Weaving identities: similarity and social differentiation in Shipibo-Konibo migrants in the agro-export context of Ica, Peru

The scarcity of employment in the Peruvian Amazon and the growing demand in the agro-export sector have prompted the Shipibo-Konibo, native people of this region, to seek better job opportunities. This process entails various challenges, such as sharing spaces with migrants from different backgrounds and adapting to new ways of life, customs, and idiosyncrasies, which favors the reconfiguration and negotiation of identity. Based on Bucholtz and Hall's sociocultural linguistic proposal on the discursive construction of identity, we conducted a qualitative interpretive study using in-depth interviews with 23 members of this indigenous people, settled in the Pampas de Villacurí area in Ica, Peru, an area characterized by intense agro-export activity. Discourse analysis reveals how the relational principle, through three pairs of intersubjective tactics: adequacydistinction, authentication-denaturalization, and authorization delegitimization, reflects the dynamic and complex nature of the Shipibo-Konibo identity configuration process. Although no common identity is observed in relation to other migrant groups, ethnic differences stand out, and both positive and negative aspects are identified in the ingroup and outgroup.