ARQUEOLOGÍA Y «HUAQUERÍA»: ÁMBITOS LEGALES Y PRÁCTICAS COTIDIANAS EN SÍGSIG, ECUADOR

This paper focuses on identifying the legal implications of archaeological heritage in relation to the practices of looting, locally known as “huaquería”, and collecting in the Sigsig canton, Ecuador; with emphasis on tenure, education, and the intention of constituting spaces for the exhibition of objects. The inhabitants of this Andean region assign to the past and its materiality a series of links and imaginaries that are manifested in the discourse, which in turn is replicated in the localities as “official history.” The problem is based on the contradictory relationship between the legal norm and the socio-cultural context of the people living in archaeological areas, which generates the destruction of sites and, therefore, makes it impossible to generate stories framed in disciplinary knowledge. The methodology used was based on social cartography, talking maps, and interviews with some local actors.