Maps’ agency and mountains’ multiplicity: Conflicts triggered by state maps involving pilgrims and desired mining futures in the Andes

Abstract

This article analyzes how the agency of state maps triggered conflicts between rural communities, pilgrims, and state institutions, in which some mountains emerged as multiple entities within and beyond the nature-culture divide. The Quyllurit'i shrine is the focus of an important pilgrimage in the Andes. The Peruvian state established the shrine´s Protected Area in 2010 but had been granting mining concessions around it. Confronted with a state map of the Protected Area surrounded by mining concessions, the pilgrims' organizations called for their nullification and staged protests in Cuzco city in 2016. Meanwhile, the community within which the shrine is located experienced the establishment of the Protected Area as a process of land expropriation. Its members were holders of the mining concessions and aimed to conduct mining on their lands. Mining concessions, the Protected Area, and land titles were the state maps mediating these conflicts.