This thesis is primarily based on fieldwork research conducted in Ecuador in the summer of 2010. It focuses on the experiences of resistance to large-scale mining of the Shuar nationality in the Cordillera del Cóndor, in the Southeastern provinces of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe.
The case against mining, as articulated by the Shuar, is framed in terms of past experience with extraction, as well as cultural considerations with respect natural resource management. By invoking collective rights enshrined in the 2008 Constitution, indigenous groups seek to legitimize their opposition to extractive industries.
Resistance is a process manifested legally or more forcibly, where the main objective is to ensure the preservation of cultural principles essential to the construction of indigenous identity. A closer study of Shuar resistance to large-scale mining projects in their ancestral territories is crucial to understanding indigenous opposition to this type of activities in Ecuador today.
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