Abstract

SCHIAFFINI, Hernán Horacio. Las relaciones de poder y sus expresiones territoriales: Signos de lucha en la Patagonia mapuche actual. Cuicuilco [online]. 2014, vol.21, n.59, pp.145-170. ISSN 0185-1659.

Based on two events recorded from an Ethnographic viewpoint in northwestern Chubut, in the Argentinian Patagonia, we reflect on how power relationships can acquire territorial dimensions. We understand that certain situations and events are significant in the broader social processes and question the place they hold. What do they mean and for whom? We maintain that the events recorded must be interpreted within the overall framework of historic and current confrontations and disputes as a point of reference, which the Mapuche people in the zone are experiencing, especially the dynamics of territorial appropriation and defense. Therefore, solely when inserted into this context do apparently isolated situations turn out to have connections with the directionality of society's general processes. Our hypothesis is contrasted through proposals dezveloped in ethnographic work and an analysis of secondary sources, including census data on land consolidation in the Patagonian region.

Keywords : confrontation; territory; appropriation; defense; signs.