A modern accumulation? The intricacies of enclosure, dispossession and cultural production in Venezuela’s Gran Sabana

Abstract

In Gran Sabana (southern Venezuela), an ongoing process of enclosure is transforming property rights over lands previously treated as common pool resource by the indigenous Pemon. Members of the Pemon communities in which land is being enclosed participate actively in this process through the development of tourist projects. This process reflects a different configuration of forces than those Marx associated with ‘primitive accumulation’. It shows that dispossession can also be articulated by subjects who in principle do not appear as conventional power holders and who, furthermore, are themselves exposed to ongoing threats of dispossession. Additionally, enclosures take place amidst discursive manoeuvring that contributes to situating Gran Sabana as a centre of differential rent-capture for tourist operators and landowners. The term ‘modern accumulation’ will be used to conceptualise this form of accumulation and to discuss its applications.