Anthropology of Territoriality

With transition to the state kinship ceases the role of the central organizing principle of society. However, the very social nature of kinship provides the opportunities for manipulating it as ideology in societies of all types. It was typical for early states to represent the state and the sovereign by analogy with the family and its head. Not infrequently the same connotations are exploited for the sake of power’s legitimation in modern states either. However, the ideology of kinship’s exploitation in states should not be confused with the cases of completely another sort. In some societies of the overall complexity level not lower than that of early states (in “alternatives to the state”), one can observe the whole socio-political construction’s encompassment not from above (as it must be in states) but from below – from the local community level, while the community itself is underpinned by kin ties. Here kinship is not only ideology but also the real socio-political background. So, there is no direct conformity between the socio-political (transition to the state) and ideological (departure from the ideology of kinship) processes and this seemingly clear fact should be acknowledged and given due attention by researchers.

Broadly speaking, my thesis examines the workings of grounded social, economic and political processes that have contributed, often in a conflicting manner, to the (re)definition of membership criteria in both the nation and the state. It does so in dialogue with two broad, interrelated bodies of literature, citizenship and transnationalism, which have examined issues of belonging, exclusion, mobility and access to rights among transnational migrants, while highlighting the renewed capacity of the state to regulate both people’s movements and migrants’ actual access to public entitlements. My dissertation challenges three sets of claims shaping research and policy agendas on migrant transnationalism and citizenship, and questions the hegemonic analytical and methodological approaches underlying them.
My research has been carried out at two distinctive analytical and empirical levels. On the one hand, I examine the “technologies of citizenship” (Ong 2003, Fujiwara 2008) deployed by the government to transform Argentina into a diverse, inclusive and Latin American nation over the past decade, paying particular attention to Kirchnerismo’s creation of a “new legality” for the Paraguayans, Bolivians and Peruvians in the country. On the other
hand, I analyze the “horizontal dimensions of citizenship processes” (Neveu 2005, Pickus and Skerry 2007, Gagné and Neveu 2009) among these migrants in urban, peripheral and rural
areas of the partido of La Plata. Namely, I study the extent to which migrants’ socio-economic circumstances have changed in tandem with their new legal status (as nationals of the
MERCOSUR in Argentina with rights equal to those of its citizens) and the “inclusive citizenship” policies deployed by the government.
My dissertation pays particular attention to the grounding and embodiment of rights by examining how migrants’ new legal status translates into everyday life depending on a) where
they live and work, and b) their perceived social status by other migrants and non-migrants. On the one hand, I look at urban, peripheral and rural areas of La Plata as zones of graduated
sovereignty (Ong 1999) where particular governmentality regimes have emerged in tandem with the settlement of often ethnically marked groupings, whose entitlements and obligations
differ from those in other zones. On the other hand, I examine how social status is produced through everyday social interaction by transposing socially constructed distinctions, such as race, class, gender and national origin, into formal systems of exclusion (Gregory 2007). My ethnographic analysis of what I shall call limítrofes’ experiences of legality demonstrates that
their formal equality vis-à-vis Argentinians, far from being merely given as a new legal status evenly guaranteed to all, is both unequally experienced by diverse migrants and differently
enforced in geographic areas governed by distinctive governmentality regimes (Foucault 1978).
Keywords : anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology, ethnography, transnationality, migration, regional integration, citizenship, state, MERCOSUR, Argentina.

De manière générale, ma thèse examine les mécanismes des processus sociaux, économiques et politiques ayant contribué, souvent de manière contradictoire, à la (re)définition des critères d’adhésion au sein de la nation et de l’Etat. Elle le fait par le
dialogue au sein de deux grands corps de littérature intimement liés, la citoyenneté et le transnationalisme, qui se sont penchés sur les questions d’appartenance, d’exclusion, de mobilité et d’accès aux droits chez les migrants transnationaux tout en soulignant la capacité accrue de l’Etat à réguler à la fois les déplacements de personnes et l’accès des migrants aux
droits. Cette thèse remet en question trois principes qui influencent la recherche et les programmes d’action publique ayant trait au transnationalisme et à la citoyenneté des
migrants, et remet en cause les approches analytiques hégémoniques et méthodologiques qui les sous-tendent.
L’étude a été menée à deux niveaux distincts d’analyse empirique et analytique. D’une part, nous examinons les « technologies de la citoyenneté » (Ong 2003, Fujiwara 2008) qui ont été développées par le gouvernement pour transformer l’Argentine en une nation latinoaméricaine diverse et inclusive pendant la dernière décennie, en nous intéressant particulièrement à la création, par le Kirchnerisme, d’une « nouvelle légalité » pour les Paraguayens, les Boliviens et les Péruviens résidant dans le pays. D’autre part, nous analysons la « dimension horizontale des processus de citoyenneté » (Neveu 2005, Pickus and Skerry 2007, Gagné and Neveu 2009) chez ces migrants dans des aires urbaines, périphériques et rurales du partido de La Plata. Plus spécifiquement, nous examinons dans quelle mesure les conditions socioéconomiques des migrants ont changé suite à leur nouveau statut légal (en tant que ressortissants du MERCOSUR en Argentine, dont les droits sont égaux à ceux des
citoyens) et aux politiques de « citoyenneté inclusive » déployées par le gouvernement.
Cette thèse se penche particulièrement sur les fondations et l’incarnation (« embodiment ») des droits en examinant comment le nouveau statut légal des migrants se manifeste au quotidien en fonction de a) où ils vivent et travaillent, et b) leur statut social
perçu par les autres migrants et non-migrants. D’une part, nous examinons les aires urbaines, périphériques et rurales de La Plata en tant que « zones de souveraineté graduée » (Ong 1999), où des régimes de gouvernementalité locaux spécifiques se sont développés en lien avec l’installation de groupes ethniques souvent distincts, et dont les droits et devoirs diffèrent de
ceux d’autres zones. D’autre part, nous étudions la façon dont le statut social est produit à travers les interactions sociales quotidiennes en transposant des distinctions construites
socialement telles que race, classe, genre et origine nationale, en systèmes d’exclusion formels (Gregory 2007). Notre analyse ethnographique de ce que nous appelons les « expériences de
légalité » des migrants démontre que leur égalité formelle vis-à-vis des Argentins, loin d’être simplement donnée comme un nouveau statut légal uniformément garanti pour tous, est à la
fois inégalement vécue par les divers migrants, et différemment respectée dans les zones géographiques dirigées par divers régimes de gouvernementalité (Foucault 1978).
Mots-clés : anthropologie, anthropologie socio-culturelle, ethnographie, transnationalité,
migration, intégration régionale, citoyenneté, État, MERCOSUR, Argentine

The article treats the typology of the early state (“inchoate” – “typical” – “transitional”) from the viewpoint of the state beginnings. The author argues that in general typologies the state should be approached as a form of society, not as a kind of political system only. From this perspective he emphasizes the complex dynamics of the interrelations between the key principles of socio-political organization – the kin and territorial ties, in the process of cultural (socio-political) evolution. The conclusion is that the “full”, or “completed”, state should be characterized by the combination of primarily territorial (suprakin) social organization and specialized, professionalized and bureaucratized administration. This combination is observable only in “transitional early states”. As transformation processes usually develop in the administrative sphere faster than in the sphere of social organization, the “typical early state” can be called “incomplete”, or “limited”, state in which the political institutions are already approaching the level sufficient for state society but the territorial ties still do not outstrip kin ties, however counterbalancing them effectively. The “inchoate early state” cannot be designated as state in any sense, in its basic features (including the overall kinship nature) overlapping with those commonly attributed to the (complex) chiefdom. Finally, the ideology of kinship as a cloak for non-kin relations in states and as a reflection of socio-political reality in some supercomplex non-state societies (“alternatives to the state”) is discussed.

The concept of order is often neglected in the study of conflict – seemingly such a ‘disordering’ process. With the recent increase in the examination of rebel governance however, bringing order back into our understanding of rebel and insurgent groups has much to offer in exploring the everyday politics which connect authorities, rebel movements and the population itself, in a complex mass of intersubjective and power-based interactions and negotiations. Rebels both shape and are shaped by existing forms of order in complex and ongoing ways. This article explores how varying elements interact in the negotiation, framing and enforcement of order and develops an original analytical framework to examine the perpetual negotiations of rebel movements in their attempts to cement their control.

This paper tries to achieve and increase a depth in the analysis the concept of border culture. That historic and ethnologic research was already initiated by the teacher in different field and theoretical works carried out with Javier San Vicente and Ester Álvarez. The work was implemented in two borderlands of the Iberian Peninsula: Roncal Valley (Navarre) and Riverbanks of Douro. Through these pages the dissertation will focus attention on the point of the concept of boundary and its anthropological reality. By this way, will be analyzed social and ethno historic concepts of border culture, frontier and peripherals territories. Similarly, it will set out a comparative perspective of the identity and the phenomenology of border landscape as growth factors.