Memoria y alteridades indígenas en Cachi, provincia de Salta

This thesis explores the construction of indigenous alterities in a southwestern area in the province of Salta (Cachi, Calchaquí Valley), Argentina. This area is characterized by an early process of incorporation and invisibilization of the aboriginal population (17th century), which did not prevented a reproduction of labeling practices of the subaltern sectors as “Indians” until the present. The dissertation addresses the issue of representation of aboriginality at a local level as a field of struggles between dominant and subaltern memories. I analyze data from a variety of sources: academic works, official and non official popularizing texts, interviews with state officials and land owners, statistical publications, life histories, oral narratives, myths and, ethnographic observations. The interpretation of this documentation entails the reconstruction of the various and conflicting ways in which the dominant and subaltern sectors in Cachi imagine the past of the local community and the ethnic, racial and / or class identitites therein.