66481255 elite indígena mapuche

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The transnationalisation ofindigenous peoples movements

and the emergence of newindigenous elites

Sabine Kradolfer

The images that immediately spring to mind when

one approaches the processes of globalisation have

more to do with economic channels, transnational

companies, and the flow of capital, people, goods,

technology, and knowledge than with the issues

surrounding indigenous

peoples.1 Now it should

be noted that the groups

these peoples form

often in remote, periph-

eral regions have also

been affected by globali-sation during the last few

decades. In particular, the

lands and resources they

traditionally owned in

order to survive have been

subjected to increasing

pressure. However, the

principal argument pre-

sented in this article is that indigenous peoples

should not be seen as actors who passively submit to

the effects of globalisation, for they have been ableto draw on their own resources and devise tools to

deal with the pressures they face. They have organ-

ised themselves at international level so that they

can actively pursue their campaigns and fight in

transnational networks and make use of new infor-

mation and communications technologies, which

are themselves products of the late-twentieth

century process of globalisation.

Since the mid-1980s, UN bodies have

increasingly incorporated the indigenous peoples

issue (Schulte-Tenckhoff 1997) into their various

agendas and now, after several decades, indigenous

UN organisations whose work principally concerns

these peoples and show how the category indig-

enous people has been constructed as much by

indigenous organisations as by the international

context. The focus will subsequently shift from

the transnational indigenous

stage to the Mapuche of Argen-

tina in order to examine the way

in which international native

policies have contributed to the

establishment of new Mapuche

organisations, while simultane-ously rearranging the lines of

authority between traditional

chieftainships and new indig-

enous elites. By shifting back and

forth between the international,

national, regional, and local, I

will show how some Mapuche

like other native peoples across

the globe have been able to benefit from globali-

sation by acquiring resources (empowerment) and

adopting a discourse of transnational identitywhich is somewhat ambivalent for, while it is very

(post)modern, it is rooted in tradition and tends to

essentialise ethnic identity.

As Argentina has long been regarded as a

country in which indigenous peoples have been

integrated and assimilated into the general popula-

tion, it may seem paradoxical to focus on the rise

of indigenous movements. But it seems to me that

this phenomenon is of particular interest because

it raises questions concerning the processes

behind the restructuring of ethnic identities. Native

peoples now constitute a much more visible pres-

Sabine Kradolfer is an anthropologist

and sociologist. She is currently an SFNS

postdoctoral fellow at the Autonomous

University of Barcelona and the National

University of Ro Negro (Argentina). Her

doctoral thesis, jointly supervised by theUniversities of Lausanne and Paris III

Sorbonne Nouvelle, dealt with the social

organisation of Mapuche communities in

Neuqun province, Argentina. She was also

joint-leader of a research project on aca-

demic career progression at the University

of Lausanne (20062008).

Email: [email protected]


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it was not unusual to hear Argentinians themselves

claim, as did the proprietor of a bed & breakfast in

Buenos Aires, that there are no more Indians in

Argentina. This individual then insisted that if I

wanted to complete my research, I would have to

go to Bolivia or Chile. The indigenous presence inArgentina has acquired a much higher profile since

the year 2000, as demonstrated by an article titled

56% of Argentinians have native ancestors2 pub-

lished in the daily newspaper El Clarn on 16January 2005 (Heguy 2005). More recently, the

indigenous peoples of Argentina organised a march

as part of the 25 May Revolution bicentenary cel-

ebrations. The march terminated at the Plaza de

Mayo, site of the Casa Rosada, the presidentialpalace, on 20 May 2010. Thousands of indigenous

people clad in traditional costume paraded through

the centre of the capital, and their delegations

were received by President Cristina Kirchner. A

large segment of the Argentinas population once

believed that indigenous peoples had vanished

from Argentina, but that belief now appears to have

been firmly extinguished. Moreover, the (re)ap-

pearance of various ethnic groups on the politi-

cal stage in the 1990s, a phenomenon Bengoa

describes as the indigenous emergence (Bengoa

2000), is not restricted to Argentina, and hasoccurred in many countries throughout the world.

In Argentina, some peoples seem to have

been reborn the Huarpe, Ona, and Quilmes, for

example and an increasing number of Mapuche,

who have always been recognised as one of the

countrys largest ethnic groups, are reclaiming their

indigenous past and have achieved a much higher

profile on the national and regional political stages.

While this article concentrates on Neuqun prov-

ince3 in north-west Patagonia, where the Mapuche

have been established since the seventeenth century(Nicoletti and Navarro Floria 2000, p.49), it should

be noted that these populations are also found in

other provinces including Buenos Aires, La Pampa,

Ro Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz. The Mapuche

are much more numerous in Chile, where they

have been the focus of a great deal of his-

torical, political, sociological, and anthropological

research. However, they present striking differences

in terms of social and communitarian organisation,

not only between the two countries but also between

the Argentinian provinces in which they currently

reside. As we shall see shortly, such differences are

2005). This brings us to the complexity of Mapuche

ethnic identity which like all other identities

cannot be approached as a unified whole but must

always be reinserted into its context. What consti-

tutes a Mapuche or a Mapuche community will vary

from province to province (each of which hasits own legal framework for defining indigenous

peoples) and the environment in which identity is

expressed: town, rural area, community, indigenous

organisation, etc.

When we approach the transnationalisation

of indigenous movements, we are referring to the

various phenomena which have affected these

peoples, notably the creation of extensive collabo-

rative networks which, thanks to information and

communications technology, are still expanding on

the five continents and are now able to articulate

localised social struggles at international level.

Before using the Mapuche people ofArgentina as an

illustration of how the development of international

legal norms has largely contributed to the reshaping

of organisations and struggles at local level, it is

appropriate to examine the ways in which United

Nations bodies have considered indigenous claims

since the late 1970s. In effect, it was during this

period that issues relating to indigenous peoples

began to assume increasing importance at the UN.The origin of the various mechanisms that

would eventually be implemented was undoubtedly

the Martnez Cobo study (Martnez Cobo 1986).

In 1971, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of

Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a body

set up by the UN Economic and Social Council

(ECOSOC), responded to denunciations of human

rights violations by appointing one of its members,

Jos Martnez Cobo, as Special Rapporteur.

Martnez Cobo was asked to conduct an exhaustive

study of the discrimination experienced by theworlds indigenous peoples, with a view to imple-

menting preventive measures. The results of this

research Study of the problem of discriminationagainst indigenous populations was publishedin five volumes between 1981 and 1984 (Martnez

Cobo 1986). Three major international conferences

took place at the UN in Geneva during the course of

the study: the International Non-Governmental

Organisation Conference on Discrimination

Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas

(1977), the World Conference to Combat Racism

and Racial Discrimination (1978), and the Interna-

378 Sabine Kradolfer


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hundred or so native delegates to these conferences

succeeded in securing NGO status (as recognised

by ECOSOC) for their indigenous organisations.

In 1982, the UN institutionalised indigenous

issues by creating a Working Group on Indigenous

Populations (WGIP). This group, which operateduntil 2006, was composed of five independent

experts, indigenous delegates from all five conti-

nents, indigenous and non-indigenous representa-

tives of NGOs, and observers. It was given the task

of examining new data concerning the promotion

and protection of the fundamental rights and

freedoms of native peoples and the development of

norms relating to their rights.4 The WGIP was

regarded as an opportunity for indigenous peoples

to present their situations and expose the human

rights violations to which they were subjected. In

effect, the UNs customary procedures for holding

consultations with states had been shown to be

inefficient, given that they shed little light on the

problems of indigenous populations which were

often embroiled in legal battles with states.

According to Augusto Willemsen-Daz, a Guate-

malan lawyer who helped to create the WGIP when

serving at the UN Centre for Human Rights in

Geneva, the aim of the working group was to

enable indigenous peoples to come and expressthrough their own mouths what they have in their

hearts and heads (Minde 2008, p.72). In 1985, the

WGIP began drafting a Declaration on the Rights

of Indigenous Peoples, which it submitted to the

Human Rights Commission in 1993. The Commis-

sion created another working group (the Working

Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples), which was tasked with revis-

ing the draft declaration. The text was finally

approved by the UN General Assembly on 13 Sep-

tember 2007 after 22 years of negotiations5 (formore information on this process, see Charters and

Stavenhagen 2009).

Other acts of recognition took place during

this period in various UN bodies. The International

Year of the Worlds Indigenous People (1993) was

followed by the first and second International

Decades of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples (1995

2004 and 20052014, respectively). In 1994, the

UN Assembly General decided that an Inter-

national Day of the Worlds Indigenous People

should be observed on 9 August every year. In

2002, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

presence of indigenous delegations in all these

bodies has increased over the years, and they can

now be found in other international organisa-

tions whose decisions may affect them, including

UNESCO (which in 2001 adopted a Universal

Declaration on Cultural Diversity and proclaimed2010 as the International Year for the Rapproche-

ment of Cultures), the World Intellectual Property

Organisation, some Working Groups within the

Biological Diversity Convention, and the Interna-

tional Fund for Agricultural Development.

On the legal front, the International Labour

Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 for Indigenous

and Tribal Peoples (1989) constituted the first rec-

ognition of indigenous institutions and customs,

the right of such groups to participate in decisions

that affected their economic development, their

rights to property and the ownership of traditional

lands, etc. The application of Convention 169

would enable them to take control of their own

institutions, social organisation, economic devel-

opment, etc., without presenting a challenge to

the sovereignty of the states in which they lived.

However, the fact that only 22 countries have so

far ratified the convention6 clearly shows that

incorporating various specific rights into national

law is problematic; an international convention canremain a dead letter if not fully ratified.

It is clear that their penetration of international

organisations enabled indigenous peoples from dif-

ferent parts of the world to come together and form

a transnational movement which has adopted a

common language in order to extol the universality

of its collective values. Thus a new transnational

category of actors indigenous peoples was

co-constructed as much by indigenous groups as by

international institutions. We shall now turn to the

links between international, national, and regionalpolitical action that enable local native populations

to redefine themselves in their relations with states,

and examine in some detail the case of the Mapuche

of Argentinian Patagonia, specifically those living

in Neuqun province.

The emergence of newindigenous organisationsand elites: the Mapucheof Argentina

Transnationalisation of indigenous peoples movements 379


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Argentina and many other countries in the final

25 years of the twentieth century. At local level, a

number of events stimulated the awareness and

claims of Argentinas native populations. With the

return to democracy in 1983 after the dark years

of the military dictatorship installed by GeneralVidela in 1976, many human rights organisations

(the Asamblea Permanente por los DerechosHumano, for example) sprang up and began cam-paigning for the rights of indigenous populations.

Three elements are particularly relevant here:

1. In 1985, federal law 23.302 Indigenous Policy

and Aboriginal Community Support7 (which

would enter into force only after a considerable

delay) provided for a number of measures to

improve the situation of indigenous groups, but

only those which lived in communities. A

community was defined as a group of families

which recognises themselves as such [as a com-

munity], with their own identity, culture and

social organisation, which maintain their tradi-

tional norms, rules and values, which speak or

have spoken their indigenous language, which

share a common habitat on which they are

settled, either together or in a dispersed way8

(Ministerio de Bienestar Social 1988, p.25).2. On 11 August 1994, the adoption of a new con-

stitution completely altered approaches to the

indigenous issue at national level. Prior to that

date, the old 1853/60 constitution had specified

that the National Congress should . . . provide

for the security of the frontiers, maintain peace-

ful relations with the Indians and promote their

conversion to Catholicism (Article 67, para-

graph 15).9 This new constitution stated that

Congress was empowered to Recognise the

ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenouspeoples of Argentina. To guarantee respect for

the identity and the right to bilingual and inter-

cultural education; to recognise the legal capac-

ity of their communities, and the community

possession and ownership of the lands they tra-

ditionally occupy; and to regulate the granting

of other lands adequate and sufficient for

human development; none of them shall be

sold, transmitted or subject to liens or attach-

ments. To guarantee their participation in

issues related to their natural resources and

in other interests affecting them. The provinces

3. Finally, on 3 September 2000, Argentina rati-

fied ILO Convention 169, which had been

adopted almost ten years earlier, in 1992.

It is clear that the Argentinian state proposed to deal

exclusively with indigenous communities. In Pat-agonia, these concern descendants of families and

isolated individuals who, having survived the wars

waged by the Argentinian army between 1874 and

1885, regrouped on lands that were in some cases

granted in return for military services (as with the

Curruhuinca, Namuncura, and Painemil communi-

ties), but more generally occupied with or without

permission and tolerated by the federal authorities.

These wars to conquer the free territories of Patago-

nia are known as the Conquista del Desierto11 (Con-quest of the Desert). So great was the fragmentation

of indigenous social, political, and military struc-

tures that some authors do not hesitate to talk of

genocide (see, in particular, Navarro Floria 1999,

pp.104106). Prior to the wars, indigenous peoples

had reigned supreme in the Southern Cone, main-

taining sometimes hostile and sometimes peaceful

relations with the settlers who were populating and

gradually expropriating their lands on both sides of

the Andes cordillera. Trade between these popula-

tions was frequent and the Mapuche controlledlarge herds of cattle, which they grazed on the

Argentinian pampas near the border, in the Bo-Bo

river valley between Chile and the free Mapuche

territories on the western side of the cordillera.They

also maintained huge stocks of salt on the pampas.

There was a great demand for this commodity,

which was used to preserve the meat exported to

Europe. Cattle and salt were traded for industrially

produced goods and certain politico-strategic alli-

ances were formed between the most important

Mapuche lonco,12 first with colonial states and thenwith the Chilean and Argentinian states. At that time

Mapuche social organisation took the form of the lof(community in the Mapuche language), which was

based above all on kinship (the extended family)

and structured through networks of family, eco-

nomic, political, and even military relations, given

the increasing pressure applied by the Argentinian

army. This well organised, hierarchical system was

shattered during the Conquest of the Desert; the

bands of Mapuche which survived the armys

attacks were forced to regroup and resettle on tiny

parts of the territory they had once occupied, sub-



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Deconstructing rurality and

community through figures

As we have just seen, the Argentinian state

approached the issue of its native peoples only in

terms of communities, whereas a large segment ofthe indigenous population lives on the outskirts of

towns, as is the case in many other Latin American

countries. Moreover, the principal demands would

come from urban indigenous organisations (see

Briones 1999 and Kropff 2005 for the Mapuche

case), which would also produce the most impor-

tant international leaders.13 However, it should be

noted that almost all discourses on these matters,

whether emanating from representatives of the

state or indigenous organisations, refer to rural

communities which are supposed to constitute the

archetype of the only authentic Mapuche way of

life and, consequently, the only one with a specific

legal framework (a point to which we shall return).

Until the present century, the tendency to focus on

the rural setting in relation to the indigenous issue

was linked on the one hand to the absence of sta-

tistical data concerning Argentinas indigenous

populations, and on the other to the fact that the

communities were obviously different in cultural

terms, whereas urban indigenous people weremore similar to the rest of the population.

Following the entry into force of the new

national constitution, the 2001 population census

(see INDEC 2001 for all data from this census)

took ethnic identity and its self-determination into

account by asking if a household contained anyone

who claimed to be descended from or belong to

an indigenous group.14 If so, the respondent was

asked to specify the indigenous group or groups

concerned. As the household-based census could

not be relied upon to identify the number and char-acteristics of people who defined themselves in this

way, the state conducted a complementary survey

(Encuesta complementaria de pueblos indgenas,ECPI) in 2004. The results obtained from this pro-

cedure indicated a far larger indigenous population

and the reappearance of ethnic groups that had

once been regarded as extinct (Ona, Huarpe,

Charra, etc.). At this point, it is important to note

that as part of its non-discrimination policy, the

Argentinian state had decided to omit the ethnic

variable from censuses in the first half of the twen-

tieth century. The only available figures came from

(Ministerio Del Interior 19661968). However,

according to Radovich and Balazote, these figures

were incomplete because the census did not take

into consideration inhabitants scattered across

rural areas, or migrants in the urban environment,

given the utilisation of erroneous methodologicalcriteria which defined the census unit. For this

reason, the total [indigenous] population recorded

in the CIN should be regarded as bearing little

relation to the reality (Radovich and Balazote

1992, p.164).15

The total number of Mapuche residing in the

four Patagonian provinces (Neuqun, Ro Negro,

Santa Cruz, and Chubut), recorded as 24,376 in the

19661968 census (Saugy 19811982, p.25), had

increased to 76,606, of whom 54,444 (71 per cent)

were located in urban areas (localities with more

than 2000 habitants).16 The results were disputed

by indigenous organisations [which] publicly

announced that they regarded the results as invalid,

given the absence of information prior to the

census, the lack of training, on this point, for the

people tasked with conducting it and the non-

participation of first peoples as census agents17

(Golluscio 2006, p.25). The figures therefore

require further upward revision. Communities

account for no more than 60 per cent of the ruralMapuche population (13,195 persons, or 17 per

cent of the total Mapuche population). The remain-

der is formed of small livestock farmers who live in

rural areas but have no official status as communi-

ties. Consequently, these groups, like the urban

Mapuche, derive no benefit from any of the states

measures to improve the situation of indigenous

peoples.

Neuqun province:a specific case

Once the Conquest of the Desert had been

accomplished in 1885, Patagonia and Tierra del

Fuego were directly governed by the national state

until the creation of the Patagonian provinces on 15

June 1955 (law 14.408). This marked the begin-

ning of the provincialisation of the indigenous

issue, for each of the new administrative entities

was endowed with a specific juridical and political

apparatus for handling its relations with native

peoples (Briones 2005). At national level, indig-



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citizens, but in Neuqun province the Mapuche

presence was acknowledged from the outset. This

is clear from Article 239 (clause d) of the 1957

provincial constitution, which provides for the

maintenance and expansion of indigenous reserva-

tions and concessions; technical and economicassistance in order to promote the education and

training and rational utilisation of the land granted;

and the improvement of living conditions for the

inhabitants18 (Varela 1981, p.96). The provincial

state then devised a specific set of paternalist poli-

cies to further socio-cultural integration, develop-

ment strategies, and assistance measures, policies

which would have a strong impact on the structures

maintained by community-dwelling indigenous

peoples. In 1964, the provincial authorities issued

decree 737 (Reserva de tierras a favor de agrupa-ciones indgenas) which recognised 18 communi-ties (agrupaciones)19 and their receipt of insecurecollective rights to occupy certain areas of land.

Each of these communities took the name of its

chief, i.e. of the person who had negotiated with

the state in order to register the group he repre-

sented. Finally, if the communities fulfilled a

certain number of conditions they would be

allowed to assume full ownership of their lands, a

process which has still not been completed at thetime of writing. The reasons for this early focus on

the Mapuche population relate to the newly created

provinces desire for a distinct identity. Neuqun

wanted to distinguish itself from the national state

and thus integrated the Mapuche into its frame-

work by emphasising the historical influence of

the Mapuche in the formation of regional society

and identity20 (Briones and Daz 1997). The

Mapuche people had been settled for centuries in

the other Patagonian provinces, but it was not until

the 1980s that the province of Ro Negro beganrecognising their communities, while the province

of Chubut took another ten years to begin the

process.

Besides its notable early focus on local

indigenous issues and the emergence of a strong

indigenous movement in the late 1980s, Neuqun

province is a particularly interesting case in other

respects. Following the promulgation of decree

737 in 1964, various legal frameworks were first

of all imposed upon, and then negotiated with

Mapuche communities and organisations. These

organisations were founded by town-based

with other indigenous movements as well as with

NGOs from around the world. By the end of the

1980s, Mapuche activists and the diverse organisa-

tions that supported their claims were forcefully

intervening on the public and political stages and

calling for the return of part of their ancestrallands, recognition of their cultural difference, the

right to bilingual intercultural education, the right

of self-determination, etc. Apart from the creation

of many urban-based organisations, which height-

ened public awareness of a native presence that had

once been relegated to rural areas, it should be

noted that the number of Mapuche communities in

Neuqun province increased from 37 in the mid-

1990s (official statistics published in 1996 by the

Neuqun Department of Indigenous Affairs, DAI))

to 56 (personal communication with Miguel

Antipan, Consejo provincial de educacin, 2005).

How the state defines communities

and the lonco

The modalities of community organisation in the

province of Neuqun vary in accordance with dif-

ferent governments, which may decide to impose

new regulations on communities which seek legalrecognition as such. In 1988, the Department of

Indigenous Affairs (Direccin de asuntos indge-nas) suggested that communities adopt a statustype and become legal persons, a process that

would enable them to assume collective ownership

of the lands they occupied (law 1759). In most

respects, this is the status type that applies to

not-for-profit civil organisations in Argentina,

which are obliged to hold general meetings and

elect a board of directors and an audit committee.

They must also keep a register of the minutes takenat various meetings. Communities were therefore

expected to adapt, at least formally, so that their

traditional political structures and kinship-based

governance conformed to a specific type of asso-

ciation which was quite alien to the indigenous

world and regulated by statutes. The only official

effort to accommodate Mapuche culture in this

arrangement was the utilisation of the term chraunin place of assembly or meeting: vta chraun (vta= large) denotes general meetings and pichi chraun(pichi = small) smaller meetings such as the pichichraun de la comisin directiva y la comisin revi-



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According to Article 22 of the status type, the

board of directors is composed of six people: a

president (the lonco), a vice-president (the secondlonco or inal lonko), a secretary (werken, theMapuche term for messenger), a treasurer (a role

for which there is no equivalent in the Mapuchelanguage), and two others. The members, like

those of the audit committee, are elected by major-

ity vote at a vta chraun and serve for a renewabletwo-year period. The ballot must be secret (Article

24) but as I have observed, it is conducted, like all

other votes, by a show of hands; a secret ballot is

difficult to implement in populations with high

illiteracy rates. All members of the community

above the age of 18 are entitled to vote and run for

election, which affords women the possibility of

obtaining the highest posts in the community hier-

archies. The political structure of the communities

and the role of the lonco were therefore determinedby the provincial authorities.

Mapuche rights organisations contested the

states imposition of the status type, which

remained for many years the only form of legal

existence and the only means of benefiting from a

number of socio-economic advantages, by drafting

alternative types. These were accepted by the

national authorities (but not by Neuqun province)in 1995, when the community of Kalfvkur

achieved official recognition (Estatuto autnomoKalfvkur). These arrangements, which are still inplace, have led to the recognition of fifteen other

communities in Neuqun province. Such commu-

nities have thus been able to bypass the provincial

authorities and their directives and achieve recog-

nition at national level through more freely chosen

arrangements.21

By imposing the status type on communi-

ties, the provincial authorities demonstrated theneed to negotiate with the Mapuche in order to

ensure that they had similar structures to those of

white society. Now the need to create stratified

structures represented by a single chief and con-

sequently a by single privileged interlocutor had

been evident some years earlier, when the pro-

vincial government authorised, on 6 June 1970,

the creation the Confederacin indgena neuquina(CIN), an umbrella organisation whose name

would be changed to Confederacin mapucheneuquina (CMN) in the 1990s. At a meeting organ-ised by the provincial governor and bishop,22 30

committee. The CIN would be headed by a lonco23

and a committee which would manage communi-

cations with the provincial governor. This executive

body would be elected annually, then every two

years, by the CIN Parliament (Parlamento) which

included the lonco of all the communities in theprovince. The CIN was mainly an arbitration body,

dealing with problems within and between commu-

nities, and an intermediary in Mapuche dealings

with the provincial authorities, especially in

matters concerning the collective ownership of

land. Not content with determining how communi-

ties elected the lonco, the state helped to create anorganisation, the CIN, which was structured as a

hierarchy and headed by a single representative.

But Mapuche society functions on the basis of the

segmentation of power between the different

family heads; the establishment of a single loncofor each community is therefore problematic (Kra-

dolfer 2008). Intra-community arbitration by the

CIN lonco seems totally incompatible withMapuche social organisation. One suspects that in

creating the CIN, the provincial authorities were

thinking more of harmonising Mapuche structures

with the non-Mapuche political system than of pro-

moting organisation and cooperation between com-

munities. However, other Mapuche actors wastedlittle time in penetrating the CINs higher echelons

in order challenge to the provincial government.

Articulation betweenthe base and theorganisations

In addition to the various forms of social and politi-

cal organisation resulting from the different legal

frameworks imposed first by theArgentine state andlater by the provincial authorities, the late 1980s

saw the emergence of new influential figures.24

These were the leaders, individuals who had

worked in the Mapuche rights associations which

had sprung up in towns in response to increasing

demands for human and indigenous rights towards

the end of the twentieth century. Urban associations

brought together young Mapuche whose families

had left the communities in the 1960s and 1970s in

search of a better life on the outskirts of towns.

Some of these organisations were relatively well

connected to international indigenous political



8/13

category of power holders was gradually installed at

the head of these groups, either by means of

co-option or through elections.25 These individuals

may be regarded as cultural brokers (passeursculturels) (Bierschenk et al. 2000); they were

indigenous but had acquired, either through contactwith the dominant society or by integrating into it as

individuals, the skills needed to negotiate with the

state and international bodies; as a result, they found

themselves positioned between the state and the

communities. From the outset, urban associations in

Neuqun had chosen to work closely with rural

communities,26 which they regarded as the only

repositories of the one true Mapuche way of life.

At the beginning of the 1990s, dissenting voices in

the communities began criticising the CINs will-

ingness to collaborate with the government whereas

urban associations were drawing closer to the

umbrella organisation. Some urban leaders, who

were also members of newly created communities,

gradually stepped up their involvement in CIN

activities and eventually managed to occupy

responsible positions on its committee. It was also

under their influence that the name Confederacinindgena neuquina was changed to Confederacinmapuche neuquina (CMN), the term indgena being

regarded as too pejorative. The year 1992 saw thecreation of a new organisation which federated

urban organisations and the CMN: the Coordina-dora de organizaciones mapuche (COM).27 Severalmembers of urban associations have been elected to

key posts in the COM and are now involved in

steering the activities of the CMN, following a

policy of systematic opposition to the provincial

government that is leading to dissensions and local

conflicts.

Some leaders may be regarded as organic

intellectuals; they have worked towards raisingthe profile of the Mapuche in a country which

considers itself ethnically homogeneous, and have

attempted to reverse the negative stereotypes asso-

ciated with the figure of the Indian. In the 1980s

and even in the early 1990s, Mapuche urban popu-

lations seldom claimed their indigenous identity

and preferred to define themselves as criollas(creoles). But by the 1990s, more and more people

were affirming their indigenous origins. This phe-

nomenon was perhaps also accentuated at local

level by the fact that contrary to their parents

expectations, Mapuche born in towns did not feel

of discrimination in the following terms: Look at

my face, the colour of my skin . . . even if I dye my

hair blonde, Ill always be regarded as a bloo. . .

Indian . . .. Mapuche associations flourish not

only in the provincial capital, Neuqun city, but

also in smaller towns such as Zapala and Junn delos Andes. Some, following the COM line, adopt

very clear-cut political positions in opposition to

the provincial government; others are more con-

cerned with the promotion and diffusion of their

culture (Mapuche language workshops, traditional

weaving classes, revival of certain rituals, etc.).

While most of them still focus on community-

based rural populations, others are currently cam-

paigning for the recognition of urban indigenous

populations. However, as one Mapuche leader

explained, it is still far easier to obtain NGO

funding for community-based projects than for the

deprived Mapuche populations found on the out-

skirts of large towns. Consequently, the perception

that Mapuche culture is confined to rural areas

seems likely to persist for some time.

The new Mapuche leaders

I have taken the term cultural brokers (passeursculturels) from Bierschenk to define Mapucheleaders, as this expression is highly appropriate for

them, for their urban trajectory is similar to that of

other Argentinians. Not only have they received an

education (in some cases to baccalaureate or

degree level or some form of training in university

extension centres), they have also learned how to

operate the machinery of local politics and public

administration. In parallel to these achievements

and their socialising influence (in terms of expo-

sure to broader Argentinian society), they havemaintained contact with their communities and/or

families in rural areas and have been sensitised to

their problems. This dual cultural heritage enables

them to project an indigenous voice at national

level if negotiations with provincial authorities

prove unsatisfactory (the drafting of the Estatutoautnomo Kalfvkur being one example), and atinternational level when it becomes necessary.

When they established contact with the trans-

national indigenous movement, Mapuche leaders

had to adapt their local discourse to the issues and

terminology of global indigenous struggles. It is



9/13

Mapuche indigenous people or Mapuche

people, a form of international terminology

which states are often unwilling to accept, given

that the idea of a people implies self-

determination. Although the term Indio (Indian) is

highly pejorative and consequently excluded fromthe leaders vocabulary, it is not unusual to hear

Mapuche from the communities who use it when

they talk about themselves, as shown above. I

knew it should not be used and thought the

Mapuche had abandoned it, so I was surprised to

hear it so often during my field studies. When I

asked people why they used it, I received two

types of answer. On the one hand, they told me

that the term was one way of affirming their dif-

ference: I say Indio because that is what I am; itswhat the Huinca28 have always called us. On theother, its utilisation may depend on the context of

the discussion: It can be pejorative, but it depends

how you say it and who says it . . .. When I asked

why they did not prefer the term Mapuche, some

people replied that they were not Mapuche,

because Mapuche, Mapuche . . . are those cheeky

people who appear on television and use our

culture for their own benefit. It is possible that the

use of the term Indio (instead of Mapuche) to refer

to an identity that is felt and affirmed in a positiveway despite the daily experience of marginalisa-

tion and suffering creates a gulf between some

Mapuche and leaders whose campaigns for the

protection of native rights and identity have

endowed them with professional and public status.

It is not unusual to hear Mapuche people

complain that a small group of individuals have

become spokespersons for an entire people. Now it

is precisely the hybrid situation in which leaders

find themselves, their status as experts on indig-

enous issues and as privileged witnesses, thatattracts the attention of journalists and anthropolo-

gists. As they are able to marshal several legal,

anthropological, sociological, political, and other

arguments (which are often shared by indigenous

rights groups in other parts of the world), their

discourses are more easily understood by non-

Mapuche people. This familiarity is linked to their

role, to the need to act on social and political levels

other than those of the communities. Since they are

involved on the transnational stage, their language,

speeches, attitudes, etc., are addressed in particular

to the outside world and will often seem incom-

such as the language (which a large segment of the

Mapuche population no longer speaks), and the

religion (a subject which, usually, is seldom dis-

cussed with the Huinca). They also stress the privi-leged relationship between the Mapuche and

Mother Earth (uke Mapu)29 in romantic termslinked to the environmental discourse that has

become fashionable since the Rio Declaration

(1992), although they have little personal experi-

ence of life in the communities, of raising live-

stock, or farming. Whereas in the communities an

individual acquires authority and the recognition of

his peers through his ability to look after his herd

and manage his domestic group, leaders acquire

status primarily through individual contact with

non-Mapuche society. Their professional special-

isation as activists is equally incomprehensible

to many other Mapuche, who accuse them of

working as Mapuche, given that their incomes

derive from their involvement with their organisa-

tions. From that point of view, anyone can work as

a Mapuche if they choose to adopt a coherent

discourse on Mapuche culture and identity. Now

for many people identity is an internal matter; it

cannot and should not be exhibited publicly. As

Briones has shown, leaders have also attracted

criticism from former allies in marginalised, eco-nomically insecure sectors: the other non-

indigenous components of these populations often

view the particularism of their demands in an

unfavourable light, and participate in hegemonic

interpretations by stigmatising their actions, as

well as those of indigenous activists who they see

as simply exploiting identity in order to profit

from circumstances which everybody finds

difficult30 (Briones 2005, p.15).

Conclusion

It will be clear from the examples discussed above

that neither the current organisation of communi-

ties nor the role and status of the lonco are deter-mined solely by the Mapuche themselves. The

same can be said for urban organisations, which

owe as much to the new opportunities for political

action arising from the international context as

they do to the increasing awareness of new genera-

tions of urban Mapuche and their claim to a spe-

cific identity. Therefore it is no longer possible

to conduct a political anthropology of Mapuche



10/13

with two relatively distant but inseparable worlds.

As Briones points out, anthropological work with

cultural activists is very different from conducting

field studies in Mapuche communities. Activists in

fact behave differently. They are extremely con-

scious of their engagement in the political strug-gle (Briones 1999, Introduction). It is precisely

through political action that indigenous organisa-

tions have acquired a higher profile in the new

millennium, and are now accepted as interme-

diaries by states, international organisations, and

multinational companies.

Although the multiplication of interventions

from the Mapuche world has not resulted in co-

ordinated strategies, it is reasonable to suggest that

the dispersal of power at different levels in com-

munities and urban associations has enabled them

to mount a strong resistance to the hegemony of the

state by multiplying their levels of action. The

processes of indigenous resistance bring to mind

the conclusions drawn by Ferguson and Gupta

(2002), which show that the various levels, the

local, the national and the international, are nolonger embedded in each other. On the one hand,

as we have seen with ILO Convention 169, states

can evade non-binding decisions taken at inter-

national level. On the other, social networks

can (re)articulate the relations between local and

international actors, whether governmental or

non-governmental. Thus local organisations and

communities can enlist the aid of international

networks which will support their struggles and

help them to exert pressure on the provinces or

states in which they are based.

Notes

1. While I tend to favour indig-

enous, the term officially used in

international organisations, I will

sometimes use native as a sub-

stantive or adjective for rhetoricalor stylistic reasons. The terms canbe taken as synonymous for the

purposes of this paper.

2. El 56% de los argentinos tiene

antepasados indgenas.

3. Between December 1994 andApril 1998, I conducted approxi-

mately 30 months of field study in

this province. The research was

partly funded by a doctoral bursary

from the Swiss National ScienceFoundation (SNSF), and I made

regular visits in order to pursue myobservations in a diachronic per-

spective. The present article forms

part of Indigenous Claims and

Affirmations of Identity in Latin

America: How Respect for Differ-

ence Engenders Differences, thepost-doctoral research project (also

funded by SNSF) I am conducting

at the Autonomous University of

Barcelona and the National Univer-sity of Ro Negro (Argentina).

at the UN between 1985 and 1995,

see Schulte-Tenckhoff (1997).

5. The impact of this document on

the indigenous issue in variouscountries predates its acceptance by

the Assembly General, for elementsof the draft declaration had already

influenced certain legal texts in the

late 1990s, especially in Latin

America.

6. http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/

ratifce.pl?C169 [accessed 10 June

2011].

7. Ley 23.302 sobre poltica ind-

gena y apoyo a las comunidadesaborgenes.

8. al conjunto de familias que se

reconozca como tal, con identidad,

cultura y organizacin social

propias, que conserven normas,

pautas y valores de tradicin, que

hablen o hayan hablado una lenguaautctona que conviven en un

hbitat comn, en asentamientos

nucleados o dispersos.

9. proveer a la seguridad de las

fronteras, conservar el trato pac-

10. Art 75: Corresponde al

Congreso: . . . 17. Reconocer la

preexistencia tnica y cultural de

los pueblos indgenas argentinos;

garantizar el respeto a su identidady el derecho a una educacin bil-inge e intercultural; reconocer la

personera jurdica de sus comuni-

dades y la posesin y propiedad

comunitaria de las tierras que tradi-

cionalmente ocupan, regulando la

entrega de otras aptas y suficientespara el desarrollo humano; ninguna

de ellas ser enajenable, transmis-

ible ni susceptible de gravmenes o

embargos. Asegurar su partici-

pacin en la gestin referida a susrecursos naturales y a los demsintereses que los afectan. Las pro-

vincias pueden ejercer concurrente-

mente estas atribuciones.

11. The Mapuche refer to this

epoch as Epoca de la Perdicin(the Epoch of Ruin) or simply laPerdicin since the territoriesinvaded by Argentinian armies

were neither uninhabited nor arid,as the term desert implies. For

more information on the authori-ties use of this term in relation to

territories with no white popula-



11/13

12. The term lonco, which literallymeans head, refers to the chiefsof the communities. Historically,

only males could hold this post, but

since the Argentinian authorities

changed the lonco election methodseveral women have assumed the

position.

13. In order to distinguish between

officials of Mapuche organisations

and community heads, I will refer

to the former as leaders and the

latter as lonco.

14. Existe en este hogar alguna

persona que se reconozca descendi-

ente o perteneciente a un pueblo

indgena?

15. Debido a errneos criterios

metodolgicos utilizados para

definir la unidad censal, dej sin

registrar a pobladores rurales dis-

persos como as tambin a losmigrantes en el medio urbano.

Debido a ello el total poblacional

registrado en el CIN debe

considerarse bastante alejado de

la realidad.

16. Something similar occurred inChile in 1992. The results of this

population survey showed that

almost 10 per cent of the popula-

tion above the age of 14 identified

themselves as Mapuche, a totalof just under one million people.

Eighty per cent of this population

lived in towns, and especially in

the metropolitan region (IEI/

UFRO-INE 1998, p.7).

17. las organizaciones indgenas

han expresado pblicamente quedesconocen la validez de sus

resultados por la ausencia de

difusin previa al censo, la falta de

formacin de los encargados de

realizarlo respecto de ese punto yla no participacin de los miembros

de los pueblos originarios como

agentes censistas.

18. Sern mantenidas y an

ampliadas las reservas y conc-

esiones indgenas. Se prestarayuda tcnica y econmica a estas

agrupaciones propendiendo de su

capacitacin y la utilizacin

racional de las tierras concedidas,

mejorando las condiciones de vida

de sus habitantes.

19. The number of officially recog-

nised communities would increaseand have their existence ratified by

later decrees (977/66, 1039/72,

1588/86, etc.).

20. [el] peso histrico de lo

Mapuche en la conformacin de lasociedad e identidad regionales.

21. For a detailed study of this

document, see Briones (1999)

and Falaschi (dir.) (1996).

22. This link between state and

ecclesiastical leaders exemplifiesthe historical special relationshipbetween state and church in Latin

America.

23. As yet, no woman has occu-

pied this post.

24. During the military dictator-

ship (19761983), the most radical

indigenous organisations weredismantled and their leaders

persecuted.

25. The criteria for becoming

leaders of these organisations are

not always clear. The fact that the

same people have occupied the

summit of these hierarchies formore than ten years has sometimes

prompted allegations of nepotism

from their members.

26. In the neighbouring province

of Ro Negro, the Mapuche move-

ment (Consejo asesor indgena)decided to focus on campaigns

against the exploitation of indig-enous small-scale stockbreeders

and formed an alliance with organi-

sations fighting for the rights of

small producers. It therefore

adopted a policy based on class

rather than ethnic difference.

27. The emergence, development,

and integration into the CMN ofurban organisations are described

in detail in Briones (1999,

chapter 2).

28. White people; people other

than Mapuche. This term, which is

also a synonym of thieves, can

also be offensive.

29. Mapu means earth and chemeans people. The Mapuche are

thus the People of the Earth.

30. los restantes componentes no

indgenas de estas poblacionesmuchas veces recepcion[a]n desfa-

vorablemente la particularidad

de sus reclamos, concurriendo con

interpretaciones hegemnicas

que estigmatizan las demandas y

demandantes indgenas como

encarnacin de meras instrumental-

izaciones identitarias para sacarprovecho de circunstancias

difciles para todos.

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