Turning tables in search of dialogue: The making of indiscrete spaces in latin american contexts

The third transformation of Faust can be characterized as the most critical point of a series of changes whose poles are defined by the duality between tradition and modernity. In the case of the indigenous communities of Colombia, several legislative acts promoted by Simn Bolvar at beginning of the nineteenth century claimed that all citizens were equal; this was achieved by dissolving communal life. Collaborative archaeological projects with indigenous people turn disciplinary definitions into methodological means for goals more related to local needs. In the case of the Atacameo Collas of Argentina the process has been different. The Collas of Antofalla have decided to make theirs norms objective, revealing their ethnic markers to correspond with the essentialist language of the Argentinean government. Archaeology, as a scientific and Western practice, became a device for unfolding a cultural policy: communitarian diacritical values were mobilized to generate recognition outward and coherence inward.