Inside the “Universidad Indígena de Venezuela”: Development cultures, new ethnicities and epistemological gates

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic account of the Universidad Indígena de Venezuela (UIV), a pioneering initiative that allows us to apply and connect theories on ethnicity and development. We expound the historical processes and space-time structures of this organization: the UIV is analyzed as a country-wide social network, as a specific place (Caño Tauca), and as a set of rituals, symbols and discourses that build a particular institutional “culture”. The ironies of development as a global industry and discourse are shown, but also the paradoxes and unavoidable tensions of a well-intended local project. The complexities of ethnicity are unfolded in order to evidence the pressure of European-rooted political molds. But Indigenous Universities – among other indigenous movements – are more than an adaptation to those globalized models: They provide a chance to open Western epistemology (and politics) to other worldviews.