From Wak’a to Heritage: Between Andean Imaginaries and the Construction of Territoriality in the Quebrada de Humahuaca in 21st Century (Jujuy, Argentine) Abst

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of patrimonialization and touristification processes in Quebrada de Humahuaca through the case of Purmamarca and the emergence of the Indigenous Communities of Coquena and Chalala. Using a participatory methodological approach, it explores how alternative territorialities are constructed in response to the development model promoted in the region. Faced with a process of population displacement, landscape degradation, and the devaluation of traditional ways of life and land use, this study reconstructs the strategies developed by these communities to claim and sustain their right to inhabit. It examines the role of ancestrality in these disputes, not as a direct reference to the past, but as the articulation of memories and relationships with Andean spatiality. The paper shows how, by re-signifying space and meaning, the communities devised a collective strategy in response to processes of deterritorialization and precarization.