Abstract

FERNANDEZ, Germán Darío. The accomplishment of the origin: A few reasons to become ethnic and peasant in Mendoza. Estud. filos. práct. hist. ideas [online]. 2010, vol.12, n.1, pp.23-39. ISSN 1851-9490.

Similar to affirmative action politics in North America, the University of Cuyo, in Argentina, provides scholarships and quotas since 2003 to indigenous and peasant students. The criterion of geographic and cultural origin is more important than socio-economical criterion. Thus, Huarpes indigenous young people migrate to the downtown area, where they found new social benefits and had the opportunity to experience intercultural encounters. They accomplish in downtown area their membership to three categories, indigenous, peasant and student. "Origin" is considered in this paper as a situated doing instead of considering it as the fact of "being born in". In describing students' experience, two ideas are stated. First, the origin is daily performed in front of informal tribunals, using a know how of common rules. Second, the origin is deserved according to the actor's labor and effort. In consequence, in students' experience, being ethnic or peasant is a matter of doing in concrete situations with others, rather than a fact of birth, of essence or of inheritance.

Keywords : Ethnicity; Interculturality; Migration; Performativity; Categories; Accomplishment; Know-how.

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