Confín geográfico, refugio indígena, pueblo de indios y etnogénesis en el Huasco Alto, (Chile)

Abstract

The present work raises the direct relation that exists between ethnogenesis and geographic territory, conserved by the original habitants in the north of Chile. Ethnogenesis corresponds to the surprise appearance of an identity considered until then as disappeared, being at present a variant of the processes related to the ethnic identities. It goes on to discuss the correspondence between the ancient indigenous people of the colony and the process of the emergence of contemporary diaguita identity, considering that they are the last indigenous people that have been recognized by the State of Chile. For this we analyze the cradle of contemporary diaguita identity: Huasco Alto. Itis argued that the conditions that favored this ethnogenetic process among the Huascoaltinos was that their territory, which was constituted in view of the Hispanic as a geographic border and an indigenous refuge during the colonial period, marked a border with Spanish, space in whichits original habitants managed to maintain control of the land and in them, their social and economic reproduction until the present.