Living Next to the Bodies of the Dead: Sense of Ancestry Through Dark Heritage in Quillagua, Atacama Desert, Chile

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between heritage and ancestry. It aims to understand the manner in which human remains from different periods and cultures become relevant symbols for a community. The territory of Quillagua was studied, an oasis of the Loa River in the Atacama Desert, combining ethnographic, cartographic, and historiographic techniques. Two relevant findings can be pointed out. First, sense of ancestry plays an essential role in heritage formation, even more so than sense of place and sense of belonging. Second, sense of ancestry is not homogenous; rather, it is diverse and contradictory because it is constructed through clashes from interests such as economic and scientific interests, memories of difficult and violent pasts, failures in intercultural recognition, and environmental sacrifice policies with negative social consequences. Despite its contradictory nature, the concept of sense of ancestry can be understood as a heritage emotion that causes affirmation and empowerment, especially for those rural Mestizo and Indigenous communities whose cultural and territorial rights have been violated.