Cartografiar las territorialidades indígenas en los Andes bolivianos: intereses políticos y desafíos metodológicos

The analysis of maps and of their making uncovers territorial ideologies, as well as the sets of actors, political controversies and interests at stake. This article addresses the mapping of indigenous lands in Bolivia in the context of land reforms and politico administrative restructuration in favor of indigenous peoples since the 1990s. It deals in particular with the mapping of ayllus and markas (the name of Quechua and Aymara territories in the Bolivian Andes) produced for research and development aid projects. For the first time in the country's history, this mapping challenged hegemonic representations of national space. Despite the tendency of some documents to ruralize and essentialize indigenous territories, these maps sought to underline the complexity of present-day Andean territorialities (including territorial discontinuities, rural-urban relations, and dynamic boundaries). The production of these maps remained however subordinated to the financing and objectives of international development aid agencies, which used them for the control of regional shifts in population and war on drugs. Therefore, although the mapping of ayllus and markas contributed to controversies and debates on the internal decolonization of the Bolivian state and territory, they nonetheless confirmed the neocolonial dependence of the country towards the North. Keywords: indigenous peoples, territory, State, mapping, decolonization/decolonisation, development aid, geopolitics, Andes, ayllu, Tierra Comunitaria de Origen (TCO