Sulphur Mining in Northern Chile (20th Century): Ghostly Landscapes, Temporal Movement, and the Rhetoric of Nostalgia

Summary

This communication presents an interdisciplinary research project that is carried out in the indigenous community of Ollagüe, in northern Chile. The temporal movement of the industrial materiality associated with the sulphur mining history of the village during the 20th century allows us to ask: could industrial ruins and their materiality engender memory spaces intertwined with the local indigenous community’s contemporary preoccupations? By considering different forms of time representations, we seek to understand the role of industrial materiality and the processes through which memory structures are shaped. Focusing on the peculiarities of Chile’s modernization and capitalist expansion, we approach industrial materiality in terms of continuity, fragmentation, and ruptures. Patrimonial policies are used as active elements in the reconstruction of memories, of local identities, and in ethnic vindication discourses. An archaeological approach brings to light this temporal fragmentation, generating political commitments towards the recent past, its material culture and its industrial spaces.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Post-industrial Landscapes, Communities, and Heritage   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 495