Conflictos y estrategias de reivindicación territorial en la comunidad diaguita Pueblo Tolombón, valle de Choromoro (Noroeste argentino)

Abstract

In this article, I analyze territorializing practices / practices of territorialization, and the assertion of a sense of belonging made by the Pueblo Tolombón community (Choromoro Valley, Tucumán, Argentina). The analysis is conducted in a context of state recognition of ethnic difference and, at the same time, of increasing conflicts in the area over the last five years. I investigate the creation of territorial markers, such as the renovation with Diaguita symbols on the façade of the Primary Health Care Centre at the Gonzalo base, and the display of material objects or materialities belonging to Diaguita ancestors in schools throughout the region. The following questions triggered this analysis: What were the motives behind the making of these territorial markers? How were they constituted? What criteria did Tolombones consider in order to select certain elements? And, what spaces were selected to make them visible? The analysis is based on interdisciplinary approaches —such as anthropology, critical geography, and archaeology— that problematize the notions of spatiality, the agency of excluded sectors, and cultural heritage. The method I used to carry out this work was ethnographic. Participant observation and interview techniques were used between 2017 and 2019. To conclude this analysis, I can affirm that through these initiatives, the Tolombones positioned themselves as political and legal subjects by reaffirming their sense of belonging and by self-determinedly managing their material culture. The community used these markers to delegitimize stigmatizing images created by the dominant sectors —state and landowners— that have portrayed them as relics of the past. The case study contributes to studies that reveal the spiritual and community meanings interwoven around territorial practices and uses of materialities that are no longer considered fossilized or commodified objects. These practices, in turn, constitute the affective, political, and grief-based foundations of the processes of territorial claims and hold the potential to exhibit other possible cartographies and temporalities. Such practices explore dynamic past-present continuities, with no divisions. Finally, this work calls on us, on the one hand, to investigate how these territorializing practices influence processes of ethnic re-emergence and, on the other, to rethink paternalistic and essentialist logics of ethno-governmental management.

Keywords

• diaguita symbolism
• interdisciplinary studies
• material culture
• pueblo tolombón
• spatiality
• territorial conflicts