Participatory Mapping and Archaeology as tools for Local Indigenous Empowerment in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jujuy, Argentina.

ALVAREZ LARRAIN, ALINA; SPADONI, GUSTAVO NAHUEL; OTERO, CLARISA

Participatory Mapping and PPGIS: Research futures, Potentials and Promises.

Edward Elgar Publishing

Lugar: Regency town of Cheltenham and Camberley; Año: 2023; p. 1 - 248

Archaeologists and local or Indigenous communities have a long history of collaboration in their efforts to understand and represent historical, as well as contemporary, landscapes. This collaborative effort has taken various forms throughout the evolution of the discipline with a diversity of encounters and partnerships. These collaborations extend back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ethnographic explorations when anthropologists relied on indigenous oral history as a basis for compendia of native place names, geographical information, and archaeological interpretation (Boas 1964 [1888], Goddard 1939; Harrington 1916). More recent “public”, “community”, and “Indigenous ” archaeology cover a wide spectrum of practices, including ethnoarchaeological studies, working with key informants or local guides, employing residents as field workers, and engaging in cultural heritage management projects, among others (Binford 1978; Castaneda and Matthews 2008; Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2008; Dillehay and Saavedra 2013; Jiménez Izarraraz 2015; King et al. 2011; Murray 2011; Phillips and Allen 2010; Smith and Wobst 2005). Nonetheless, it is essential to recognize that in the majority of these collaborative works, local spatial knowledge (LSK), traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the interests and needs of the local communities exert little influence on the research objectives of academic projects.In Argentina, a country with a history marked by neglect and State violence against native communities, PM has emerged as a catalyst for the creation of new Indigenous cartography, focusing on ancestral territories (Salamanca 2012). The primary objective is to develop a practical legal tool for land claims. The PM appeared at a time when different social actors claimed cultural and archaeological heritage, which was negatively affected by modern economic activities such as mining, real estate transactions, tourism, and commercial developments. Following Argentina´s ratification of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989 (International Labour Organization 2013) which establishes the self-determination of Indigenous peoples to protect their natural and cultural resources, Indigenous peoples began to demand a different perspective from the scientific and academic groups with whom they interact. The exploitation and destruction of biocultural heritage drove communities to engage in sustained resistance against government interventions, seeking technical advice from archaeologists. To illustrate this dynamic in the next section we developed the case of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.