Globally, Indigenous Marine Areas are contributing to ocean sustainability by protecting key habitats and species whilst safeguarding customary uses for local communities. They are emerging as one of the key political mechanisms that can counteract the ravages of the blue Anthropocene. Nevertheless, their contributions are threatened by the accelerating expansion of economic activities, and exclusionary marine governance systems, affecting both marine biodiversity and human wellbeing. In southern Chile, indigenous communities have been countering the expansion of the salmon farms by promoting the establishment of Espacios Costeros Marinos para Pueblos Originarios (here called Indigenous Marine Areas or IMAs). These IMAs are being developed by coastal communities to protect traditional or customary coastal uses, and revitalizing culture whilst contributing to marine conservation. Using a relational theoretical approach and mixed methods, the paper presents the major trends in the implementation of IMAs in Chile. Through the case of the Los Lagos Region, it shows how the action-network that pursued the designation of IMAs is continuing today. The paper stresses the role of conservation assemblages to lead collective actions, showing how these constellations of agents have been interacting during the decision-making process and institutional building, whilst promoting the establishment of IMAs as place-based democratic mechanism to promote the sustainability of the southern Chile.

This article reflects on the multiple worlds generated around waterscapes in the diverse Mapuche territory, Wallmapu. We contrast the responses of three Mapuche communities to external interventions and water availability in the Chimehuin and Lepá rivers in Argentina, and the Huenehue River in Chile. The comparison reveals the nature of Mapuche waterscapes, the tensions provoked by the global economy, and its impacts on water management. Mapuche communities establish an intersubjective relationship with water, securing and protecting their water supply. Waterscapes are constituted as living entities where human and nonhuman stories converge and on which biocultural memory is periodically enriched in its response to a changing environment. We conclude that coexistence between Mapuche and non-Mapuche worlds, however diverse the communities might be, is sustained through equivocal relations and partial connections. Established views of water management in Wallmapu could be greatly enriched by the Mapuche’s views and practices. Keywords: biocultural memory, equivocal relations, Mapuche waterscapes, partial connections, pluriverse.

Los Espacios Costeros Marinos para Pueblos Originarios (ECMPOs) son áreas delimitadas de la zona marino-costera, cuyo objetivo es el resguardo de los usos consuetudinarios practicados por comunidades indígenas asentadas en la zona costera de Chile. Analizamos las implicancias analíticas y políticas del concepto de uso consuetudinario en el marco de los ECMPOs. Consideramos que el uso consuetudinario de un determinado espacio marino-costero se basa en una relación específica entre las comunidades indígenas con otros seres – humanos o no humanos – que se ha dado históricamente como una adecuación mutua para la reproducción de la vida, lo que representa una ética de convivencia que fundamenta formas sustentables de habitar. Tomando como ejemplo la realidad de la Región de Los Lagos, que concentra la mayor parte de las solicitudes de ECMPOs en Chile, planteamos que el establecimiento de estos espacios ha gatillado transformaciones en los diversos usos de los recursos naturales – en base a una lógica consuetudinaria –, motivando acciones que buscan la conservación de la biodiversidad en el bordemar de la zona sur austral del país.

The article aims to examine relevant aspects of “being an indigenous peasant in the city” through mobility processes. It attends practices and meanings of Mapuche mobility that connect the city of Temuco and its surrounding towns of Maquehue and Labranza (La Araucanía Region, Chile), both with a substantial number of indigenous communities. We identify that the dichotomy between being an indigenous peasant and an indigenous city dweller requires a theoretical turn that contextualizes the spaces in which the indigenous population lives and moves. The present work examines the processes of Mapuche mobility by integrating ethnographic instruments (ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews) and mobile methods. We record the passenger flows on public transport in the urban-territorial system in Temuco and apply the shading technique to the Mapuche during their daily movements. This combined methodology, defined as an ethnography on the move, is sustained by an interdisciplinary articulation between anthropology and geography that illustrates the processes of peasant Mapuche mobility in connection with the city. Three approaches arise to support the results: spatialities, temporalities, and identities. Mobility processes make it possible to understand the meaning of being an indigenous peasant in the city, thereby transcending the urban-rural dichotomy that has prevailed in indigenous studies. The article focuses on the socio-spatial dynamics of the indigenous peasant through mobility processes via an innovative methodology that articulates ethnographic and socio-spatial data that can transcend the prevailing static and dualistic lens through which indigenous populations have been studied.

Recent international recognition of indigenous peoples, their rights and contributions to solving current challenges has directed academic attention to the way research is conducted in relation to them, what topics are studied, by whom, and using which methodologies. The Mapuche are the most numerous indigenous peoples in South America and have ancestrally inhabited a territory denominated Wallmapu. This study undertook a comprehensive revision and meta-analysis of the scientific literature related to the Mapuche and Wallmapu. Through quantification and visualization of the scientific landscape, the goal was to enhance the understanding of the themes and patterns that have guided research in this field of study. We found 1611 documents in Web of Science and SciELO collections published between 1975 and 2020. Using CiteSpace software, we analyzed the main conceptual hotspots, identified central authors and pivotal works, among other aspects of the scientific knowledge domain. The main research themes found revolve around political and historical aspects of the relationship between Mapuche and the State; ethnobotanical research including plant properties and cultural knowledge transmission; and the indisputable connection between indigenous resistance and environmental depredation. We argue that valuing cultural diversity paves the road for reclaiming indigenous knowledge as a contribution to our understanding of the world.

The classic approach to research on toponymy is limited to a linguistic focus. This reductionism has had a negative impact on the study of the toponymy of intercultural and indigenous territories, as in the case of the northern Patagonia. Based on a two-year ethnographic study in northern Patagonia, this article analyzes the socio-spatial dimension of Mapuche toponymy, through a mixed methodology involving both data collection and analysis, and an ethnographic approach. The article analyzes how these toponyms emerge from a variety of socio-spatial practices and meanings that are not only intertwined, but also involve several social, environmental, and political dimensions. We argue that the study of indigenous toponymy as a space-time compression entails an ontological opening of toponymy based on the process of inhabiting place. In this regard, the paper discusses the importance of understanding indigenous toponymy as a historically situated process.