Yesterday I ran into this very interesting article in Sinopsis México introducing us to a new communal cell phone network developed by the Zapotec community of Telea de Castro in the Oaxaca highlands. The article immediately reminded my of a documentary aired last year by Al Jazeera called “The Internet Indians” about the Ashaninka, who in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest use the internet to protect their lands. It also reminded me of the work of Cineminga engaging in communal video production in many parts of the world. In all instances, “indigenous” populations are organizing in ways that might seem counterintuitive to many – taking on, in their own terms, ownership of the latest technological developments in order to maintain their “traditional” way of life. Yet, as these examples show, this “tradition” shouldn’t be considered strictly in folkloric and pre-modern terms.

The groups in question are complex networks of individuals, members of communities which, while grounded in specific spaces are active participants in what Arjun Appadurai called almost a quarter of a century ago “five dimensions of global cultural flow which can be termed: (a) ethnoscapes; (b) mediascapes; (c) technoscapes; (d) finanscapes; and (e) ideoscapes.” These are flows of people, ideas, technologies and capital in multiple directions. These are contested flows that are not always simply imposed by the “powerful” over the “weak”. The flows can be appropriated, transformed and turned into new and productive directions, something that Marisol de la Cadena and Orin Starn remind us in their spectacular introduction to Indigenous Experience Today.

Bringing these issues closer home, the question of a technological and communication divide, and alternative ways to overcome it, is very relevant in the United States. As a recent report on “Trends in Latino Mobile Phone Usage” by the National Hispanic Media Coalition indicates, Latinos in the United States are disproportionally cut from broadband and land telephone connections, indispensable tools for survival and progress in our society. Yet, as a response to this lack, Latinos are overrepresented among users of what NHMC calls “The Mobile Onramp”, using their mobile devices to address daily necessities and actively engage the civic sphere. One must also remember that Latinos are not the only victims of the digital/communication divide in the US. As last year’s mobilizations in Kentucky against a bill that proposed cutting basic telephone service in rural areas shows, if the profit motive is the only reason why telecommunication companies provide what is a basic necessity in modern society, rural and poor communities (as in the case of the Oaxaca highlands and the Amazon rainforest) may remain or become disconnected. Yet active citizens, when properly motivated and organized, are able to use their creative energies to elaborate solutions.

Human relations are far more complex than what simple narratives of progress may lead us to believe. Human history is a constant movement in multiple directions with often unpredictable outcomes. This is what the Oaxacan Zapotecs and Amazonian Ashaninka clearly show us. Their creative spirit and communal solidarity should also show us that we have much to learn from them, not just from that New Age perspective of turning back to ancient spiritual practices, but also in the way in which they engage and transform the latest technological developments.