Mapuche ethnic identity and social imaginaries of well-being in Biobio Region, Chile

Abstract

We analyze the social imaginaries of the subjective well-being in people who identify as Mapuche in Greater Concepcion, Chile. Subjective well-being gives importance to those factors that the subject considers to be a positive contribution to their personal, family or community life, and that generate perceptions of satisfaction and happiness. This also constitutes part of what is perceived as a good life for native people. The work considered a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. Results indicate that the social imaginaries of subjective well-being are diverse and varied, depending on the levels at which the identity is lived: individual, collective or structural. Furthermore, the results indicate that the social imaginaries of the subjective welfare are built around the resignification of individual and collective identity, as part of a process of relationship between subjects, environment and/or nature, in which they converge perceptions, representations, values and emotions associated not only to happiness, security and respect, but also to transcendence as a people carrying a differentiated Mapuche identity.