Tikuna Self-determination

Tikuna Self Determination: Religion and Colonization's effect on Same-Sex Unions

Gay life in Colombia-Ancient and Modern is both rewarding and ...

Indigenous sexualities vary greatly across the Americas, but through certain communities, we can see indigenous resistance to the erasure of their intersectional identity. These key communities include the Tikuna, Muxes, and Quariwarmi. The Tikuna are one of the largest Indigenous groups in Amazonia, which extends over Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Tikuna "lesbian" couples are fighting to reclaim their sexualities under Tikuna terms. Marriage among the Tikuna are policed according to clan identification. Unions between two people in the same clan is seen as insestuous, and only inter-clan marriages are desired. However, with the intrusion of the church came the imposition of western religious morality. The churches saw same-sex unions as sinful, making regular couples into an abnormality. One Tikuna woman said, “Our ancestors experienced people living homo-affective lives but never interpreted it as something malicious, it is religion that came to interfere with our culture trying to evangelize us.” These women are using the original Tikuna laws and customs to defend themselves from sexual discrimination brought by the evangelical religions. They claim that, “Homoaffective ties… respect the rule of nations and therefore reinforce Tikuna self-determination.” (Tikuna and Picq 2016)

 Source:

Bosia, Michael J., Sandra M. McEvoy, Momin Rahman, and Manuela L. Picq. The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics. Oxford University Press, 2020-05. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190673741-e-23.

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I'm Emily Ortiz, a freshman at Claremont McKenna College, and one of the co-founders. I'm a first-generation Mexican-American, so I have always been invested in the history of Latin America. I began to notice, however, that Latin America was often treated as a monolith, instead of the incredibly diverse and beautifully complicated countries they are. As I discovered more about myself too, I became invested in the LGBTQ+ movements, not only in the U.S., but in the various Latin American countries, as well. In the very little research I conducted, I could never find much information on pre-colonial views on sex and sexuality. Because access to information brings power, and silence on issues contributes to oppression, I believe this blog should serve as a space to learn and connect with people who are just as invested in learning more about their history.

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