20185002(en)/12 - Other Ends of the Worlds. Seca and Drought in Conflict

As recently highlighted by Danowski and Viveiros de Castro (2014), global climate change is feared in the modern West as the largest and most certain threat to the world. To open possibilities of reflection in the face of this current context, it is necessary to attend to other “ends of the world” that anthropology is able to bring to the discussion. “Collapse” and “climate change” are not new topics in archaeological debates. We seek to explore possible intersections between archaeology and ethnography from our particular research. Our reflection is based on the archaeological studies, using paleoenvironmental data, of the “end of the Aguada occupation” in the Ambato Valley (Catamarca, Argentina) and on an ethnographic study among current residents of the area. We will take from the ethnographic study the native notion of “seca”, understood as a state of constant reduction of the intensities of diverse spheres of local life, and its implications for archaeology.