New Spaces for Contesting and Negotiating Indigenous Land Claims in Northern Argentina

Abstract

This paper focuses on Indigenous peoples’ experiences on National Route 86 in General José de San Martín Department, Salta Province, Argentina. In this area—as in many other parts of the Argentinian Chaco—cattle ranching and soybean plantations have radically transformed the landscape in the past forty years, thus increasing Indigenous evictions and land dispossessions. Agribusiness also radically transforms Indigenous experiences of land for those who manage to stay. Bringing together Indigenous memories about landscape changes due to land grabbing with a variety of experiences with and stances on agribusiness infrastructure, I argue that this infrastructure, experienced through material objects and activities, creates new spaces for Indigenous people to negotiate and contest how they live in this area, ultimately in some cases providing a way to push for territorial claims.