Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact that the Chilean government's land-ownership policies have had on the Mapuche-Pehuenche communities, especially with respect to the control of their territory and natural resources. The results show a tendency towards non-protection of their rights to control their territories with an increasing loss of autonomy and control over land. State intervention, together with large private investment projects, has generated socio-economic and territorial impacts in the indigenous areas, such as the migration of young persons, socio-cultural changes, and conflicts over access and use of ecological zones. The territorial re-ordering of the original Mapuche space, combined with its increasing appropriation by private actors and the Chilean government, has produced a subordinated integration of the indigenous communities with respect to national society.