Lo étnico se ha transformado en un reto conceptual y metodológico, la emergencia de nuevas identidades étnicas, en Latinoamérica, ha generado una revisión de la condición sociocultural de las antiguas agrupaciones culturales. El presente trabajo, tiene como propósito caracterizar la construcción de la etnicidad y los procesos etnopolíticos desplegados en la zona atacameña en el norte de Chile. Las preguntas iniciales de esta investigación surgen de la observación, por más de una década, de situaciones sociales difusas en Atacama que conspiran contra las intervenciones sociales de diversa índole. Así conceptos como atacameños, indios, aborígenes, indígenas y campesino presentan, bajo este análisis, cualidades contradictorias. El problema de esta investigación doctoral gira en torno a los procesos de reconocimiento social y jurídico de las poblaciones del desierto de Atacama, que han tendido a la homogenización en desmedro de la propia diversidad interna de estos grupos indígenas. La hipótesis de trabajo, postula la existencia de un sistema interétnico que, a través de la etnopolítica atacameña; hace posible las relaciones entre los grupos coexistentes en Atacama. Al mismo tiempo, esta misma etnopolítica atacameña se despliega como una ideología de la coerción y asimilación de la diferencia por parte de la sociedad chilena. Los objetivos de esta investigación, identifican las distintas perspectivas teóricas sobre la etnicidad, también describe procesos que dan visibilidad a grupos al interior de Atacama, para finalmente caracterizar el movimiento étnico atacameño y sus procesos etnopolíticos. En referencia a las fuentes utilizadas para el análisis, se recurrió a una metodología de investigación eminentemente cualitativa. Por medio de fuentes etnohistóricas se reconstruyeron procesos y agentes de etnización. Posteriormente, en el trabajo de campo, se recopiló etnografías de los diversos grupos de Atacama, recolectando información de líderes indígenas comunitarios, sociales y políticos. Esta etnografía fue complementada con documentos inéditos producidos por el primer y segundo congreso atacameño.
The concept of ethnicity has proven itself a conceptual and methodological challenge. The emergence of new ethnic identities puts older cultural groupings into question. It is precisely this appearance of new ethnic identities which has permitted a reevaluation of the sociocultural conditions effecting this social movement. This objective of this work is to characterize the theoretical definitions and the sociopolitical construction of ethnicity in the effort to describe the diffuse and fragmented labyrinth of the ethnic population in Atacama. The Atacamian ethnic group is located primarily in the north of Chile in the Andean region bordering Bolivia and Argentina. They live in the desert highlands, marked by the absence of rain and noted for its particular flora and fauna, housing ecosystems characteristic of the southern Andean mountain range. The intent of the present work is to explore how ethnicity is constructed. Furthermore, its purpose is to describe ethnopolitical processes in Atacama, pertaining to my own experiences of over a decade as an ethnographer in the Northern Atacama region of Chile. During the course of this research, initial questions have arisen as to a number of diffuse social situations, as well as simply in respect to random data which may contradict certain social interventions. In this vein, Atacamians, Indians, and currently indigenous denote diffuse ethnic definitions. This exploration reveals contradictory episodes between the past and present, social realities which transpire in formal terms, consist of multiple cultural processes, and make up the ethnic composition in Atacama. The initial chapters provide a preliminary sketch of the ethnic phenomenon in a global theoretical context, as well as its particularities in Latin America. Chapters five, six, and seven subsequently provide a description and analysis of the ethnopolitical situation in Atacama. Etnicity responds to a common definition containing an exclusive and segregating evocation, and frequently, an attitude of contempt. “Ethnic groups” are consistently defined as the “other.” Taking away the term “other”, one is left with a group that has been categorized and quantified by another dominant group. In this way, the term, in addition to possessing its distinct etymological connotations, is also analyzed according to certain theoretical traditions. The idea of ethnicity can be understood as either the equivalent to culture, or as a contextual relationship. In reality, both interpretations of the term respond to various interests and interpretative lenses which facilitate closer inspection of the phenomenon. Generally, in Latin America, and particularly in the Andes, a consensus exists in respect to developing a combined definition of these concepts, which have previously exhibited the tendency to elucidate social subjects in both a colonial and republican scope. Hence, we became aquainted with the idea of the “Indian” in the process of colonialization. Later, the modern idea of the “indigenous indiviudal” broke onto the scene, and finally, the idea of ethnicity was introduced in a multicultural context. Chapter one sheds light on the various theoretical paradigms regarding ethnicity. This is not simply meant to offer a non-critical view, but rather, to serve as an instrumental probe into cultural difference. Defining ethnicity as synonymous to culture leads us to question the assumption of perpetual archaic primordialism of the Atacamian indigenous, as well as preconceptions based on ideas of homogenizing constructivism. This doctoral dissertation employs the ethnicity paradigm, which is defined in terms of relationships. This definition allows for the identification of groups, such as Atacamenans, Collas, Quechuas, Bolivianos, and Runacos, in a changing, transitional and contextual setting. Defined as such, ethnic identities in Atacama do not necessarily exhibit a relationship with the dominant and exclusive cultural legacy. This perspective enables the dismantling of the epistemological operation in Atacamian ethnic identity as a closed, homogenous culture located in a fixed territorial domain. Chapter two allows us to gain access to Latin America's “difference,” in particular in the Andean region, as well as to demystify the nominative Indian, a social categorization which has made it possible for Hispanic groups to oppress the native masses on the continent. Naming the Indians and indigenous in Atacama was part of a strategy of control and social domination for the purposes of managing socal inclusion and exclusion. Neither the terms Indian nor indigenous connote any relationship to cultural groups whatsoever. They are terms which are considered by the population in Atacama as exclusionary and racist, leading to discriminatory practices. Nowadays, the Atacamians use this definition of ethnicity as an avenue to legal and social integration in the current multicultural and global context. Chapter three presents an investigative methodology. It proposes concepts and definitions that are theoretical as much as operative. These concepts are used to examine social realities inherent in ethnicity, as well as the processes of ethnicitization which took place in Atacama. In particular, they refer to experiences in rural life and its various aspects, which serve as a theoretical foundation for ethno-historical and ethnographic research in the Salar de Atacama region, located in the Andean mountain range in northern Chile. Chapter four examines the records stemming from missionary archeological expeditions from a relational perspective, providing a reassessment of how the Atacamian population was incorporated into the Chilenean national imagination, which forced the integration of these populations through a filter of national homongenization, whereby those which did not fit the prescribed norms of inclusion began to be categorized as foreigners. This led to the definition of various practices as Boliviano, Quechua, or Colla, although they exist within Chile's national boundaries, lending a heterogeneous characterization of the Atacamian identity. This represents a break from the idea of cultural unity, resulting in the formation of a variety of social groups in Atacama. We have already established that the origin of “Atacameño” is a paradox, since the emerging identity is that of a type of mixed-race or “creolized” landworker, or campesino. Although mantaining a connection to Andean cultural practices, this identity does not challenge in any way the precepts of national integration. Moreover, all shanty town dwellers in Atacama are generally defined as Atacamian Indians by neighboring Chileneans, without making any distinction among them. The formation of this social identity, which is in part campesino for the purposes of integration, and in part ethnic, for the purpose of exclusion, gives rise to two situations. The first is the emergence of a group of “rural Atacamians” in the San Pedro region in Atacama, which has obtained a certain level of political control over its neighbors in la Puna and El Loa. Secondly, this social relationship can be interpreted as a new interethnic system, resulting in the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others, such as Bolivian foreigners, Quechuas, and Collas. Chapter five provides an ethnographic summary, documenting the inception and consolidation of the ethnic Atacamian movement. From the 1970's to the '80's, this movement has aquired a dimension of socioeconomic reappropriation on the part of the isolated rural shanty dwellers. It was not until the 1990's, following the official institutional recognition by the Chilenean state, that “Atacamian” became the official name for the conglomeration of ethnic groups populating approximately twenty localities, throughout the Atacama region, now referred to as indigenous Atacamian communities. The questions and queries initiated by this investigation have a conceptual and ethnographic scope, permitting the elucidation of new social phenomena in the Atacama region. These phenomena include the emergence and formation of subjects and arenas which make up an ethnopolitical landscape of cultural differentiation. Finally, to conclude, this dissertation posits that "ethnopolitical processes in Atacama give rise to subjects and arenas which shape processes of differentiation within an inter-ethnic Atacamian system. Undoubtedly, although the complex systems of classification intended for the Atacamians have been established for the purposes of ethnopolitical hegemony, it aso carries the potential of manifesting a social movement which may gradually aquire a character of collective consciousness and unity. This consciousness of being part of a particular social group will inevitably inspire the indigenous Atacamian social movement to cultivate a non-cultural but ethnic identity”.
