Peña, G. D. L. (2005). Social and cultural policies toward indigenous peoples: Perspectives from Latin America. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 34, 717-739.
Throughout the twentieth century, social and cultural policies to-
ward indigenous peoples in Latin America have been closely re-
lated to indigenismo, an ideological movement that denounced the
exploitation of aboriginal groups and strove for the cultural unity
and the extension of citizenship through social integration and “ac-
culturation.” This review traces the colonial and nineteenth-century
roots of indigenismo and places it in the context of the populist ten-
dencies in most Latin American states from the 1920s to the 1970s,
which favored economic protectionism and used agrarian reform and
the provision of services as tools for governance and legitimacy. Also
examined is the role of anthropological research in its relation to
state hegemony as well as the denunciation of indigenista policies by
ethnic intellectuals and organizations. In recent decades, the disman-
tling of populist policies has given rise to a new official “neoliberal”
discourse that extols multiculturalism. However, the widespread de-
mand for multicultural policies is also seen as the outcome of the fight
by militant indigenous organizations for a new type of citizenship.