Mining Ways of Life in the Southern Andes: Historical Anthropological Archaeology in Mendoza (Argentina)

SIRONI, OSVALDO

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2019 vol. 23 p. 153 - 171

1092-7697

This paper presents an analysis of archaeological materials found at themining sites Minas Paramillos Sur and Mina La Atala, located in theParamillos de Uspallata and Divisadero Largo?s reserve. The goals of thisresearch are to document consumption patterns of the mining proletariat andto make comparative intra- and inter-site comparisons of artifact trends.Within the framework of historical archaeology, we analyze these artifacts inthe successive stages of occupation and within sociocultural contexts markedby peripheral industrial capitalism. In order to do this, we take into accountthree central elements: the environment, socio-cultural practices (diets,techniques, and production technologies, personal care, spatial distribution,etc.), and the political-economic context. The results show that the miningpopulations of northwestern Mendoza in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies worked in precarious conditions and were socially marginalized by ahegemonic discourse of greater economic development in the province.