Resumen

VARGAS ARENAS, Iraida. Visions of the Indigenous Past and Projects for the Future in Venezuela. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2005, vol.11, n.2, pp.187-210. ISSN 20030507.

This article intends to demonstrate the way different social actors have used the past in structuring the ideologies needed for their social identification and their political projects. It also analyzes Venezuelan historiography of the nine-teenth and twentieth centuries, related to the aboriginal past together with cultural traditions, in order to demonstrate how the power displayed by the different social actors finally determines the social perception of the past. Finally, the author discusses the role the past plays in the new propositions for Latin American integration.

Palabras clave : Social Identity; Indigenous Societies; Traditional Historiography; Latin American Integration.