The persistence of «Living as a Mapuche». An approximation to the ethnic identity of the mapuche community Folil Mapu, in the Region of Maule, Chile

Abstract

Through an exploratory study carried out from an ethnographic approach, set out to identify how has been configured the ethnic identity of the mapuche community FolilMapu, who currently resides in the commune
of Curico, in the region of Maule, Chile. To address this process, be contemplated four fundamental categories of analysis from which the mapuche migration is studied: a) ethnic identity, b) ethnicity, c) collective memory and d) ethnification-ethnogenesis. The results obtained show a consistent cultural continuity based on the strengthening of the mapuche identity between migrants, who overcame the own disadvantages which carries with it the migration process for reasons of unemployment, and the reconfiguration of their networks and social relations in the receiving city. In this way, describes significant aspects about the process of formation of this community, the first indigenous community of the region of Maule, and how, in
an urban context, its members have built spaces and speeches about living as a mapuche.