Abstract

Focused on identifying the materiality and spatiality of sex work during the nitrate era, the results of a study conducted in the saltpeter town of Pampa Union (1911-1954), Antofagasta are presented. For this purpose, we triangulated documental and cartographic sources together with the archaeological record, defining an occupational history of the different businesses established in the town, emphasizing on those dedicated to sex work and the sex market in general. The findings evidence the usefulness of this approach and allow characterizing such spaces as well as defining their peculiarities. More generally, they shed a light on the dynamics of sex work in the nitrate era, its limitations and possibilities according to the regulations in place at the time, and with the society in which it took place.