News from Kitepámpani
In this post I want to summarize some information and recent news from my field site. I conduct linguistic fieldwork in the Caquinte community of Kitepámpani, which lies at the confluence of the Ageni and Yori rivers along the middle Mipaya River, a left-bank tributary of the Urubamba River in the northerly reaches of the Department of Cuzco, Peru. Around 1958, a famed Caquinte warrior named Manavirontsi (later known as Shankentini, a second name he inherited from his grandfather) died on the Tipeshihari stream, near Taini, a village in the headwaters of the Ageni within the bounds of the Reserva Comunal Machiguenga. Polygyny was common traditionally among Caquintes, and at that time Manavirontsi was married to 6 women, four Caquintes, and two Matsigenkas, a high number even for the times. Originally from the Pogeni River in the Department of Junín, Manavirontsi represents one of a first wave of Caquintes who left the Pogeni in retreat from Asháninkas. (Taatakini, Mohina, and Meshinantsi appear to be three other men of this period who did the same.) Matsigenkas, a related people, traditionally occupied the territory into which they migrated, and many men of this generation took a Matsigenka wife, or wives. Manavirontsi's four Caquinte wives were all sisters to each other, another common feature of Caquinte polygyny, and at the time of Manavirontsi's death, four of their juvenile brothers were also resident in their extended household (suggesting that their own father, Aakeni, was already deceased). After his brother-in-law's death, one of these brothers, Tooroni, made a trip to the Matsigenka community of Puerto Huallana on the Picha River, and upon his return, he, in company with the husband of his niece, a Matsigenka man from the neighboring Tsogeni River named Elías, moved his brothers, four sisters, and their children there, three river drainages to the southeast, residing in at least three different locations along the way and arriving in either 1959 or 1960 (B. Snell, personal communication via K. Swift). Manavirontsi's two Matsigenka wives remained in the Ageni region, later marrying other Matsigenka men.
The numerous children of this extended family group came of age in Puerto Huallana, and in the mid-1970s, several sons returned to what is now Kitepámpani, with the goal of founding a community with an airstrip to attract missionary-linguists from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, to which they'd been exposed in Puerto Huallana. Ken and Joy Swift arrived there in 1976. The first chief of the community, founded unofficially around 1975, was Luis Salazar Vega, one of Manavirontsi's former brothers-in-law, followed by José Sergio Arévalo and Lucas Sergio Salazar, two of Manavirontsi's sons, half-brothers to each other. Over the coming period, various other Caquinte families that were resident in the Ageni and Yori headwaters, as well as in the Pogeni headwaters, were encouraged to settle in Kitepámpani. Many did, but many also refused, in many cases due to previous tensions between extended family groups who had subsequently chosen not to reside near one another. Since the mid-1970s, the population of Kitepámpani has wholly changed, and currently only one adult resident grew up there in the 1970s.
As of August 2016 Kitepámpani is home to just over 95 residents (the children of one married couple have yet to be counted), only 36 of which are 18 years of age and above. The high population of youths is even greater during the academic year, when the community is host to a number of individuals permanently resident in Taini who come for access to the primary school, Institución Educativa #64750, directed by native Caquinte speaker Miguel Sergio Salazar. Recently, discussions of who is more and who is less Caquinte have become more frequent, given increased intermarriage with Matsigenkas and Asháninkas, as well as the influence of organizations like the Ministry of Education, which officialized a Caquinte alphabet in September 2013. Although such discussions are probably ultimately not a positive force in community dynamics, it is interesting to note that 48/95 residents are 100% Caquinte (i.e., possessing four Caquinte grandparents with no known non-Caquinte great-grandparents), 18 are 75% Caquinte (i.e., one non-Caquinte grandparent), 12 are 50% Caquinte, 8 are 25% Caquinte, and the remainder are some other fraction, all lower fractions with one exception. Strikingly, all living and deceased Caquintes in my genealogical database, which, although far from exhaustive, includes ~350 individuals resident in multiple villages, are descendant from only 16 known ancestors (i.e., who cannot presently be related to each other), the names of 3 of whom are unknown. This suggests a significant population bottleneck around the turn of the twentieth century, likely due to heavy raids from Asháninkas and Yines, often on behalf of mestizo patrones and slave traders.
Over the last decade or so, Kitepámpani has established a long-term relationship with the Spanish oil and natural gas corporation Repsol. Currently, Repsol has commenced a major natural gas project in Lot 57 in the neighboring Huitiricaya River basin. As presently designed, the project consists of 3 wells known as Kinteroni, Sagari AX, and Sagari BX. The first has already been constructed and is already producing. The latter two wells, technically within the bounds of Porotobango (see below), have alreay been built, but the flow line connecting them to Repsol's base in Nuevo Mundo, a Matsigenka village on the Urubamba River, has yet to be built. Approximately 12KM of this flow line will run through the territory of Porotobango, a largely Matsigenka community on the other side of the Huitiricaya River from Kitepámpani; 6KM will run through the northern portion of Kitepámpani; and 0.5KM will run through Nuevo Mundo. Since July 2015 the project has been redesigned to avoid the construction of a waste water pipe overland between the Huitiricaya and Yori rivers, which would have entered Kitepámpani territory and dumped contaminated water into the Yori river, one of the two main drainages that surrounds the village. (The new design will reinject this water treated into the ground in Porotobango, certainly not without its own risks.) However, before the project was redesigned, a company subcontracted by Repsol cleared a trail between the two drainages for the construction of the pipeline, for which Kitepámpani as a whole was compensated S/.600,000.00 (some $190,000) in August 2015.
This year, Kitepámpani residents have been involved in a series of informational meetings with community relations representatives from Repsol, as Repsol is gearing up for construction of the abovedescribed flow line. These meetings have taken place on June 27, July 14-15, and July 26-27, 2016. By Peruvian law, titled indigenous communities do not hold rights to subsoil natural resources, so Repsol is not required to compensate them for the actual natural gas extracted. However, Peruvian law does require compensation for damage to natural resources at the soil level and above, for which, among other things, Repsol developed and submitted a required Environmental Impact Report (EIA in Spanish), part of which includes a monetary calculation of the amount of expected environmental damage. The construction of the flow line will, in addition to the pipeline itself, involve the construction of a 25M-wide access road, which involves temporarily diverting and building over numerous streams that are popular hunting and gathering grounds for Caquintes. Repsol's subcontractor has calcualted the total damage to flora and fauna (and concomitant disruption, e.g., in the form of significant noise that scares away game) at S/.141,000.00 (less than $50,000). At this initial phase, Repsol, knowing Kitepámpani's successful bargaining history, has come to the table proposing a compensation of S/.200,000.00. Kitepámpani, in contrast, is demanding S/.20,000,000.00 (some $6,500,000)! In addition to leading to significant tensions with Repsol, this amount has also sown conflict among Caquintes, not all of whom are in support of this figure. An initial negotiations meeting took place on August 12, 2016, and another is scheduled for August 31, at which I will also be present, now as the designate who offically takes meeting minutes in the community ledger that is later signed by Repsol representatives and adult community residents.
Repsol currently wishes to begin construction of the flow line in the beginning of 2017, designed for one year. Subsequent to that, the wells are projected to produce for 18 years, and if construction is completed, Kitepámpani residents will begin another process of negotiations to settle on an annual compensation for the right of way to move goods through their territory (i.e., through the flow line and on the road). Repsol is committed to 18 years of compensation, and their representatives say they are also committed to renogiating additional compensation should the wells produce beyond 18 years. Actual production will proceed only approximately 20 days per month, given total monthly processing loads at the PlusPetrol (an Argentine corporation) base at Malvinas (upriver on the Urubamba), which Repsol must use. Repsol must also fulfill certain amounts of so-called 'social investment', which may take the form of goods and materials provided to community residents (e.g., foodstuffs, generators, boat motors, corrugated metal, mattresses, rebar, cement, etc.), healthcare (of a sort), educational support, economic development programs (e.g., cacao production), etc. This investment requires a number of specific programs to be developed by Repsol and proposed by community residents, but it is not always feasible for the latter group to be familiar with the range of possible programs and forms of support, with the sideffect that they often remain at the whim of Repsol's designs and implementations. As it is, Repsol has already built 8 cement and/or hardwood homes in the community (as a form of compensation in 2010), and annually airlifts in a number of other supplies and materials. The result is already an economic model of dependence by which Caquintes increasingly rely upon Repsol not only for the direct contribution of very expensive materials to which they are becoming accustomed and which they expect, but also for the cash (in the form of compensation payouts) that they use to carry out many other activities and purchases in their daily lives. Personal desires and also language barriers still largely prohibit the large-scale exodus of Caquintes in search of wage-based work elsewhere, which on the one hand is good for Caquinte integration as a whole (not to mention the vitality of the language!), but which on the other does not bode well for a possible future in which Repsol is absent. It is still quite possible that Repsol's flow line will *not* be built within Kitepámpani, in which case the community will cease to receive any support -- that is also not good in its present form.
In other brief news, on June 30, 2015, 800 square meters of land was donated by the community for the construction of a pre-school, although that project has stalled. On August 18, 2015, a boundary dispute between Kitepámpani and Nuevo Mundo was settled, with the installation of new markers on the Mipaya and Huitiricaya rivers. And as of later this month the village's new community center will be inaugurated, an overdue project of some 3 years (stalled around the New Year with a S/.527,000.00 shortage of funds) executed by the Municipality of Echarate. As of July 28, 2016, Echarate has been carved into two new municipalities, one still Echarate with seat in Ivochote, the other, reaching from Timpía to Miaría on the Urubamba, named Megantoni (with seat in Camisea), largely encompassing all of traditional Matsigenka territory on the lower Urubamba River. I have heard that two thirds of Echarate's annual budget will be transferred to Megantoni, and Megantoni will fully encompass the PlusPetrol and Repsol oil and natural gas concessions in the region, which will almost certainly result in Echarate being left quite poor and Megantoni becoming quite wealthy in comparison. In brighter news, general health in Kitepámpani is quite good. There was one death in the village in early June 2016 (a young woman resident in Taini whose parents reside in Kitepámpani), but three babies have been born since left in August 2015, and at least two more will be be born later this year.
The numerous children of this extended family group came of age in Puerto Huallana, and in the mid-1970s, several sons returned to what is now Kitepámpani, with the goal of founding a community with an airstrip to attract missionary-linguists from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, to which they'd been exposed in Puerto Huallana. Ken and Joy Swift arrived there in 1976. The first chief of the community, founded unofficially around 1975, was Luis Salazar Vega, one of Manavirontsi's former brothers-in-law, followed by José Sergio Arévalo and Lucas Sergio Salazar, two of Manavirontsi's sons, half-brothers to each other. Over the coming period, various other Caquinte families that were resident in the Ageni and Yori headwaters, as well as in the Pogeni headwaters, were encouraged to settle in Kitepámpani. Many did, but many also refused, in many cases due to previous tensions between extended family groups who had subsequently chosen not to reside near one another. Since the mid-1970s, the population of Kitepámpani has wholly changed, and currently only one adult resident grew up there in the 1970s.
As of August 2016 Kitepámpani is home to just over 95 residents (the children of one married couple have yet to be counted), only 36 of which are 18 years of age and above. The high population of youths is even greater during the academic year, when the community is host to a number of individuals permanently resident in Taini who come for access to the primary school, Institución Educativa #64750, directed by native Caquinte speaker Miguel Sergio Salazar. Recently, discussions of who is more and who is less Caquinte have become more frequent, given increased intermarriage with Matsigenkas and Asháninkas, as well as the influence of organizations like the Ministry of Education, which officialized a Caquinte alphabet in September 2013. Although such discussions are probably ultimately not a positive force in community dynamics, it is interesting to note that 48/95 residents are 100% Caquinte (i.e., possessing four Caquinte grandparents with no known non-Caquinte great-grandparents), 18 are 75% Caquinte (i.e., one non-Caquinte grandparent), 12 are 50% Caquinte, 8 are 25% Caquinte, and the remainder are some other fraction, all lower fractions with one exception. Strikingly, all living and deceased Caquintes in my genealogical database, which, although far from exhaustive, includes ~350 individuals resident in multiple villages, are descendant from only 16 known ancestors (i.e., who cannot presently be related to each other), the names of 3 of whom are unknown. This suggests a significant population bottleneck around the turn of the twentieth century, likely due to heavy raids from Asháninkas and Yines, often on behalf of mestizo patrones and slave traders.
 |
| New "Salón Comunal" Kitepámpani, July 2016 |
 |
| Informational Meeting with Repsol Kitepámpani, June 27, 2016 |
This year, Kitepámpani residents have been involved in a series of informational meetings with community relations representatives from Repsol, as Repsol is gearing up for construction of the abovedescribed flow line. These meetings have taken place on June 27, July 14-15, and July 26-27, 2016. By Peruvian law, titled indigenous communities do not hold rights to subsoil natural resources, so Repsol is not required to compensate them for the actual natural gas extracted. However, Peruvian law does require compensation for damage to natural resources at the soil level and above, for which, among other things, Repsol developed and submitted a required Environmental Impact Report (EIA in Spanish), part of which includes a monetary calculation of the amount of expected environmental damage. The construction of the flow line will, in addition to the pipeline itself, involve the construction of a 25M-wide access road, which involves temporarily diverting and building over numerous streams that are popular hunting and gathering grounds for Caquintes. Repsol's subcontractor has calcualted the total damage to flora and fauna (and concomitant disruption, e.g., in the form of significant noise that scares away game) at S/.141,000.00 (less than $50,000). At this initial phase, Repsol, knowing Kitepámpani's successful bargaining history, has come to the table proposing a compensation of S/.200,000.00. Kitepámpani, in contrast, is demanding S/.20,000,000.00 (some $6,500,000)! In addition to leading to significant tensions with Repsol, this amount has also sown conflict among Caquintes, not all of whom are in support of this figure. An initial negotiations meeting took place on August 12, 2016, and another is scheduled for August 31, at which I will also be present, now as the designate who offically takes meeting minutes in the community ledger that is later signed by Repsol representatives and adult community residents.
Repsol currently wishes to begin construction of the flow line in the beginning of 2017, designed for one year. Subsequent to that, the wells are projected to produce for 18 years, and if construction is completed, Kitepámpani residents will begin another process of negotiations to settle on an annual compensation for the right of way to move goods through their territory (i.e., through the flow line and on the road). Repsol is committed to 18 years of compensation, and their representatives say they are also committed to renogiating additional compensation should the wells produce beyond 18 years. Actual production will proceed only approximately 20 days per month, given total monthly processing loads at the PlusPetrol (an Argentine corporation) base at Malvinas (upriver on the Urubamba), which Repsol must use. Repsol must also fulfill certain amounts of so-called 'social investment', which may take the form of goods and materials provided to community residents (e.g., foodstuffs, generators, boat motors, corrugated metal, mattresses, rebar, cement, etc.), healthcare (of a sort), educational support, economic development programs (e.g., cacao production), etc. This investment requires a number of specific programs to be developed by Repsol and proposed by community residents, but it is not always feasible for the latter group to be familiar with the range of possible programs and forms of support, with the sideffect that they often remain at the whim of Repsol's designs and implementations. As it is, Repsol has already built 8 cement and/or hardwood homes in the community (as a form of compensation in 2010), and annually airlifts in a number of other supplies and materials. The result is already an economic model of dependence by which Caquintes increasingly rely upon Repsol not only for the direct contribution of very expensive materials to which they are becoming accustomed and which they expect, but also for the cash (in the form of compensation payouts) that they use to carry out many other activities and purchases in their daily lives. Personal desires and also language barriers still largely prohibit the large-scale exodus of Caquintes in search of wage-based work elsewhere, which on the one hand is good for Caquinte integration as a whole (not to mention the vitality of the language!), but which on the other does not bode well for a possible future in which Repsol is absent. It is still quite possible that Repsol's flow line will *not* be built within Kitepámpani, in which case the community will cease to receive any support -- that is also not good in its present form.
In other brief news, on June 30, 2015, 800 square meters of land was donated by the community for the construction of a pre-school, although that project has stalled. On August 18, 2015, a boundary dispute between Kitepámpani and Nuevo Mundo was settled, with the installation of new markers on the Mipaya and Huitiricaya rivers. And as of later this month the village's new community center will be inaugurated, an overdue project of some 3 years (stalled around the New Year with a S/.527,000.00 shortage of funds) executed by the Municipality of Echarate. As of July 28, 2016, Echarate has been carved into two new municipalities, one still Echarate with seat in Ivochote, the other, reaching from Timpía to Miaría on the Urubamba, named Megantoni (with seat in Camisea), largely encompassing all of traditional Matsigenka territory on the lower Urubamba River. I have heard that two thirds of Echarate's annual budget will be transferred to Megantoni, and Megantoni will fully encompass the PlusPetrol and Repsol oil and natural gas concessions in the region, which will almost certainly result in Echarate being left quite poor and Megantoni becoming quite wealthy in comparison. In brighter news, general health in Kitepámpani is quite good. There was one death in the village in early June 2016 (a young woman resident in Taini whose parents reside in Kitepámpani), but three babies have been born since left in August 2015, and at least two more will be be born later this year.
Comments
Post a Comment