On choosing sides: ethical anthropology and inter-indigenous conflict in Alto Beni, Bolivia

Ethnographic fieldwork necessarily involves making choices about which communities to work with, sympathize with, and support. This article explores the moral or ethical frameworks through which anthropologists make those choices. While in some cases the moral, ethical, and political grounds on which to make those decisions may be clear, in many they are not. I focus on the Alto Beni region of Bolivia, in which two groups that could reasonably be described as indigenous are engaged in a conflict over access to land. Both positions could be framed in terms of a reparation for historical injustice against indigenous people, though each framing depends on a different conception of indigeneity. The ambiguity produced in this context exposes the subjective nature of the process by which anthropologists choose the communities with whom they work. I conclude by suggesting that anthropologists make these choices based on emotional, affective, or aesthetic grounds.