Connecting the Past and Present of Argentina's Indigenous People in Communitarian Museums

KORSTANJE, MARÍA ALEJANDRA

Berkeley, California

Conferencia; Conferencia inaugural ARF sobre estudios andinos; 2015

Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, y del Center for Latin American Studies.

In Argentina, discriminatory discourses have been established along the lines of being or not being 'white', even when the definition of 'whiteness' is quite a complicated matter in the light of the long history of migrations and mixings that has shaped the nation. Such logics permeate field encounters in situations marked by heritage struggles: 'We' (academics, urban dwellers, non-rural residents, etc) are categorised by 'them' as 'the white ones' as much as 'we' categorise 'them' as 'indigenous' or campesinos (peasants) (who by the way, often prefer to call themselves in many other ways such as indio, originario, comunero, no-indio, etc) depending on the fluctuating status of collaborations. These mutual classifications tend to flow along a continuum where visible markers are indicative of the level of alignment between perceived different goals (Garcia Azcarate & Korstanje 2011). We often find that archaeologists in Argentina react by disconnecting contemporary indigenous communities from this past, either through arguing for an absence of 'true' continuity, or by accepting the disavowal as part of a package of how to 'deal with' 'the present'. There is indeed a retreat from theory, but we argue that heritage needs to find alternative models or ways of thinking that can find in the fluidity of identity building an inspiration for practice, rather than a source of anxiety (Lazzari & Korstanje 2013). I will discuss some of these ideas of Past and Present as a whole lived space from the experience of the Museo Rural Comunitario (Barranca Larga, El Bolsón, Argentina) and its generative projects.