Abstract

Since 2000, Atacama communities and state agencies established agreements for the installation of a management system for natural and archaeological sites located in Los Flamencos National Reserve (Northern Chile) that have become prominent ethnic tourist businesses-henceforth NET. The NETs not only represent a matter of economic entrepreneurship in the context of mass tourism in San Pedro de Atacama, but also an exercise of power to mitigate the negative effects of tourism and protect the territory. From an ethnographic perspective, the present study addresses the processes of agreement, installation and functioning of three cases of the Atacama NETs and their relationship with the indigenous state policy.