The Iterated Mountain: Things as Signs in Potosí

Mining activities at the iconic Cerro Rico de Potosí, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and central to Bolivian national identity, reveal a complex interplay between material extraction and spiritual economies. The study uses Peircean semiotics—linguistic materialism—to demonstrate how objects, from massive mountains to miniature artifacts, function as material signs within distributed socio-material networks. These networks sustain mineral production, monetary exchange, and cultural practices, including a significant folkloric festival. By challenging dualistic frameworks—such as body/mind or matter/spirit—that persist in colonial Christianity and modern science, the research offers a nuanced critique of ontological approaches in anthropology, highlighting how material signage mediates both economic and spiritual dimensions of global capitalism.

Abercrombie, T. A. (2016). The Iterated Mountain: Things as Signs in Potosí. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 21(1), 83–108. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12184