The Communication of Territoriality in a Mining Conflict

Abstract

In this chapter we analyse the role played by maps in communicating and deploying territoriality in the context of a mining conflict. The analysis follows the recent conflict and social movement against mining in Wirikuta, an area in northern Mexico considered sacred land by the Huichol (wixarika) indigenous people. We base our analysis on Robert Sack’s definition of territoriality as ‘an attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area’ and specifically on how this attempt is communicated, cartographically and otherwise. A central element of this communication is the ‘official’ and pre-existing map of the Wirikuta natural protected area, established some 15 years prior to the beginning of the conflict. Actors on both sides of the conflict built their arguments on this map to promote their interests—to enforce their territoriality. Thus, two conflicting territorialities are based on a single agreed-upon cartographic representation of the disputed land. This is in contrast to other land conflicts, where so-called ‘counter-maps’ are produced by actors on either side of the conflict as a tool to challenge or question the legitimacy of the other’s map and claims on the land. This case illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of the use of a single ‘authoritative’ map whose legitimacy is mutually acknowledged by opposing parties in a land conflict.