Subalterns landscapes

Memory, knowledges and practices in the configuration of the community-constructed coastal towns of the coastline of Caldera and Chañaral. region of Atacama, Chile

Abstract

Beaches founded outside of the territorial guidelines of the State of Chile have been surfacing in the last decades in the coastal towns of Caldera and Chañaral, in the region of Atacama. The complex evolution of this process reveals minor phenomena that influence in the production of the territory and landscape. In order to learn and explain the socio-cultural, political and economic logics that underlie this phenomenon, an ethnography research was conducted. This ethnography research delves into the memory, knowledge and practices of the population of these community-constructed coastal towns and the influence of these dimensions in the processes of production of both territory and coastal areas. From the analysis of the gathered data it is concluded that these beaches constitute a chronotopia within the regional territory: born from logics of definition, occupation and land use that originated in the cultural horizon of other times and have been updated by the local population in order to allow the access to the coastal area and guarantee their right to rest.