Travels, Cultural Brokers and Territorial Negotiations over Time. Amaicha del Valle (Tucumán, Argentina), 19-21th Centuries

Abstract

Throughout the history of the Indigenous Community of Amaicha del Valle some authorities travelled to different places in order to represent the group for several reasons, the most important being «to secure the land». The voyages these leaders made not only marked and transformed them individually but also, and for several reasons, left their mark on the development of the community. From this framework, and through developing an interdisciplinary and long term analysis, the goal of this work is to rethink the travel experience as part of a repertoire of strategies aimed at the socio-ethnic reproduction of the community. For this purpose, we analyze the trips made by four community leaders in different historical contexts: the decades of 1800s, 1870s, 1990s and 2000s. Without neglecting the particularities of each moment, people and travels, we focus on those aspects that allow us to draw similarities between travelers and their trips along the temporal range of study. We consider the characteristics and trajectories of the ethnic leaders, the impact that their voyages had in terms of legitimacy and the personal construction of power, as well as the material and symbolic resources they searched for and obtained from those trips, both at community and individual level.