The strategic use of radical indigenous narratives by the Ecuadorian state

Abstract

This paper is a study of the strategic use of language by the Ecuadorian state between 2008 and 2014. The paper analyses the relationship among state-sponsored language games, state images, and contemporary forms of domination in Ecuador. More specifically, the paper studies certain strategies of state domination rooted in the employment of the ‘radical’ political narratives of indigenous peoples in state-planning documents. However, unlike similar studies about how indigenous peoples’ narratives have been co-opted by Ecuador’s government, I develop my arguments in state-theoretical terms. Specifically, I argue that the use of indigenous narratives by the state represents a form of state domination rooted in a seemingly contradictory discursive strategy – one that blurs and simultaneously reaffirms the dividing lines between state and society. I posit that the strategic use of language by the state through what I call, following Mary Louise Pratt, reverse auto-ethnographies, reveals an important dimension of state power – one rooted in the strategic positioning of the state through language games.