From Identification Practices to Identity Cards

Discover the eighth session of the 2025–2026 Americanist Anthropology seminar: "From Identification Practices to Identity Cards: Gender Transition and Ethnicity in Bolivia".

"In 2015, Brigida presented as a young homosexual man, somewhat androgynous, and identified as mestizo. Ten years later, her Bolivian identity card identifies her as an Indigenous woman, a chola, and indicates her affiliation with the Jach'a Carangas nation. These transformations have taken place in a context shaped by the recognition of Indigenous nations, the indigenisation of Bolivian citizenship, and the adoption, in 2016, of a law allowing individuals to change their legal gender through a simple administrative declaration. Brigida's trajectory provides an opportunity to reflect on the regimes of belonging and authentication through which gender and ethnicity are jointly constructed in her life course."

• Pascale Absi – IRD, CESSMA
• Discussant: Corinne Fortier – CNRS, LAS