Abstract

This paper presents key research findings about the relationship between forestry companies and Mapuche communities in Chile, from the perspective of anthropological studies of development, adressed during the Fondecyt proyect No 11080196. Methodologically, the research is the result of intensive and extensive ethnographic approach on the dynamics and relational processes between the actors, during the 2008 – 2011 period. Interviews, participant observation and document analysis were the main strategies used. The main results higlight that both sector - forestry companies and the Mapuche communities - has its own internal diversity, trends and tensions, that impact the overall social relations quality in the territory of La Araucania, which is historically and socially marked by cultural and economic gaps. The research allowed to see that in this context, the relationship between forestry companies and the Mapuche community reflects contacts between different logics –ie. modes, styles, value systems, practices and performed knowledges, relating to the environment, development and the economy. These contacts - sociologically understood as social relations - are flexible, but always within a range of inequalities that undermine communities.