Indigenous Archives in White Argentina

ESCOLAR, DIEGO

Florianópolis

Congreso; XVIII International Union of Anthropological and Etnological Sciences, World Congress. PlenarioTacking back ancestral territories. Indigenous agency and the reframing of traditions and identities; 2018

International Union of Anthropological and Etnological Sciences, World Congress/Universidade Federal de Florianópolis

The narrative of a "white" Argentina entailed anethnogeographic imaginary by which the territories of the former Spanishcolonies were inhabited since the nineteenth century by gauchos or eventuallypeasants. The population classified as indigenous, in this view, was projectedoutside the central areas controlled by the nation-state, beyond the frontiersof the Pampas, Patagonia, and the Chaco. Based on documents preserved by inhabitants of the travesía, or thedesert, in the central Cuyo region, this analysis stresses the continuity ofindigenous claims and the political strategies of the communities of thecountryside during the eighteenth, nineteenth and even twentieeth century. Thisanalysis shows the primary importance of indigenous claims in an area oftraditional rebellion and civil conflict, and the active participation of itsinhabitants in the construction of the state.