A Sacred Mountain and the Art of 'Impression Management' : Analyzing a Mining Company's Encounter With Indigenous Communities in Atacama, Chile

摘要

The installation of a radio communication antenna on a sacred mountain, Mount Quimal, led to an interaction between a mining corporation and Atacameno people in northern Chile. The present article focuses on how language games that involve "over- andundercommunication" of information in this transactional event reflect the distribution of power in society. Specifically, it looks into the "impression management" (Goffman 1959, 1971) that took place in the interactions and negotiations between the corporation and the communities, within the context of a sustainable development discourse adopted by the corporate world.