Mapuche political identities under neoliberal multiculturalism in Argentina

257 Pages·2017·1.05 MB·English

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Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
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Lucas Savino, The University of Western Ontario
Supervisor: Dr. Verónica I. Schild, The University of Western Ontario
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Political Science
© Lucas Savino 2013
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd
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Savino, Lucas, "The quest for territorial autonomy: Mapuche political identities under neoliberal
multiculturalism in Argentina" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1717.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1717
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THE QUEST FOR TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY: MAPUCHE POLITICAL
IDENTITIES UNDER NEOLIBERAL MULTICULTURALISM IN ARGENTINA

(Thesis format: Monograph)

by

Lucas Dario Savino

Graduate Program in Political Science

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada

© Lucas Savino, 2013
Abstract
In the context of neoliberal multiculturalism, indigenous activists face a fundamental
dilemma. While they organize as indigenous peoples to negotiate and demand from states
new terms of citizenship, activists recognize that new forms of accommodation for such
demands exist within state institutions. However, indigenous organizations also discover that
certain demands exceed these new spaces of participation. I argue that territorial autonomy is
one such demand because it challenges the existing power imbalances between indigenous
peoples and the state.
Not surprisingly, territorial autonomy is a common goal of many emerging forms of
indigenous activism in contemporary Latin America. Based on new understandings of
“indigenous territories” and “autonomy,” indigenous collective action uses the language of
territorial autonomy to challenge the framework and functioning of neoliberal
multiculturalism at the local level. By studying neoliberal multiculturalism as a form of
government over indigenous populations at a local level, this study engages with broader
perspectives that address state formation as a cultural process that involves the formation of
and control over citizens’ subjectivities through specific forms of citizenship.
This approach to indigenous activism allows me to examine the complexity of ongoing
political negotiations between indigenous subjects and the neoliberal state. Compliance with
the neoliberal parameters of citizenship continues to be sought by post-Washington
Consensus states, however, demands for territorial autonomy and the practices of land
reoccupations remind us that indigenous activism offers a legitimate alternative form of
politics. This is a politics aimed at taking back what has been lost or perceived as lost by a
group via collective action. In this study, I call this form of politics “redemptive.” In
exploring redemptive politics, my study privileges the local level of indigenous activism.
Through a study of the Mapuche, the indigenous peoples of southern Argentina, I argue that
the local level is a fundamental space in which to address the exchanges, negotiations, and
conflict between indigenous peoples and the state, especially in cases where they constitute a
minority of the national population.
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To understand the meaning and impact of new kinds of Mapuche activism and new forms of
indigenous collective identity, this dissertation addresses three dimensions of indigenous
politics: the configuration of indigenous collective identities and their translation into
political organizations; the configuration and consolidation of such identities as the result of
ongoing resistance, negotiations, and accommodation with the state; and the conflicts around
demands for territorial autonomy that often result in the criminalization and rejection of
indigenous demands by the state because they exceed the limits of indigenous citizenship
under neoliberal multiculturalism. All three dimensions are studied privileging the local
level, which this study argues is fundamental to address in the contexts in which those wh
self-identify as indigenous peoples are a minority of the national population. Thus, I claim
that the study of indigenous politics must privilege the ways in which new forms of activism
negotiate and enter into conflict with the state against the background of neoliberal
multiculturalism, a cultural project of governing indigenous subjects that is compatible with
the expansion of global capitalism and the reach of modern state institutions.
This thesis relies on a field study of contemporary indigenous mobilization in Argentina
through which the Mapuche have become politically organized. Through an analysis of the
ways in which Mapuche activists organize in a particular locality, the province of Neuquén in
southern Argentina, this dissertation contributes to the theoretical understanding of collective
identity formation and indigenous activism in contexts where indigenous peoples are a
minority of the national population. Building on interdisciplinary contributions on state
formation, citizenship, and collective identity formation, I argue that in the context of
minority indigenous mobilization, territorial struggles and the importance of the local
political level are crucial for understanding how collective identities are configured and how
indigenous activists engage with the state in interesting ways to advance their claims. In this
study, I look at the formation of collective identities through processes of contestation,
struggles and conflict and also of negotiation and accommodation with institutions,
discourses, and practices of the state and the forms of citizenship it sustains. Accordingly,
this study on contemporary Mapuche activism advances our understanding of how
indigenous collective identities are formed as the result of ongoing interactions between
indigenous activists and the state.

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Keywords

Indigenous politics, Argentina, Mapuche peoples, state formation, citizenship, collective
identities, neoliberal multiculturalism
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Acknowledgments
First and foremost, this thesis would not have been possible without the Mapuche women
and men who spent a considerable amount of time talking with me about their activism,
communities, organizations, and politics. They also shared their personal stories that helped
me to understand how their everyday life informes their activism and the other way around. I
have been treasuring these stories and conversations ever since. I would particularly like to
acknowledge the leaders of the Confederación Mapuche de Neuquén for their time. Some of
them welcomed me into their homes; others invited me to fvta trawun (Parleys); others talked
to me about the challenges of being a Mapuche activist in the context of Argentina and
Neuquén; they all helped me to talk to the traditional authorities of the rural communities I
visited. I am indebted to these women and men for their generosity. Without them, I could
not have continued the research that led to this dissertation.
At the University of Western Ontario, my supervisor, Dr. Verónica Schild helped me in
exceptional ways. Dr. Schild helped me build the foundations for this dissertation and she
took “surgical” care with my writing and articulation of my key arguments. For a long time, I
have admired her work on state formation and the neoliberalization of citizenship and their
impact on women. As a scholar, my intellectual debt to her will last a lifetime. But my
gratitude to Dr. Schild extends far beyond her commitment as my thesis supervisor. Over the
years, she worked tiresslessly to help me build the kind of confidence I needed not only to
write this dissertation, but also to prepare me to navigate the rough waters of academia. In
doing this, Dr. Schild became the mentor that most doctoral candidates only hear about but I
was lucky to have. In this context, I took her insightful feedback and ongoing intellectual
challenges as the best indication that my work mattered.
I also have to thank Dr. Kim Clark and Dr. Julie McMullin, members of my supervisory
committee. Coming from Anthropology and Sociology, respectively, they both supported my
“multidisciplinary tendencies” from the begining. They both helped me to gain confidence
that I could study Mapuche politics in a way that defies disciplinary boundaries. In similar
ways, Dr. Nandita Biswas-Mellamphy and Dr. Douglas Long, who later became part of the
thesis examination committee, encouraged me to think about the contributions of critical
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theory to the study of politics. In Argentina, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Claudia
Briones whose work has inspired me to continue working with the Mapuche.
As I was approaching completion of this dissertation, I was fortunate to become a full-time
faculty member of the Centre for Global Studies at Huron University College. The
interdisciplinary nature of the Centre and the constant support of my colleagues provided the
perfect conditions to put some of my arguments to test and complete this work. I am grateful
to Global Studies for providing a supportive intellectual space for my teaching and ongoing
research and to Huron University College for providing some financial support for my
ongoing research in Mapuche communities in Patagonia.
Despite the limitations that exist in funding doctoral projects for international graduate
students, I am grateful to have received support from the Faculty of Social Sciences at
Western and from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). While I had to
decline IDRC funding due to time constrainsts, IDRC support for this project and the
feedback I received from this institution was instrumental in allowing me to continue with
the last stages of my research. As mentioned above, the Research Committee at Huron
University College provided additional funding.
Finally, I have to express my deepest gratitude to my family. I received my acceptance letter
from Western the day after I married Karen. This dissertation accompanied us ever since.
And like all companies, graduate school was at times a welcomed feature in our lives.
Sometimes it was not. Our first daughter, Melina, was born shorly before I left for my first
field trip. Emilia, our second daughter, was born shorly before I completed my first draft and
was appointed at the Centre for Global Studies. With all these changes, I often feared my
capacity to negotiate the worlds of family life and academic was nil. Karen provided all the
support one can only expect from a committed, caring, and engaged partner under these
circumstances. My parents and grandparents in the province of Córdoba, Argentina
supported me with many of the logistics for my research in Patagonia. All of them offered
unconditional love.
It is to my daughters, Melina and Emilia, that I dedicate my dissertation.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii
Preface................................................................................................................................ xi
Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 The case for studying Indigenous Political Identities and Organization in Minority
Contexts .................................................................................................................. 4
1.2 Methodological Approach and Research Questions ............................................... 5
1.3 The Case: Mapuche Activism in Neuquén, Argentina ........................................... 7
1.3.1 Indigenous peoples in Argentina ................................................................ 8
1.3.2 Neuquén ...................................................................................................... 9
1.3.3 Mapuche peoples in contemporary Neuquén ............................................ 10
1.4 Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Territorial Autonomy at the Centre of Mapuche
Political Identity .................................................................................................... 12
1.4.1 Neoliberal Multiculturalism ...................................................................... 13
1.4.2 Territorial autonomy ................................................................................. 14
1.5 Theories: State Formation, Collective Identities, and Neoliberal Citizenship...... 17
1.5.1 Institutions Matter: The contribution of historical institutionalism .......... 18
1.5.2 Neoliberal citizenship ............................................................................... 20
1.6 Plan of the Dissertation ......................................................................................... 23
Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 25
2 Indigenous peoples and the state: Toward a political and conceptual approach .......... 25
2.1 Making citizens: indigenous peoples and the state in Latin America ................... 27
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2.2 State formation: from “neutral” institutions to the constitutive role of culture .... 33
2.3 Citizenship: Spaces of participation and discipline .............................................. 38
2.3.1 Citizenship as membership, status, and rights .......................................... 39
2.3.2 Citizenship as active political participation .............................................. 42
2.3.3 Citizenship as discipline and regulation ................................................... 44
2.4 The neoliberalization of the state and citizenship ................................................. 46
2.4.1 The neoliberal state ................................................................................... 46
2.4.2 Neoliberal Citizenship as the basis of Neoliberal Multiculturalism ......... 48
2.5 The central roles of collective identities and ethnicity in social activism ............ 51
2.5.1 Collective identities .................................................................................. 52
2.5.2 Ethnic mobilization ................................................................................... 56
2.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 60
Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 62
3 Of Hopes and Shadows. Indigenous peoples and the State in Argentina (1810-2012) 62
3.1 Roots of the Indian Question, 1810-1880 ............................................................. 65
3.2 A Final Solution for the Desert (1880-1916) ........................................................ 75
3.3 The “Indian Question” as “Social Question” (1916 – 1983) ................................ 82
3.3.1 Assimilating Citizens: the impact of Peronismo ...................................... 86
3.4 From the confines of terror (1976-1983) to the end of invisibility and recognition
(1983 to present) ................................................................................................... 93
3.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 101
Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................... 104
4 Pewmagen: Towards a new Mapuche political subjectivity in Neuquén .................. 104
4.1 Mapuche Communities in contemporary Patagonia ........................................... 106
4.2 The local state: Neuquén ..................................................................................... 110
4.3 The Confederación Mapuce de Neuquén ............................................................ 113
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4.4 Tayiñ Mapuce Normogeal. Formulating the quest for self-representation as a
pueblo nación originario .................................................................................... 120
4.5 Interculturalidad. Orienting Mapuche Struggles ................................................ 131
4.6 Conclusion: Between carrying the intentions and desires of “los antiguos” and
being a “bad” Mapuche ....................................................................................... 136
Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 139
5 Accommodated Citizenship. New Spaces for Mapuche activism ............................. 139
5.1 “Indigenous” or “Mapuche”? The politics of recognition in the Neuquén’s
Constitution ......................................................................................................... 141
5.2 Accommodation: New spaces for participation in National Parks ..................... 152
5.2.1 Co-management in Lanín National Park................................................. 156
5.3 Appropriation as resistance: From Pocahullo to Wajzugun ............................... 163
5.4 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 170
Chapter 6 ......................................................................................................................... 172
6 Territorial autonomy in times of neoliberal multiculturalism .................................... 172
6.1 The centrality of territorial claims ...................................................................... 173
6.2 Mapuche claims for territorial autonomy as a new politics of place .................. 176
6.3 Testing the limits of neoliberal multiculturalism: the politics of recuperaciones
territoriales ......................................................................................................... 179
6.3.1 Pulmarí .................................................................................................... 182
6.3.2 Quillén-Currumil..................................................................................... 188
6.4 Criminalizing Mapuche activism ........................................................................ 195
6.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 203
Chapter 7 ......................................................................................................................... 205
7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 205
7.1 Indigenous peoples and the state in minority contexts ....................................... 205
7.2 Towards a new Mapuche politics ....................................................................... 210
7.3 Territorial autonomy: to what end? ..................................................................... 211
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