Environment, Worldview and Resource Utilization in the Andean Highlands of Northwestern Argentina

This project will examine the way economic strategies are codetermined by culturally specific environmental perceptions, religious ideas and social interactions. Its goal is a more precise understanding of the complex links between interest, knowledge (attitudes, risk perception, information, conventions) and action. Furthermore, the intercultural comparison of the environmental conceptualizations and risk perceptions held by the indigenous residents of the highlands and representatives of state, church and political organizations will open the way for a deeper understanding of the way environmental knowledge changes in multiple cultural interaction contexts and in various power constellations. The project is based on several ethnographic field studies in northwestern Argentina and northern Chile and on extensive archival work in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. A monograph is in preparation.