Showing themselves: Indigenous people, cultural heritage promotion and community development in Northern Argentina

ABSTRACT

In this article I explore how the heritage discourse is mobilised and negotiated in the definition of subjects and criteria for the distribution of development resources in indigenous Northern Argentina. My emphasis is on the significance of heritage in the politics of recognition and policies of redistribution, as a means to legitimate cultural distinctiveness and the access to funding which promotes culture as a resource against poverty. I indicate that there is a movement among Indigenous people in the area to deploy their ethnicity not just for commercial reasons of commodification but also as a new emphasis on their own heritage. A key factor in these processes is Indigenous peoples’ interaction with governmental and non-governmental institutions, other actors and each other. In connection with this, I introduce the concept of ‘self showing’ among Indigenous groups and also consider the diverse attitudes towards these new practices related to heritage discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous people – culture and development - politics of recognition - interethnic relationships

Acknowledgments

The analysis presented in this article is based on the content and discussions developed at the “On Common Grounds? Researching Public Engagements of Museums and Heritage Sites” workshop, organized by the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH). I appreciate the contributions by all participants in the workshop and the valuable exchanges shared. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their very detailed and valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. For example, Brazil: see Grünewald (2003); Lustosa and Almeida (2012); Guatemala: see Little (2008); Lyon (2013); Colombia: see Chaves, Montenegro, and Zambrano (2010), Meza (2014), Guilland and Ojeda (2013); Ecuador: see Ruiz Ballesteros and Hernández Ramírez 2010, Carpentier (2014); Mexico: see Castañeda (2009), Coronado (2014), Zuñiga Bravo (2013), Hernández López and Hernández López (2010); Peru: see Kania (2017), Pérez Galán (2003), Perche (2012); Chile: see De la Maza (2017); Bustos Zúñiga (2011)

2. The names have been changed in order to preserve the anonymity of those who participated in the research.

3. As Schofield points out, the role of heritage expert management is reassesed nowadays ‘in a world in which everyone has their own heritage, which they attach particular values and their own views of heritage’ (Schofield 2014, 7).

4. According to Sassen, multiscalar dynamics ‘points to conditions that cannot be organized as a hierarchy, let alone a nested hierarchy’. They operate ‘across scales and not, as is so often said, merely scaling upward because new communication capabilities’ (Sassen 2007, 7)

5. It should be noted that a large proportion of social welfare plans are granted in exchange for work. However, it is usually understood that such obligations are not actually fulfilled in practice.

6. This refers, in particular, to the conflicts triggered by the privatisation of the national hydrocarbons company known as Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales in the 1990s, within the framework of the implementation of neoliberal policies in Argentina, which led to high unemployment rates.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET).

Notes on contributors

Cecilia Benedetti

Dr. Cecilia Benedetti is a Researcher at the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and an Assistant Professor of the Anthropological Sciences Department at the School of Philosophy and Arts, University of Buenos Aires. Her research is based on the exploration of identity processes and inter-ethnic relationships under the multicultural policies in Argentina. Her interests focus on the fields of heritage, indigenous peoples, culture and development, as well as indigenous policies.