BECOMING MANTA: ARCHAEOLOGY, PLACE, AND MEANINGS OF INDIGENEITY

Abstract

This article examines the recent representations of Manta identity in rural coastal Ecuador as a process of secondary ethnogenesis. It emphasizes the role that archaeology has played in its emergence and analyzes how a place-based notion of identity forms. The residents of Pueblo Manta communities draw conceptual links between the archaeological record and their knowledge of the region’s prehistory as these relate to personal experiences to conceptualize their identity. They exemplify how local identity is interpreted and reinterpreted both for the individual and the collective.