Article contents
Putting the Market in Its Place: Food Security in Three Mapuche Communities in Southern Chile
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2022
Abstract
This article analyzes the impact of state policies since the 1970s on household food security in several Mapuche communities in the Araucanía region of Chile (Region IX). The author highlights key transformations in the national economy and food system and endeavors to link those to local phenomena, in particular the absorption of the local livelihood strategies and food systems into capitalist markets and the high incidences of food, insecurity. The article concludes that a reconceptualization of macroeconomic and indigenous policies are required to rebuild the material and social foundations of rural Mapuche communities that provide the bases from which their inhabitants can reconstruct a mutually beneficial relationship with the broader Chilean society and avert the continued acceleration of tension and violence.
Resumen
El propósito del presente artículo es analizar a partir del régimen militar el impacto de las políticas macroeconómicas e indígenas sobre la seguridad alimenticia en tres comunidades Mapuches de la región de la Araucanía (IXa región), Chile. El autor resalta las transformaciones claves en la macroeconomia y el sistema alimentario nacional y procura vincularlas a las realidades locales, en particular a la integración de las estrategias de sustento familiar y los sistemas alimenticios locales a los mercados capitalistas nacionales, y a las altas incidencias de inseguridad alimentaria en las comunidades. El trabajo concluye que es preciso reconceptualizar las políticas macroeconómicas e indígenas con el fin de fortalecer las bases materiales y sociales de las comunidades rurales Mapuches que representan el asiento desde el cual sus habitantes podrían reconstruir una relación fructífera con la sociedad mayor e impedir una intensificación de la tensión y violencia que caracteriza la coyuntura actual.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2011 by the Latin American Studies Association
Footnotes
This research was made possible by the generous support of many people and institutions. I thank the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for its generous financial assistance. I also thank Liisa North, Ricardo Grinspun, and Viviana Patroni for their insight and support at various moments, as well as the three anonymous LARR reviewers for their helpful comments. My greatest debts, however, are in Chile. First, I thank the anthropologists of the Catholic University of Temuco, and particularly Dr. Teresa Durán and Longko José Quidel, both of whom helped facilitate my insertion into a foreign place and without whose guidance and generosity none of this would have been possible. Last but not least, I express my deepest gratitude to the Mapuche communities and families who shared their corner of the world with me. Their spirit and generosity in the face of such challenging circumstances was profoundly humbling.
References
- 5
- Cited by