Powerful objects in San Pedro Estación (II Región Antofagasta, Chile)

Abstract

What are the contents that would be part of the category of powerful objects?This work proposes an approach to this question based on an analysis of a photograph thatshows persons who had a leading role in the social life of two wooden boxes of San Antoniode Padua that are in one of the churches of San Pedro Estación. From observations in situand work with the social and family memory of local inhabitants, it is recognized thatthe category of powerful objects, in this case, is a paradox since an object, the saint’s box,brings together two opposing social and symbolic universes, viz. the European-Catholicand the Andean one. However, these universes have been resignified by families of SanPedro Estación when integrating them into their biographies. Thus, memory, the deviceof their survival, is their power and at the same time their agency. In this way, this articlewants to contribute to a broader discussion about the contents of the powerful as a valuethat ensures the vitality of objects throughout their multiple social lives.