Constructing the French state in Guiana: The challenge of the Amerindian peoples’ mobility

The question of the mobility of the Amerindians of French Guiana—a fundamental aspect of their traditional way of life—is inseparable from the question of their rights over the land they occupy. Although it allows these populations to avoid intra- and inter-community conflicts, this mobility can also be a source of conflict itself when space and natural resources are less readily available and the need to arbitrate the use of space among Amerindians, nonnative populations, elected officials, and the decentralized services of the state has been placed on the national political agenda. The present article examines the ways the French state compromises with native communities as well as the ways the rights granted to these communities affect their practices of occupying space. More generally, it seeks to show how the political administration of Amerindian mobility becomes an increasingly sensitive issue as the state’s reach extends to formerly peripheral spaces (where communities had been left some leeway) and its inclination to organize them grows.