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Society for Cultural Anthropology
Oral Presentation Session
The "Arco Minero" is a project by the Venezuelan government that aims to extract and exploit gold, diamonds, and coltan ore from Indigenous territory. In an area the equivalent size of Cuba (about 110,000 square kilometers), destruction by mining has resulted in life-threatening environmental damage. There, too, government-sponsored military and paramilitary invasions have caused numerous deaths of Indigenous peoples. For these reasons, the Indigenous people in this region organize themselves and harness a series of music and dance performances for their defense. This also includes concrete thought and sound practices the principles of which are presented within the framework of the ethical rules of research. This paper results from ten years of field research collaboration with the Arekuna, Taurepán, and Kamarakoto Pemón groups. This paper examines the relationships between their defensive performance practice and the ecological destruction to which they respond.