Abstract

DELFINO, Daniel D.. 'Lagunismos' Thesaurus: linguistic archaeology of the puna of catamarca.. Cuad. Fac. Humanid. Cienc. Soc., Univ. Nac. Jujuy [online]. 2016, n.49, pp.153-174. ISSN 1668-8104.

Since 1992, we are creating a lexicographic compilation in the Laguna Blanca District (Dept. Belén - Catamarca) gathering nearly 900 terms, of which 800 are associated with native linguistic roots. These terms are translated into an onomastics which we consider as a sign of a mestizo expression - in the "ch'ixi" sense of Rivera Cusicanqui (2010:69-70), and locally called "chesche". The set of words, as testimonies, could contribute to the understanding of a story that reminds us of complex processes that can be traced back more than six or seven centuries ago, drawn from social, political, religious and economic relations. Thus the processes, crossed by appropriations, translations, re-significations, involved a varied repertoire of socio-cultural relations, assuming the result of multiple trans-regional interactions supported by a variety of reasons (migrations, social and parental alliances, technological adoption as agriculture, relations of exchange of ideas and goods, ideological influences, irruptions of political-religious nature, etc.), many of which were not even exempt from different types of colonial violence. As archaeologist, and perhaps for this reason, we use words like 'objects' of representation of social processes. For this sort of linguistic archaeology, words are signs that imply dynamic aspects of identity, such as temporalities and in this sense will become part of the material that will allow us to delve into the questions that we have come by asking for some time

Keywords : Laguna Blanca; Puna; Miscegenation; Linguistic Archaeology.