Indigenous (Inter)community Reorganization and the Construction of Communal Power in the Province of Catamarca (Argentina)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the forms assumed by indigenous (inter)community territorialization, identifying existing tensions with hegemonic ways of practicing and doing politics in the territories. The goal is to reflect on politics as a way in which people take charge of managing common affairs, paying attention to the contrast between liberal politics and communal or community-based politics. The topic is approached from a qualitative methodological design based on the case of Diaguita communities from the Santa María department (Catamarca, Argentina), most of which are gathered in the Union of Peoples of the Diaguita Nation (UPND) of Catamarca, as an intercommunity organizational space. In this way, the processes of indigenous (inter)community reorganization over the past two decades and the construction of territorialities based on the exercise of community political forms are analyzed, identifying tensions and, at times, oppositions to liberal political forms and statehood.