Wallmapu is the Mapudungun name for the ancestral territory of the Mapuche people-nation, located in southern Chile and Argentina. Unlike the rest of the indigenous peoples of America, the Mapuche were never defeated by the Spanish Empire. By the sixteenth century, the Kingdom of Spain had already established a border by which it recognized the political and territorial autonomy of the Mapuche nation. This treatment and territorial limits remained stable after Chile’s independence.
It was not until 1881, with the so-called Pacification of the Araucanía, that the Mapuche territory was violently annexed to the Chilean nation-state. Much of the territory was given to foreign settlers and auctioned for the creation of large estates. The Mapuche were incorporated by force into Chilean citizenship, and their lands were reduced to just over 6 percent of their ancestral territory.
Throughout the twentieth century, the usurpation of Mapuche territory continued under different mechanisms, becoming more severe during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship, with the elimination of communal land ownership and the subsidized sale of vast Mapuche lands to forestry companies. Along with enduring strong repression by the military, during Pinochet’s dictatorship the Mapuche began to live in extreme poverty for the first time in their history.
Today the Mapuche constitute approximately 10 percent of the Chilean population, concentrating both in the south of Chile (Wallmapu) and in the
central metropolitan area.
While many Mapuche have migrated from their communities to cities throughout the country in search of work, the connection with their ancestral territory continues to be a fundamental part of their identity, and they regularly visit their communities and families, and participate in ceremonies and rituals.
The Chilean-Mapuche conflict is a multidimensional one, with ethnic, ideological, economic, and political elements that question the legitimacy of an extractive model that allows the unrestrained exploitation of natural resources by large companies. The escalation of the conflict in the past two decades has generated high levels of violence and impoverishment that threaten the economic and cultural survival of the Mapuche people.
With the return of democracy in Chile in 1990, the Mapuche people began their reorganization. The enactment of an indigenous law in 1994 did not grant constitutional recognition to the economic, social, and cultural rights of indigenous peoples. The discontent in the communities grew until, in 1997, the first crisis between the Mapuche nation and the Chilean state since the restoration of democracy broke out, following the construction of Ralco, a hydroelectric power station in Alto Biobío, built by Endesa Spain, which flooded thousands of acres of land and Mapuche sacred sites.
Likewise, during this decade, forest exploitation was intensified by economic groups to whom the civic-military dictatorship handed over confiscated Mapuche lands. The complicity of the Chilean state with the interests of these economic groups led Mapuche communities to conduct symbolic occupations of their ancestral lands. The state responded with intense police violence, and in the media, the Mapuche social demand is depicted as criminal. Gradually, democratic governments begin to militarize the Mapuche communities.
A noticeable aspect of the conflict is violence against minors. In addition to the widespread racism and stigmatization against the Mapuche, there are violent raids on the communities and abuses in the midst of judicial processes. The presence of militarized police in the Mapuche territory is common. Even schools have been transformed into police stations. For Mapuche children, state violence has become almost routine. The application of the anti-terrorist law against minors was denounced in 2013 by United Nations Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, who questioned the use — and abuse — of protected witnesses to keep minors in prison.
According to official documents that the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR) has presented before the judiciary, at least 133 Mapuche children or adolescents have experienced various forms of abuse by the Chilean police between 2011 and 2017. These figures include reported cases only; according to the NIHR, there is an unknown number of cases.
uthor Tobar Loyola, Guillermo, author.
Title Mito, camino de una experiencia : una mirada a la cosmovisión y a la experiencia religiosa mapuche a partir de la filosofía y la fenomenología de la religión / Guillermo Tobar Loyola ; prólogo de Alejandro Serani Merlo.
Published Providencia : Ediciones Universidad Finis Terrae, 2016.
Book Cover
Location Call No. Status
Main (Gardner) Stacks F3126 .T63 2016 AVAILABLE
PRINTED MATERIAL
Edition Primera edición.
Description 344 pages ; 23 cm.
Series Colección Filosofía y religión
Colección Filosofía y religión.
Note "Formación General, Vicerrectoría Académica."
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 322-344).
Contents Vocabulario básico mapuche -- Acercamiento inicial al mundo mapuche -- El mito de Treng-Treng y Kai-Kai en el contexto religioso mapuche -- Cosmovisión mapuche a la luz de Treng-Treng y Kai-Kai -- Expresiones de la experiencia religiosa mapuche -- Conclusión.
Subject Mapuche Indians -- Chile -- Religion.
Mapuche mythology -- Chile.
Spiritual life.
Mapuche Indians -- Religion.
Mapuche mythology.
Spiritual life.
Chile.
ISBN 9789567757787
956775778X
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