Abstract

Performance studies within Latin-American indigenous populations have fostered the analysis of experiences displaying no written transmission of social knowledge. In this article, we interpret the experience of health and illness as spaces used by indigenous Aymaras of Northern Chile to perform their relationship with Chilean democracy and allowing them to take a position in the construction of the intercultural health field fostered by the post-dictatorship state. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork realized in the regions of Arica and Iquique during 2010-2013, this paper discusses the practices of the Aymaras participating in the Intercultural Health programs and understands them as democratic performances: a representation of the political relation established with the state through the control of indigenous bodies and health.