Resumen

GIL GARCIA, Francisco M. WHEN THE TOURISTS COME... ARCHAEOLOGICAL RUINS, TOURISM AND LOCAL EXPECTANCIES ABOUT THE FUTURE IN NOR LÍPEZ (DPTO. POTOSÍ, BOLIVIA). Textos Antropológicos [online]. 2005, vol.15, n.2, pp. 197-228. ISSN 1025-3181.

As a link between past andpresent, ruins plays for human groups an active role reality representation, remaining their perception rationalizated under a triple conflict psycho-social of cultural identity, spatial ubiquity and temporal continuity. From this proposal, we broach in this paper the tourism incidence on heritage revalorization among Lípez Highland rural communities (Department of Potosi, Bolivia). Taking the communities of Santiago K and Santiago Chuvica and Laqaya archaeological site as study case, we analyze heritage-tourism relationship from localpoint ofview, falling into the emic lecture ofprogress concept that see in the past apotential cultural consumer good to be exploited from tourism = economical development equation. Considering different glances on a ruins that are perceived by communities as of their own, we try ofgrasp the logic that guide its transformation in a tourist-heritage product, in which are meeting aesthetic, identity, mythic, psychosocial, spatial, and strategic points ofview