The Uses of the Juridical System: Rhetoric and Violence in a Claim for Communal Lands. Amaicha Del Valle, 19 th Century

Abstract

Since the late colonial period and throughout the 19 th century, the indigenous people of the community of Amaicha del Valle led several lawsuits and deployed various strategies to defend their communal lands. The aim of this paper is to analyze, from an anthropological and historical perspective, the responses implemented by the community in the dispute with different actors (state, private, etc.). To this end, we use a series of unpublished documents from the Historic Archive of Tucumán, that refer to the conflict around the lands of Calchaqui valley. In general, we seek to characterize not only the socio-economic and ethnic dynamics experienced by the different indigenous peoples of the NOA during the 19 th century and to provide new data to the discussions focused on national and provincial state formations. We also intend to understand the phenomenon of ethnic de-characterization on which the nation was built, thus framing the current ethnic re-emergence that has recently taken place in our country.