dc.description.abstract
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.
de
dc.description.abstract
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”.
en
