Connecting past and present: the historical anthropology of the small-scaled minning production in Porco, Bolivia
Andeanist archaeologists have the opportunity to participate in the development of an historical anthropology (Lightfoot 1995) in which archaeological research on the post-conquest era connects the prehispanic past with the present. This essay seeks to contribute to this type of archeology by examin...
| Autor Principal: | Van Buren, Mary |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Idioma: | spa |
| Publicado: |
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: |
http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/article/view/18665/18916 |
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| Sumario: |
Andeanist archaeologists have the opportunity to participate in the development of an historical anthropology (Lightfoot 1995) in which archaeological research on the post-conquest era connects the prehispanic past with the present. This essay seeks to contribute to this type of archeology by examining data produced by the Archaeological Project Porco - Potosí in investigating Porco, a mining center in Bolivia, 35 km southwest of Potosi, whose main objective is to investigate the organization of silver production under the different political and economic systems that have characterized the region. Mining has been important in Porco since the Inka era, when it provided silver to adorn the Koricancha in Cusco. It continues today in the form of zinc mining carried out by an international company, Sinchi Wayra, and several local cooperatives. The archaeological record in Porco can thus inform us of continuities and changes in mining activities over the past 500 years. In addition to the Spanish conquest, another important historical rupture in Porco’s mining industry occurred in the late nineteenth century, when tin and zinc mining funded by foreign enterprises replaced the former system of silver extraction by forced labor. Despite fundamental differences between the two forms of production, archaeological survey and excavations carried out by the project indicate that both systems were characterized by k’aqcheo – the “theft” of high quality ore - associated with small-scale silver production using technology such as the native huayrachina. In contrast to mining in the United States and other wealthy countries, the ongoing process of development in Bolivia in the mining sector is not a unilinear march towards “modern” industry, but a series of complicated interactions between companies and miners involving both competition and interdependence. |
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