Press.

Nell  Haynes is  a  Postdoctoral  Researcher  in  the  Interdisciplinary  Center  for  Intercultural  and

Indigenous  Studies  at  Pontificia  Universidad Católica  de  Chile.  Her  research  is  on  the  changing

meanings  of  indigeneity  in  Altiplano  Bolivia  and  Northern  Chile.  She  received  her  Ph.D.  in

Anthropology from American University and is also part of the Global Social Media Impact Study

based at University College London.

© 2015 Nell Haynes 


