Abstract

While much has been written on indigenous policy in Bolivia and Ecuador, the indigenous presence in the Argentine experience has been largely overlooked, perhaps because of the strong state-led homogenizing tradition that has obscured the country's multiethnic character. A study of state formation and indigenous policy in northwestern Argentina focused on the Programa Social Agropecuario, launched during the 1990s, and its replacement, the Secretaria de Agricultura Familiar, established in 2006 under a new political model, shows an opening up of opportunities for indigenous organizations. At the same time, a private sector with excessive power persists. Strategies targeting the indigenous as a group have been useful for reversing the devastating effects of 1990s neoliberalism, but the formal incorporation of indigenous people into the state's structure risks the loss of their political and historical particularities.