The importance of compartir in the Puna of Jujuy

An ethnography of strange visits and their modulations

Abstract

The following article presents a synopsis of theoretical-methodological research and results of my final project for my degree in anthropology. It called “Come and share. Ways of relate with the difference in a Puna town in Jujuy” and it focuses on the problem of how certain native populations position themselves and act in the face of the arrival of "strange" visitors to their own territory. It analyzes the ways in which they receive, evaluate and adhere to their social structures. Three ethnographic segments explore how the inhabitants of the Puna community of San Francisco de Alfarcito (Dpto. Cochinoca, Jujuy Province) recept, calculate and incorporate "the stranger" into local social life, considering the mediations, conflicts and specific notions of dealing with difference. 
Through this set we observe that the local concept of compartir is presented as a fundamental and transversal aspect both at the moment of establishing, evaluating and maintaining relations with the local environment and the living beings that inhabit it, as well as with unknown visitors, in order to guarantee the prosperity and continuity of life in the territory. These considerations show us that these experiences, centred on reception, exchange and incorporation, enrich their relations with otherness, in a different sense to the usual "Western" ones.