The Conflict over Mining in the Heart of the Universe

Mining is progressing over indigenous people´s land in Mexico.

One of the holiest sites of Wixárika people, Wirikuta, has been concessioned to mining companies seeking to revive mining in the region. This has caused a conflict between different groups of actants by construction, ownership and control of that territory.

This paper presents an ethnographic study of the conflict based on actor-network perspective. Information was obtained during fieldwork conducted during August to December 2012. The main purpose of this work is to analyze the conflict from a relational perspective, I also seek to highlight the importance of nonhuman actants which participate in conflict. Nonhuman actors have been invisible or objectified in sociological analysis of conflicts over the spread of extractive mining, however at least in the case we are studying, nonhuman actants are central to explaining and understanding the dynamic of the conflict by the construction, ownership and control of the territory in the Natural Protected Area Wirikuta.