A Thesaurus of “Lagunismos”: Linguistic Archaeology of the Puna of Catamarca

Abstract

Since 1992, we have been carrying out a lexicographic compilation in the Laguna Blanca District, Department of Belén, Catamarca, gathering nearly 900 terms, of which more than 800 are related to Indigenous linguistic stocks. These records are reflected in an onomastics that we understand as a sample of a mestizo expression—in the “ch’ixi” sense proposed by Rivera Cusicanqui (2010: 69–70)—and that locally we will call “chesche.”

As testimony, this set of words could contribute to the understanding of a history that refers us to complex processes dating back more than six or seven centuries, shaped by social, political, religious, and economic relations. Thus, these processes, traversed by appropriations, translations, and resignifications, involved a varied repertoire of sociocultural relations, resulting from multiple transregional interactions supported by diverse motives: migrations, social and kinship alliances, technological adoptions such as agriculture, relations involving the exchange of ideas and goods, ideological influences, political-religious irruptions, among others. Many of these were not exempt from different forms of colonial violence.

As an archaeologist—and perhaps for that very reason—we make use of words as “objects” of representation of social processes. For this kind of linguistic archaeology, words represent clues that contain both dynamic aspects of identity and temporalities. In this sense, they will become part of the material that will allow us to delve into the questions we have been posing for some time.