Marriage as a space of "defragmentation" on the displaced mapuche-huilliche in the city of Santiago, Chile, during the second half of the seventeenth Century (1669-1678)

Abstract

Throughout the seventeenth century the frontier war in Southern Chile was characterized by raids that were oriented towards pillage and the capture of indigenous peoples who had been declared to be legally enslavable since 1608. Deported to central Chile, Coquimbo or Lima, Mapuche and southern Huilliche were part of a generalized experience of communal uprooting, the fragmentation of social networks, territorial links and above all the destruction of familiar ties of individuals who were exposed to the traumatic experiences of violent abduction and perpetual exile from their homeland. The objective of this article is to delineate the signs of this fragmentation and to then study the recomposition trends -or "defragmentation"- that were observed among the Indians upon marriage, within the urban context of the Chilean capital and the surrounding area. This analysis is based on records from the Sagrario parish and centers around an historical moment of transition between the rise of the capture and traffic of this "rebel" Indians and the abolition of legal slavery.