WHITE CANNIBALS - FANTASIES OF RACIAL VIOLENCE IN THE ANDES

This paper challenges the commonly-held view that race is relatively u nimportant in the Andes, as elsewhere in Latin America. The terrifying white man known as the nakaq, a ubiquitous figure in Andean folklore, points to the constant presence of racial fear and hatred within rura l indigenous societies, as well as in urban zones. Analysis of the nak aq as an indigenous representation of racial violence does not displac e class and nation, gender and sexuality as foci of inquiry, but rathe r reveals the articulation of all of these within race itself. Further , the frequent identification of anthropologists as nakaqs speaks to s pecific anthropological practices that reinforce the destructive relat ionship between Indian and white, despite ethnography's potential as a n anti-racist discourse.