Tierra, territorio y territorialidad mapuche:

Producción de espacio y formación de subjetividades.

Abstract

This essay explores the connections (not always evident) between the use of spatial concepts and the formation of subjectivities. Its main purpose is to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between the Chilean society, the Mapuche people and their ancestral space. Methodologically, it examines the main theoretical models and conceptualizations which, from different paradigms, have been utilized to produce knowledge about the Mapuche people, in disciplinary fi elds such as anthropology, ethnology, history and geography. From those starting grounds, it examines the dynamics of deterritorialization, territorialization, and the emergent notion of territoriality as a continuing process of appropriation, signification, and re-signification of social spaces which are neither exclusively abstract nor exclusively physical. The essay is organized in three sections: the first addresses the conceptual framework of reference; the second examines some key paradigms and disciplinary approaches in the construction of a broad corpus of knowledge about the Mapuche people; and the third suggests some conclusions.