Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the State of Chile began to settle the various Mapuche groups that remained in what would become Araucania. Years later, in 1916 and 1917, the State began to draw up colonisation maps of the provinces of Malleco and Cautin in order to gain a comprehensive overview of the territory. These maps include a register of designated Mapuche lands, many of which have endured to the present day. By means of a morphological study of the maps we propose that certain logics of form can be identified in the division of land. Some of these are explicit, in that certain clear morphological interpretations are possible despite the heterogeneity of the lands in question. Others are implicit, influenced by Mapuche logics that pre-date the modern State and have endured in the background.