Abstract

This article examines the results of a study on the condition of women belonging to the Aymara people in a society that normalizes racism by conceiving it as a natural fact. The research was based on ethnographies, interviews, and documentary reviews conducted in and about two communities located in the commune of Colchane, Tarapacá region, with the aim of understanding how the modern colonial gender system expanded throughout the twentieth century. The findings show that the intervention of state institutions played a central role in consolidating the hegemonic regime and in the conflicts generated by its overlapping with the local gender system. They also reveal that both systems favor private property and capital, while the expansion of capitalism in the region has reshaped gender relations. These processes include the devaluation of ancestral knowledge and materialize in women’s bodies, conceived as a privileged space for the subjectivation of power. ©2025 Vivian Gavilán