Abstract
In a context of acknowledgement of indigenous communities across the entire Argentinian Republic – and by means of an ethnographic study in the center-west of the nation – we analyze the daily work, as well as discourses and representations of the officers of two state institutions of the Mendoza province. One of these is in charge of water management and the other is in charge of the department territory that the Huarpe indigenous community inhabits. The officers of both institutions understand said communities in different ways. The first discredits their current presence and justifies with scientist discourses their refusal to send water provisions. The second acknowledges their rights, although it limits their capacity for collective action based on several contradicting forms of identity questioning. We present that, despite the differences, both adopt feigned forms to acknowledge rights related to autonomy, participation, and access to natural lands, covering private interests and some state authoritarianism.
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