Urban Dynamics in an Indigenous Territory: Transformation of Mapuche Ways of Living in lof Rengalil, Labranza (Araucanía Region, Chile)

Abstract

Mapuche ways of living are diverse and heterogeneous, consisting in part, of residential practices that integrate the surrounding environment, nature, and sites of cultural significance. In the Araucanía region of southern Chile, an indigenous territory has been urbanized, transforming the practices and mobilities of Mapuche inhabitants who are currently trying to preserve their ancestral ways of life framed in explicit struggles for the care of the land and nature. This article demonstrates that accelerated urbanization on indigenous ancestral territory also implies transformations in everyday spatialized practices and actions, and provides an account of a little-studied aspect of Mapuche geography in urban environments.