Communities make communities: Comunidades nativas and gold mining among the Arakbut of Peruvian Amazonia

This article examines the role of organization into comunidades nativas (native communities) in the construction of a sense of community among Arakbut settlements of southeastern Peruvian Amazon. Based on ethnographic material, the article argues that communal activities furthered by the comunidad nativa increases social interaction among the settlements’ loosely connected and relatively dispersed kin-based groups, forging a sense of belonging on which a broader collective identity and social bonds are built. Leasing Arakbut lands to mining settlers, however, has become a main source of internal conflict that threatens to split settlements. But rather than leading to settlement fissioning, this internal conflict encourages the Arakbut to use communal assemblies and fiestas to restore social relations and solidarity, thus strengthening the community identity. Therefore, the sense of community arises not only out of cooperative and cohesive social relations, but also out of conflictive and competitive ones.