Looking with (not so) foreign eyes: the multiple existences of vernacular in earthen architectures of Quebrada de Humahuaca (province of Jujuy, Argentina)

Abstract Quebrada de Humahuaca, a region in northern Argentina, has historically been characterised by dense earthen building cultures, which show remarkable persistence in present-day architectural production. In 2003, this region was inscribed on the World Heritage List as a ‘cultural landscape’, although its patrimonialisation process began in the early 20th century. During this period, significant academic, institutional, and artistic interest emerged. Studies and narratives focused on architectural otherness in earthen constructions, presenting this interest from a civilising perspective based on the ideal of unilinear progress, as seen in many parts of the world. Thus, earthen building cultures and architectures were considered remnants of the past. This association simultaneously evoked a sense of nostalgia and longing for that material culture, perceived as the roots of society. These processes are embedded in broader conceptual frameworks related to the decoding and intelligibility of otherness through its exoticisation, romanticisation, and primitivisation. Consequently, architectural productions are placed outside of history and, thus, outside of society. In this sense, vernacularisation acts as a political action, actively constructing narratives about architectures and constructions that segregate certain dimensions of otherness. However, these relations are never purely dichotomous. Instead, they are interwoven in their trajectories, with diverse social and material overlaps. In this segregation, there are phenomena of appropriation of certain essentialised features of local architectures, incorporated into disciplinary languages, as proposed by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Menezes. Simultaneously, local actors display forms of acceptance, distortion, and rejection of these mechanisms, generating new vernacular scenarios. This paper illustrates the intertwined trajectories in Quebrada de Humahuaca, framed by the intense patrimonialisation processes mobilised by institutional agents and the exponential increase in tourist activity in the region. In this context, the article explores how current architectural production unfolds, based on the practices of local actors and their interactions with various social spaces. This involves examining the overlaps in practices, moving beyond the absolute distinctions between the local and the external. The article is grounded in the work conducted over the last 20 years at the Laboratorio de Arquitecturas Andinas y Construcción con Tierra, located in the same region. This approach employs multiple methodological strategies, including ethnographic research on construction practices, systematic recording of historical and contemporary architectures, and the characterisation of materials both in the laboratory and in the field. Based on this experience, the central conceptual proposal of this article is the importance of the distinction between vernacular as a classificatory category, and vernacularities, as plural political processes. In this context, it demonstrates how the processes of patrimonialisation and touristification have driven the proliferation of new and diverse architectures, generated through disciplinary project and production practices, which employ materials, technologies, and textures in refined and limited versions of vernacular architectures. Based on this, it is proposed that these architectures are incorporated into hegemonic narratives that involve earthen technologies in various ways, albeit within different building cultures. In parallel, as part of a dialogue, it is argued that these narratives are adopted by local communities, often involving the essentialisation of certain features of their own building cultures. However, the article illustrates how these incorporations occur in material and technological forms that do not necessarily conform to disciplinary and academic expectations. On the contrary, new local architectures present unexpected resolutions, escaping the often-reductive classificatory schemes of what is typically defined as vernacular architecture.