El territorio relevado, el territorio disputado: Apuntes sobre la implementación de Ley nacional 26.160 en Río Negro, Argentina

Abstract

In November 2006, the National Congress of Argentina enacted the Emergency Law of Indigenous Community Property, No. 26.160. The Law declared an emergency concerning the different forms of possession and ownership of lands traditionally occupied by indigenous communities in the country. At the same time, the Law proposes the implementation of a legal and technical land registry survey of the “traditional, public and current occupations”. From the moment of implementation of the Law, there has been evidence as to the multitude of defi nintions and meanings that the idea of “territory” has for the actors -offi cial agents, technicians and indigenous communities- involved in the survey process. In this paper we analyze how the implementation of Law No. 26.160 has provoked a modernization in the notion of territory and territoriality based on an update in spatial memories held by members of the mapuche community that are at the same time entangled with those perceptions produced by non-indigenous agencies.