Doing ceremonies in the “cement city”. Putting neo-extractivism under tension from the voices and practices of indigenous women

Abstract

On the imaginary level, Olavarría (Buenos Aires, Argentina) is recognized as the “city of cement” due to its strong mining and migrant imprint (especially European), issues that have favored the denial and invisibility of the original populations in the historical narrative. In this work, are analized those practices and discourses of local Mapuche women that are realted with the defense of the territory in cultural and ontological terms against the advance of neo-extractivism from an anthropological perspective. The recovered experiences are displayed in the public space and aim to make visible the indigenous presence in the study area and put this model of socio-territorial development under tension. These scenes have been recorded through participant observations, open and semi-structured interviews with the actors present, local media registration. This article analyzes the place that these interventions occupy in the process of establishing themselves as indigenous women in an urban context and in their assessment as part of their personal, family and/or community agendas. The main results show a growing degree of visibility and systematicity of these practices, as well as the construction of networks with local institutions and organizations. In short, all of this would allow us to affirm that organizational and identity processes of an ethnopolitical nature are taking place in the study area that call into question the local hegemonic imaginary and propose possible lines of transformation.