Mechanisms of Socio-political Insertion in Curiepe, Miranda State, Venezuela

Abstract

Considering the socio-political changes initiated in Venezuela since 1999, we ask if all Afro-Venezuelans make use of the legal, social and political spaces derived from the constitution, in order to be included in the national project as a culturally distinct sector of society. The achievements of the Afro-Venezuelan social movement are favorable, but cannot be generalized as a massive response of the Afro-Venezuelan cultural awareness. However, we can analyze local contexts to account for historical processes of sociopolitical inclusion of these communities. This paper analyzes from an anthropological interpretative perspective the case of the population of Curiepe, Miranda State in Venezuela. We conclude that their current socio-political actions derive from cultural mechanisms created since the eighteenth century, based on their project of freedom and on their identity as a “free black” settlement. The validity of these mechanisms is structurally expressed in their sense of “cultural autonomy,” especially in the religious sphere.