Abstract

Over a century of existence, Chuquicamata-CODELCO company in Chile has deployed strategies that strengthen identities and loyalties that underlie a hegemonic model of male dominance, so far without counterpoint in Chilean mining. In this article, we explore how the copper industry has shaped subjectivities, social relations and loyalties among workers at the Chuquicamata mine from a gender perspective. We explore the interaction between the concreteness of the copper activity and the process of subjectivation that has generated, on the one hand, shared identities and, on the other, particular social configurations. We also observe practices of constitution of masculinized mining bodies and the way in which they are linked to family and work identities developed in different domestic and productive spaces and controlled in different ways by the company.