Políticas indígenas en Chile (siglos XIX y XX). De la asimilación al pluralismo (el caso mapuche)

Abstract

Before the indigenous law of 1993 recognized the existence of cultural pluralism in the national territory and set up the basis for the participation of «the Chilean ethnic groups», the aboriginal peoples were merely considered as legal «objects». Indeed, the indigenous policy implemented by the Chilean state since independence was mainly characterized by the state's will to assimilate the indigenous people. This article deals with the nature of the relations that the Chilean nation (imagined as homogeneous and European) and the state (centralized and looking for territorial unity) established with the Mapuche, one of the biggest indigenous groups in Latin America.