Mining and the living materiality of mountains in Andean societies

Bibliographic Data

ID2391103
AuthorsGuillermo Salas Carreño (0000-0003-4770-4550, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume22
Issue2
Pages133-150
Publication date2017-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183516679439
OpenAlexW2558297649
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited55

This article explores indigenous Andean perspectives on the relationship between mining and mountains. It briefly elaborates on how, in Andean worlds, mountains are intentional agents that are crucial members of society. Paying central attention to the materiality of these beings, the article compares the different social logics at play in, on the one hand, contexts of underground mining and, on the other, those of the recent open-pit mines. Using ethnographic data from Cuzco and Ancash (Peru) as well as previous ethnographies of mining practices in Bolivia and Peru, the article analyses how underground mining involved indigenous workers and practices that engaged the mined earth-beings. In contrast, in recent open-pit mines, there are very few workers from the surrounding communities, and indigenous practices engaging earth-beings became invisible. Underground mining is assumed to damage and threaten the fertility of the mined earth-beings but it is not seen as endangering their existence. In contrast, recent open-pit mines are only made possible by destroying earth-beings and extracting metal from their corpses

Materiality · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Mining and Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure