Abstract

CARETTA, Gabriela Alejandra  and  ZACCA, Isabel Elicea. Death and its Signs: Salta: city and frontier in 1730. Andes [online]. 2010, vol.21, n.1. ISSN 1668-8090.

Salta, founded at the end of the XVIth century in the old Viceroyalty of Peru, was one of a series of population centers -lacking a close relationship between them- that were intended to strengthen the Spanish occupation in the region and make the circulation of goods and population movements towards the Alto Peru possible. This small and bounded city kept the borders of its original plan up to the XVIIIth century. The purpose of this work is to study burying sites in an indicial and microanalytical way. It puts forward the hypothesis that cemeteries are "places" and, as a consequence, it is possible to study different aspects of a society configuration through them as a central element of the construction of social representations. Thus, cemeteries as "places" not only show different aspects of a society but also, at the same time, constitute it. In this sense -contrary to what is generally considered- burying places permit the study of the fabric of social relationships, among which there are social and ethnic groups, inclusion/exclusion features, subjection relationships, and personal and group ties. In this way, cemeteries allow to study social aspects as interaction and their importance in the construction of society representations in a city that develops as a colonial and half-caste space

Keywords : Cemeteries; Representations; Death; City; Salta.

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