Abstract

QUESADA, Marcos N.. Cartographic Discourses And Indigenous Territories In Antofalla. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2009, vol.10, n.1, pp.155-166. ISSN 1850-373X.

Cartographies are instruments of power. Critique can not remain restrained by the disciplinary limits of cartography or geography given that in many actual contexts a clear political dimension exists. In particular, reference can be made to the claims for land restitution by indigenous communities. This is the case of Antofalla community, Catamarca, which recently initiated a claim for possession of their ancestral territories. In this context, cartographies as ways of representating these territories occupy the peculiar position of acting as intermediaries in such claims. In this paper, the tensions between cartographic representation and the indigenous appropriation of land in the area of Antofalla are presented. A brief description of cartographic representations from the colonial period to the present enables a review of the changing interests that have held sway over this territory by agents external to the Puna, and will also show the way in which the conflict has been configured through time. Subsequently, the ways in which the indigenous territory is built on everyday activities and the consequent reasons for its invisibility in cartographic representations are described. Finally, the authority of the cartographic document is discussed, as well as its performative character and the possibilities of an indigenous cartography.

Keywords : Maps; Indigenous communities; Puna de Atacama; Land conflicts.

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