We present a reconstruction, based on collections analysis, of funerary contexts from the Los Jazmines indigenous cemetery in Central Chile, which dates to the Late and early Hispanic Contact Periods. Funerary contexts show a local pre-Hispanic pattern accompanied by offerings that have both Incaic and European attributes. The site is characterized through its material culture, with an emphasis on pottery and exotic elements, especially European glass beads. We discuss the interaction between different social groups – the local population, Tawantinsuyu and Spaniard representatives, and Andean workers brought to central Chile by them –, to understand the processes, continuities, and changes within local communities between the 14th and 17th centuries.

We present a zooarchaeological analysis of a modern collection of 24 guanacos (Lama guanicoe), a product of the hunting, processing, consumption and disposal of the animals in a field located in the northwest of the province of Córdoba, Argentina. To the previous analyses, we add information obtained through semi-structured interviews (n=50), sometimes with the participation of two or three interlocutors, open and in-depth (n=16), and participant observation with local residents (N=8), in an attempt to contribute to the understanding of human-guanaco relations through an archaeology of the contemporary past (late 20th century to present). Our results show changes and continuities regarding the hunting, processing and use of these ungulates. In light of our results, we also discuss the symbolic and medicinal value of the species for the local community. Finally, we draw attention to how the socioeconomic and ecological changes associated with the Anthropocene have endangered guanacos at a provincial scale. Thus, we underscore the importance of addressing an archaeology of the contemporary era which contributes to biocultural conservation in the area.

Mathieu Picas

In Mexico, spiritual colonization and the conversion of pre-Hispanic sites into symbols of national identity has historically distanced indigenous peoples from their archaeological heritage. However, information from early twentieth century sources indicates that Maya communities used to bestow certain sites with religious and social meanings. These observations have been gradually disappearing from the literature as a result of the institutionalization of archaeology and development of tourism, especially in the region of the modern-day state of Quintana Roo. The aim of this paper is to analyze perceptions and uses around certain pre-Hispanic remains in this state and to examine their possible sacred value today. The opening hypothesis of this work is that certain archaeological mounds, known locally as múulo’ob, occupy an important place in contemporary Maya ritual life. The analysis will focus on two contexts that allow us to understand the sacred dimensions of certain sites in the region. The first includes remains that are involved in different aspects of rituality and memory in Báalche’, a locality in the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. The second is Kantunilkín, where a particular structure has, in recent years, become a local heritage site.

Yilver Mosquera-Vallejo and Javier Tobar

This paper offers an overview of the concepts of identity, cultural difference, and place, showing how they have been understood by anthropology and human geography. In this context, it aims to examine the geographies, networks and re-existences that have unfolded among the black populations of the Patía Valley and the Colombian South Pacific in the light of socio-historical and geographical evidence from 1993 to 2020. Using works published in the last three decades, our strategy consisted in identifying the historical processes, re-existences, and the ways in which these territories have been discursively produced. While the South Pacific has been traversed by different extractivist cycles from colonial times to the present, and in the last three decades by a process that co-produces ethnicity and biodiversity, we found, due to its colonial experience, that the Patía Valley is tied to maroon practices that have crystallized in everyday life, thus giving rise to re-existence. Finally, we establish that both spaces have been the object of constitutive violence that has produced terrorized lands.