Ethnicities, ethno- territories and mining conflicts: contributions for a human geography of the Aymaras in Chile

Abstract

This article analyzes the phenomenon of the Aymara ethnicity and the creation of ethno-territories in the context of mining conflicts and the indigenous neoliberal politic. The questions that guide this research are: How have the Aymara communities evolved in Northern Chile? What kind of dynamics has been established and in what territories have they been implemented? To answer these questions, the theoretical approaches about ethnicity and ethno-territory will be critically reviewed in the first place, and in the second place, there is an analysis about how ethnicities and ethno-territories take shape, as social construction and political projects, through a perspective that combines the analysis of the specialized literature, interviews, descriptive statistics analysis of secondary sources, and spatial analysis, Keywords. Author Keywords:etnicity; ethno-territorioes; Aymaras; Norte Grande