DROVING IN ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE. FOUNDATIONS FOR ITS INVESTIGATION

Abstract

Investigating droving is a way of understanding the economic-social dynamics of a territory in its
internal and external connections. This is particularly true for the period before to the incorporation of
modern means of transportation, but it remains so far, although in a more restricted way and for
specific cases. We investigate the development of droving in the current region of Antofagasta
between 18th and 20th centuries using ethnographic, documentary and archaeological sources. In
this article, we show how the articulation of sources allows filling gaps, complementing each other
and inspiring hypotheses through concrete examples. From our perspective, analyzing the region of

1 Proyecto AIND-FONDECYT N° 11190023 “Del espacio económico peruano a la rigidificación de las fronteras nacionales: el
proceso de la arriería en la actual región de Antofagasta, Chile (siglos XVIII-XX)”.
Antofagasta as a vital space of local, regional and transnational articulation contributes to the
discussion of the persistent imaginary that inscribes it in the notion of Despoblado de Atacama.