From the “industry of piquete” to the “green paradise”. Tourism and indigenous people in a municipality of the north of Argentina

Abstract

The tourism has acquired importance in latin-american public policies oriented to indigenous in the last decades. It is proposed as a tool to the development of indigenous people, also articulated with multiculturalism discourses. Since the contributions of the anthropology of the state and public policies, I analyze how tourism is experimented and recreated in it circulation through the institutional levels. This work is based on an anthropological research in a municipality of argentine Chaco Salteño, from a qualitative approach that includes observation-participation, interviews and other sources. I consider the tourism plan promoted by the province secretary, focalizing in the references to the visibilization ways of indigenous people and the relevance of municipalities. Then I approach to the discourses and practices of municipal administration.