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Critique of Anthropology
0(0) 1–23
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DOI: 10.1177/0308275X18821178
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territory, Chile

Francisca de la Maza Cabrera and

Carlos Felipe Bolomey C
ordova
Pontificia Universidad Cat

olica de Chile, Chile

Abstract
This article examines forms of state dependence in a Mapuche indigenous territory on
the coast of the Araucan
ıa Region, Chile. Public and private programmes have been
implemented in this area to assist the development of a territory which is considered
‘poor’ and contains a large percentage of Mapuche people. We analyse three moments
of state action from the 1990s down to the present, identifying forms of state depen-
dence which persist and evolve; relations with local counterpart organisations and the
role of state employees become crucial in these new forms of dependence. On this
basis, we conclude that today there is less expressed demand for autonomy and self-
determination processes among indigenous communities and their leaders in the stud-
ied territory, replaced by a demand for more public programmes and resources in
pursuit of an ‘improvement’ in their quality of life. This is occurring despite the current
context in Chile of greater political visibility of the indigenous problem and indigenous
claims, leading in turn to more repressive police action.

Keywords
Public policies, indigenous people, Chile, Mapuche, development, state

Corresponding author:
Francisca de la Maza Cabrera, Pontificia Universidad Cat

olica de Chile, Campus Villarrica, Bernardo O’Higgins
501, Villarrica, Chile.
Email: fcadelamaza@uc.cl
2 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

Introduction
Since 1990, Chile has carried out a programme of state actions directed towards its
indigenous peoples, representing a marked change from the preceding years. After
17 years of military dictatorship, the restored democratic government passed the
Indigenous Law, No. 19.253, in 1993. This law gave rise to various state actions to
support indigenous peoples, led initially by the National Indigenous Development
Corporation (CONADI). Since that date the design and implementation of indig-
enous policy have varied, leading to transformations in both the target peoples and
in how the state interacts with indigenous individuals and organisations. This is the
context of our interest in examining in the local space the forms and transforma-
tions of indigenous peoples’ relations with and dependence on the state. The anal-
ysis presented here takes the case of rural indigenous sectors of the comuna1 of
Saavedra in the Araucan
ıa Region of south-central Chile, part of the historical
territory of the indigenous Mapuche people. Many of the elements which we pre-
sent here are shared by other comunas with similar characteristics across
the Region.
Saavedra is located on the coast; its Mapuche inhabitants call themselves laf-
kenche (‘people of the sea’ in the Mapuche language, Mapudungun). Its population
was projected at 12,840 in 2016 (2002 Census), of whom 64% are rural and 65%
Mapuche (INE, 2015). An important aspect of this case study is that the comuna of
Saavedra is considered ‘poor’ in the discourse and representations of public
employees, academics and local actors since its socio-economic indicators are
low for the Region and the country. The Human Development Index (HDI) of
the Region as a whole is 0.679, while the HDI for Saavedra is the lowest in the
Region at 0.480 (PNUD-IDER, 2003). According to the CASEN survey,2
the percentage of the population of Chile living below the poverty line is 14.4%;
the regional figure is 27.9%, and for the comuna of Saavedra it is 47.14% (BCN,
2015). Furthermore – or as a result – the space is also perceived to be ‘highly
intervened’ and ‘studied’, but despite these actions, it continues to be ‘poor’.
The natural space in this territory is characterised by its diversity of fauna and
flora, enhanced by its coastal position and a saltwater lagoon which is an inland
arm of the sea, Budi Lake. Studies indicate that the avifauna of Budi Lake repre-
sents around 30% of the diversity of Chile and includes endemic species (LME,
2010). The natural characteristics of the lake have made it the object of several
scientific and geographical studies.
The territory is also of interest for historical and anthropological studies. For
example, the first studies of the Mapuche language and oral tradition were carried
out by Capuchin monks in this territory from the second half of the 19th century
and it has been fundamental for studies of the Mapuche people from the perspec-
tives of anthropology and other social sciences during the 20th century.
According to historical records, Saavedra was constituted as an independent
comuna in 1906; it was named after the colonel in command of the military occu-
pation of Mapuche territory, symbolising Chilean occupation and sovereignty, and
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 3

invisibilising local Mapuche place names (Caniguan, 2007, 2016). One of the prin-
cipal acts of colonisation was the allocation of 42,680 hectares bordering the shore
of Budi lake to the Budi Colonisation Company, owned by Eleuterio Dom
ınguez
and Company, in 1907 (Bengoa, 1990; Melville, 2016). After various transactions,
this became private property, and the owners began to exploit the land, particu-
larly by extracting the native forest. This explains the early deforestation and
depredation of resources in what even then was described as one of the poorest
parts of the country (Bengoa, 1990). The indigenous Mapuche population mean-
while were resettled in communities called ‘reductions’, through a total of 110 land
title grants issued between 1894 and 1917 (SITI-CONADI). These corresponded to
19,343 hectares, approximately 48.23% of the territory of the modern comuna.
Another contextual element which is fundamental for understanding the current
situation of the comuna is that this zone was severely affected by the mega-
earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 1960. This natural disaster, the largest
earthquake recorded in the history of humanity, remains present in the memory
of the lafkenche to this day (Kronmüller et al., 2017). The catastrophe was a
turning point in the positioning of the territory, because the flourishing shipping
and trading businesses carried on in the comuna came to an abrupt halt due to the
destruction caused by the tsunami. After the earthquake, funds were provided by
the state and from international aid to rebuild the town and help the devastated
communities.
In parallel with this incipient state intervention and international aid, Saavedra
became known for the Mapuche peasant movement which started to occupy land
in the context of the agricultural reforms of the 1960s (Caniguan, 2007; Rosas,
2013). The local population also participated in the land recovery and public
health actions which characterised the socialist government of Salvador Allende
(1970–1973) (Ruiz, 2005).
In the 1980s, under the military dictatorship (1973–1990), the state implemented
a number of important and highly publicised programmes (Serrano and Rojas,
2003) with a clear focus on production, in harmony with the neoliberal economic
policies of the dictatorship. At the same time, other institutions – Foundations,
NGOs, Universities and international aid organisations – were also active.
Among the actions designed to promote production in new industries, especially
in sea-fishing areas, was an initiative encouraged by a university in the late 1980s to
cultivate seaweed. This led to negative economic and environmental transforma-
tions in the territory, which was declared a protected zone after complaints by the
inhabitants.3 Another emblematic project from the 1980s was the plan for an
alternative route to the Panamerican Highway, known as the Coastal Highway,
which required the expropriation of land from the communities by the state.4
With the return of democracy in 1990 and the passing of the Indigenous Law in
1993, the comuna of Saavedra became a focus of the new policies oriented towards
indigenous peoples; it is this period that we will examine in the present article,
showing the transformations both in public policy towards indigenous peoples and
in the position of the indigenous peoples themselves in this relationship.
4 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

This process of increasing the penetration of public policies for indigenous peoples
goes hand-in-hand with greater visibility of territorial and political demands for
self-determination among some sectors of the Mapuche people, positioning their
political claims on the public agenda of the Araucan
ıa Region and the country.

Theoretical and methodological perspective

The study of public policy as a field of anthropology (Shore and Wright, 2005) not
only helps us to understand the cultural construction of the state but also serves as
a guide revealing both behaviours and the processes of subjectivation and ratio-
nality, as well as their implications at various levels; this approach allows us to
analyse both local and global aspects from a political perspective. Various authors
have considered the state from its conception as a cultural construction (Gupta,
1995; Hansen and Stepputat, 2001; Nuijten, 2003; Sayer, 2002) which imposes
models on society and is implemented at different levels, diversifying into the
spaces where these are conceived. It does this through its institutions and
agents, which implement certain policies, approaches and methodologies seeking
to impose a model of society through the relations of domination which charac-
terise states, and which are transferred to the everyday life and behaviours
of citizens.
In the context of our study, the policies which we have observed and recon-
structed seek to promote development understood in these social programmes as
sustained improvement in the quality of life of a population previously defined as
poor and indigenous. The state has not been the only actor in the pursuit of this
development. Various others, either in alliance with the state or independently,
have promoted the same line of work to contribute to an improvement in the lives
of the inhabitants. For this reason, it is impossible to separate development from
the development agencies and the state programmes which act or have acted either
in association, complementing one another or simultaneously. This is due to the
neoliberal economy established in Chile after the military dictatorship and which
grew during the 1990s, based on opening up the economy to international invest-
ment and the elimination of protectionist national barriers.
The proliferation of NGOs in Chile is a counterpart of the positioning of neo-
liberalism, since these institutions take the part of social discontent, promoting
social organisation with emphasis on the local level and with quite a strong anti-
state discourse (Petras, 1997). It is interesting to note that the Araucan
ıa Region
harbours many more NGOs than other regions of Chile; their efforts are concen-
trated mainly on development and indigenous rights (Richards, 2016).
There is a broad discussion and conceptualisation of development, which Mosse
(2005) has reduced to two perspectives: one instrumental, conceived as the rational
way of solving problems; and the other critical, containing a rationalising technical
discourse which conceals hidden aims and hides the true purpose of development.
However, as the author says, neither of these two views can show the complexities
of the preparation and implementation of development policies and projects, and
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 5

especially the ability of subjects to influence the development of these policies and
programmes through negotiation. Managing projects requires collaboration and
agreement; they cannot be simply imposed since success is fragile and failure may
become a political problem. Hegemony must be conceded, not imposed. The
promises and practices of development are fundamentally political (Mosse, 2005).
‘Improvement’ projects, understood as limited-term, externally funded interven-
tions, seek to address deficiencies which need to be tackled by a team of technicians
and/or experts, and as apolitical actions (Li, 2007); however, they must be read
from a perspective of power, in which decisions are taken and relations established.
The role of the ‘expert’ in this technical approach is generally over-dimensioned,
due to the real limits of any state intervention. Projects usually bring concrete
benefits for the inhabitants, although they sometimes collapse under the weight
of their contradictions. The majority, however, only exist over their allotted life-
span and then discreetly disappear (Li, 2016).
State and development actions form part of the same system of cultural con-
struction, interlinked and with ill-defined borders, since the lives of subjects are
entwined with their practices, just as they form part of them through everyday
relations, often firmly established, which make it difficult to identify when or where
the public ends and the private begins. Relations between public employees,
experts or development agents and the receivers of their actions are shot through
with the subjectivities of both parties, as well as the many informal negotiations
and agreements which hinder the task of drawing a dividing line between the state
apparatus and ‘civil society’ (Mart
ınez, 2013). It is the task of public employees to
interpret the action programmes of public policy. They transfer images of the State
and develop strategies, negotiating and resolving conflicts at different levels in the
implementation of this policy in the local situation, while the citizens negotiate
their expectations, projects and needs.
A key element of our case study is poverty, associated in this analysis with the
variable of ethnicity. We understand it to be an effect of social relations, not in the
narrow sense of connectivity or networks, but in terms of inequalities of power
(Mosse, 2007). A relationship of clientelism and dependence is fostered as a result,
reducing the possibilities for action of people living in poverty and limiting their
chances of improvement.
In methodological terms, this study is part of a wider investigation started in
2013 which seeks to discover the different ways in which public policy is imple-
mented in indigenous and intercultural contexts in different parts of Chile, which
we take as case studies. In particular, since 2014 we have been investigating the
comuna of Saavedra through collaboration with local agents, identifying the forms
of relationship between the state and indigenous communities as an area of interest
in a context of high levels of intervention through social and development pro-
grammes. Ethnographic studies have been carried out, with successive field visits.
A total of 27 in-depth interviews have been carried out, as well as group interviews
and documentary analysis, trying to cover different areas of public policies in order
6 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

to reconstruct the different state actions and development programmes in the ter-
ritory from both a historical and a contemporary perspective.

Moments in state action

Starting with the reconstruction of the various public and private actions in the
territory of Saavedra, we have identified three important moments for analysis of
the forms of state dependence, its transformations and strategies: (1) Indigenous
Development Area (ADI) and the proposal for Territorial Development; (2) the
Or
ıgenes (Origins) Programme and Development with Identity (3)
Institutionalisation of ‘the indigenous’ and interculturality in public policy.

BUDI ADI and territorial development

This period is marked by actions generated by the implementation of the 1993
Indigenous Law. For our purposes, there are two aspects of this law which need to
be explained and which are related to continuing state actions.
The law created a level of organisation called ‘indigenous community’ (comu-
nidad ind
ıgena),5 a grouping of individuals who belong to the same indigenous
people and further fit into a category such as a single extended family, a traditional
clan, or holding indigenous lands in common. It may be constituted with a min-
imum of 10 members aged over 18. Another organisation is the ‘indigenous asso-
ciation’ (asociaci
on ind
ıgena), constituted on the basis of common interest and
object (MIDEPLAN, 1993).
The ‘indigenous community’ is a functional social organisation and does not
respond directly to a traditional territory or to traditional Mapuche structures of
territorial and social organisation such as the lof,6 which would only be recognised
in public policy decades later; it is rather a type of organisation promoted by the
state which will transform the traditional structures of Mapuche organisation.
Once constituted, however, it becomes a potential beneficiary of state programmes.
The Law also says that an individual may apply for a ‘certificate of indigenous
quality’ (certificado de calidad de ind
ıgena), which also makes him/her eligible for
state benefits.
The Indigenous Law also created Indigenous Development Areas (Area
de
Desarrollo Ind
ıgena – ADI) which are territorial spaces in which public action is
focused, and which are formed if: they include ancestral territorial spaces, have a
high density of indigenous population, contain lands belonging to indigenous com-
munities or individuals, are marked by ecological homogeneity, or if the equilib-
rium of the territories depends on natural resources (MIDEPLAN, 1993).
ADI was invented as the main thrust of public policy oriented towards indig-
enous people, areas which would receive a greater investment of public funds, and
where the coordination and focus of various public institutions would be
improved. The Budi ADI was formed in 1997, the first in the Region, building
expectations among the local communities since important state actions and large
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 7

amounts of funding were announced, in the context of a high concentration of

indigenous people and high indices of violence, alcoholism and poverty
(Arancibia, 2012).
The Budi ADI involves communities located in the comunas of Saavedra and
Teodoro Schmidt, which together cover an area of approximately 19,000 ha. The
northern sector of the comuna of Saavedra was excluded (Caniguan, 2007). The
members of the population of Saavedra included in the ADI numbered around
7500, with an average age of 30 years (Bello et al., 2005). Over 90 ‘indigenous
communities’ participated, some reports placing the figure as high as 110; as might
be expected, the number is not exact due to the dynamic nature of the
communities.
One important aspect of the development of the Budi ADI was the agreement
established between the regional government and the German Technical
Cooperation Agency GTZ in 1998 to develop a Regional Environmental
Management (GAR) Project. A pilot version of the project was implemented
between 1999 and 2006. This agreement marked a turning point in how the
ADIs operated since previous interventions under the aegis of the Budi ADI
lacked community participation and therefore local commitment (Bello et al.,
2005). The working methodology of the GAR project consisted in implementing
an indigenous counterpart with which various participative actions were carried
out through local meetings, in order to identify the most serious problems facing
the communities, and possible solutions. At the same time, a map was drawn up of
the Budi ADI, using participative models, showing the sites of cultural and natural
value and identifying the territory’s natural resources (GAR, 2002).
This planning incorporated the Mapuche organisational vision of the territory,
i.e. the distribution of spaces of cultural–religious significance, family relations and
internal political relations. This had an impact on local public policy and on the
organisation of the zone into seven territories. These would be represented by
werkenes (‘messengers’ in Mapudungun), who made up the Council of
Werkenes, the indigenous counterpart of the project and the Budi ADI
(Caniguan, 2016). This way of organising the territory would have an impact on
public services, which were obliged to reorganise in accordance with this spatial
distribution.
The project was a framework for education and training for the representatives
and actors from the territories, and was very important for the empowerment of
the local Mapuche, which has persisted in one form or another down to the present
day. After this territorial ordering process was completed, however, subsequent
implementation never occurred, and the project never advanced from the pilot
stage. Nevertheless, the perceptions of local actors of the effects of this project
highlight the empowerment of the territories, which allowed various leaders or
werkenes to position themselves in the political environment; several political lead-
ers, mayors and social leaders have emerged from the Council of Werkenes
(Caniguan, 2016).
8 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

Today, the Council of Werkenes has lost impetus, having become the official
counterpart of the local and regional government. Its original autonomy as a key
actor in ethnic demands and claims has been diminished. Indeed, many of those
interviewed declared that the Council of Werkenes is not what it used to be and
that its failure or dissolution as a social organisation was due to its politicisation,
since it had become linked with traditional political parties:

Because in the Budi ADI, the social empowerment and the social mobilisation were
very powerful; it was marvellous, ideal, the best. I think that if it had been well
supported and maintained over time, by now, it would certainly have become posi-
tioned as a framework, a model, with the capacity for self-management and self-
determination in many aspects. But unfortunately it went to pieces, and there is
nothing left, or very little. And the leaders, or some of them at least, went on to a
different level of political representation and participation. (Interview 11,
GTZ employee)

The Budi ADI represented the promise of injections of funding, institutional

coordination and integrated development of indigenous territories, which in prac-
tice meant a contribution to the conception and visibility of the territories. One
criticism levelled at this programme, which persists, was of the difficulties experi-
enced by the state in innovating to make its programmes more flexible and more
relevant to the local situation. In contrast to the object of the ADI, the interven-
tions were very often managed centrally at a national level, with a very rigid
structure and bureaucracy, and flexibility was only introduced under the incentive
of external resources, as occurred with the GTZ; as soon as this funding ran out,
state functioning returned to its normal pattern.
This period was also marked by a constant presence of NGOs and national and
international foundations in the territory, as well as various intervention projects
such as Norwegian People’s Aid, the Peace Corps (USA), Programa Impulsa,
Fondo de las Américas de Chile, ONG World Vision and religious foundations,
which addressed various problems.

The Or
ıgenes (Origins) Programme and development with identity

The intentions of changing the breed of cattle were good, but when the people asked
the consultancy for the things they expected of the change, they said it was impossible.
For example, the local people wanted local cows, but the consultancies said ‘No’,
because they could not buy animals without an invoice. So they took the people to see
some nice cows from a big farm and the people liked the cows because they were good
animals, they gave milk and were good producers. But because there was money
circulating from the Or
ıgenes Programme, the farmers selling the cows put the
prices up, making the people pay high prices. These heifers were supposed to be
vaccinated and have all their certificates, but some arrived with brucellosis.
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 9

There were also cases where people sold them the worst cows on the farm or even
cows from the market and passed them off as cows from the farm. This was discov-
ered by how the cows adapted to conditions in the communities; the cows from the big
farms did not adapt, some of them were wild, while those from the market had no
problems adapting to the local geography because they must have come from a very
similar situation.7

This persistent account from the memory of the inhabitants of the comuna
reflects their perception of the actions carried out under the Or
ıgenes
Programme. The creation and installation of the Multiphase Comprehensive
Development Programme for Indigenous Communities (Or
ıgenes Programme)
started in 2001 and continued until 2012 in two phases. It was funded by a loan
from the Inter-American Development Bank to the Chilean government.
The guiding principle of the Or
ıgenes Programme was development with identity
in an effort to improve the conditions of the country’s indigenous communities,
while incorporating their cultural identity and participation (MIDEPLAN, 2004,
2010). One type of space where implementation was intended from an early stage
was the ADIs, one of which was the Budi ADI.
This programme involved various state institutions; some had to incorporate
elements like interculturality or a focus on indigenous peoples for the first time.
This meant a paradigm change which was not easy for many institutions with no
such experience, especially for employees who knew nothing about interculturality
or a focus on indigenous peoples or users, or did not believe in them. As a result,
various problems developed in the first phase of the programme. The principal
problems were excessively high expectations of the programme, ignorance among
public employees and institutions of how indigenous communities functioned and
their networks, excessive bureaucracy associated with the distribution of resources,
the difficulty of planning for indigenous participation, the relevance of the projects,
and political exploitation of the programme through clientelist relations. In the
second phase of the programme, efforts were made to improve many of
these problems.
Development with identity was much more difficult than expected and took
much longer to establish (Bello, 2007). The funds available through the pro-
gramme were distributed via public institutions, which applied them through proj-
ects in ‘indigenous communities’. The beneficiaries received specific funds to
improve their production, organisation, health and education. This did not
mean that money was handed over directly, but that funding for production con-
sumables was accessible to communities, who had to quote prices and follow a
bureaucratic purchasing and accounting process. The consultancies, promoters
and technicians in the institutions were intermediaries between the Or
ıgenes
Programme and the communities.
Consultancies took a leading role, displacing NGOs from the 2000s as the
principal executors of state actions. Or
ıgenes was of key importance in this pro-
cess, since its positioning in the Region was an opportunity for professionals,
10 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

indigenous or not, to gain access to state funds by creating their own consultancy
firms, generally remembered as a space of malpractices associated with money. The
organisations realised that they did not see results from the resources invested in
the programme, but that these were being dissipated at other levels, such as pay-
ments to technicians, training, consultancies, studies and diagnoses. Furthermore,
there is a perception that there was no prior analysis of the improvements any
action might produce, for example, its relevance and its economic, cultural or
social sustainability, but rather that what mattered was to use the funds.
Moreover, there was no monitoring or supervision; the focus was on using the
budget up quickly.
The principal actions of the programme for production included provision of
seeds, heifers (as described at the start of this section), sheep, fencing, wire and
barn construction. Another important field was the construction and equipment of
meeting rooms for community organisations, with a special design for the Or
ıgenes
Programme. This also led to internal problems in the communities, for example
over the cession of land for building them. Funds were also earmarked to increase
the number of schools signed up for intercultural education programmes, and the
same occurred for health services. The financial and practical support provided by
some of these actions undoubtedly had a more comprehensive impact on commu-
nities. However, the majority were oriented towards users and their families, fol-
lowing the current logic of development programmes.
The Or
ıgenes Programme generated a routine of meetings, talks and training for
the ‘indigenous communities’ and state employees. The ‘indigenous communities’
assumed the position of local counterparts, with their presidents acting as points of
contact for the Programme. Meetings in various community meeting rooms were
essential for territorial coordination and decision-making, but they were also the
spaces for complaints about how the Programme was working. Actions of this
kind strengthened the role of some Mapuche leaders, and also led to disputes
within the territories over access to resources, the selection of beneficiaries, the
slowness with which funds were disbursed, the political manoeuvring of some state
employees and users, and other sources of internal conflicts. In Saavedra, the
execution of the Or
ıgenes Programme reached a critical point due to the slow
arrival of disbursements, culminating in the occupation of the town hall in 2003
(Caniguan, 2016).
Current perceptions of the Or
ıgenes Programme are mixed: Some people talk
about the Programme as a failure, while others point to the contribution which it
made. These opinions are conditioned by its direct, personal impact, and whether
or not it made a difference between the performance of public policies before
and after.
As in the previous period, other institutions and projects also had an impact
during this period. One in particular was the Araucan
ıa Tierra VIVA Project
(2003–2007), funded by the European Union, which developed coordination
between various public institutions; it also led to the creation of ‘comuna round
tables’ made up of local people who acted as ‘jurors’, deciding how the funds
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 11

available through the programme were to be used and encouraging local people to
present their own development projects (Caniguan, 2007; Immerzeel et al., 2006).
The basis for this was a methodology called ‘learning from the best’, referring to
a process of valuing small-scale farmers’ knowledge, which was applied in various
Latin American countries. This public–private deliberation at round table meet-
ings was the key element of these new forms of community participation, since it
allowed the construction of real spaces for communities to make proposals and
take decisions. A concrete example of the benefits was the construction of a gas-
tronomic centre, which was the key to the good assessment and perception of the
Project expressed by the participants.

Institutionalisation of the indigenous: Current policy

The Or
ıgenes Programme prompted initiatives to focus public policy on indige-
nous and intercultural issues, and these initiatives became institutionalised in var-
ious areas of state action. Municipal governments in turn started to create
programmes to address indigenous and intercultural issues, in accordance with
the situation in their own territory. Moreover, in 2008 Chile ratified ILO
Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries,
actively promoting, from 2009 onwards, a discourse linked to indigenous rights
and the need to create indigenous consultation and participation processes.
One of the emblematic programmes of this period was the Indigenous
Territorial Development Programme (PDTI), run by the National Institute for
Agricultural and Livestock Development (INDAP), the object of which was to
promote productive development with cultural identity exclusively for indigenous
users. It started as a pilot programme in 2009 and spread gradually to a number of
different parts of the country. It is particularly important in the Araucan
ıa Region
and the comuna of Saavedra. However, although the programme is now consoli-
dated and has been adapted to the context, it is not free of difficulties since it
reproduces a series of practices from earlier programmes, as the following
account shows:

In December we received seed potatoes, fully legally certified according to the tech-
nician. We had to sow jointly. There were ten of us, partners, and afterwards, we
would share the proceeds of the harvest. The others did not have any land because
they had already sown. My land had long grass, and one of the women suggested that
we should sow there. I asked my husband, and then I said ‘Yes’. We called in a tractor
operator, sharing the costs, and he prepared the land. After three or four days we
sowed, all working together. The potatoes sprouted very fine strong plants.

The day we were going to harvest I was away, so I left my son in my place. The
women brought a saucepan and a stove to eat as they harvested the potatoes. One of
the partners cut a potato open, and it was black as coal inside, so she called SAG
(Farming and Livestock Service). SAG arrived and said that the potatoes had to be
12 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

burnt, and also banned the use of that land for ten years. Nobody assumed respon-
sibility. I cannot even graze a cow there; there it is, and nobody assumes responsibil-
ity. (Interview 14, Mapuche woman)

This kind of event causes frustration among the Mapuche users as well as mis-
trust in the real impact of time devoted to the programme and the use of public
funds, where there is no one responsible for ‘improvement’ interventions.
The PDTI programme provides technical assistance and training in production
development for indigenous small-scale farmers. The areas in which support was
provided to Mapuche families in Saavedra consisted in actions such as soil
improvement, grazing management, fertilisation, and improved seeds, sheep and
vegetables in order to improve the conditions of a subsistence farming economy
with difficulties in commercialisation. These were also complemented with direct
production assistance by the municipality. The function of the PDTI technician
includes making a certain number of visits, providing resources and executing the
planned steps. These actions often do not coincide with the best time for the
farmers, creating a new problem for them when the assistance and consumables
arrive late.
Although the name refers to indigenous territory, the programme does not
incorporate particularly significant changes; in contrast to the Or
ıgenes
Programme; however, analysis and monitoring of the investment must be carried
out.8 It should be noted that the productive programmes run by INDAP have
generated their own counterparts: the Area Agency Committees (CADA), territo-
rial coordination round tables, Rural Women’s round table, etc., which are con-
sultative or for social control.
Another element from this period is the role played by the municipality in
spreading interculturality at different levels. Since 2000 the comuna of Saavedra
has had six consecutive terms with Mapuche mayors, and Mapuche or intercul-
tural municipal employees have been established in the various departments, bring-
ing ideas of interculturality and promoting the local Mapuche culture. For
example the town hall has: a person responsible for the intercultural unit, under
the Community Development Directorate (DIDECO); a Bilingual Intercultural
Education (EIB) coordinator in the Municipal Education Department (DAEM);
a Mapuche module coordinator under the Municipal Health Department and a
Mapuche tourism agent under the Local Economic Development Unit (UDEL).
A plan has been developed for direct intervention with employees in the terri-
tories, through a local government representative with powers of decision and
execution, considering the territories defined in the preceding periods. This has
meant focusing on specific actions such as road improvement, rebuilding bridges,
drinking water provision and subsidised public transport by land and across
the lake.
The current counterpart of the municipality is the Mapuche Round Table,
which is derived from the Council of Werkenes. It was formed as part of the
regional policy in Araucan
ıa of forming round tables for dialogue during the
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 13

centre-right government of Sebastián Pi~ nera and continues under the present local
government (Caniguan, 2016).
While on the subject of the municipality, the health and education programmes
should be mentioned briefly. Pilot schemes for Bilingual Intercultural Education
(EIB) have existed since the mid-1990s, some supported by NGOs and founda-
tions; these experiments in EIB were extended under the Or
ıgenes Programme
(Caniguan, 2007; SODECAM, 2001). Most schools in Saavedra include the con-
cept of interculturality among their institutional education projects (PIE). The
institutionalisation of intercultural health in the territory occurred with the emer-
gence of the Huinkul Lawen organisation, which seeks to promote, strengthen and
maintain the Mapuche medical system in the territory; in 2007 they were able to
build the ‘Mapuche Health Module’ on one side of the Saavedra hospital
(Garc
ıa, 2014).

State practices, forms and dependence

Agents and counterparts
Building on the brief overview, we have given of three key moments in local public
policy, in this section we analyse state practices and forms of relationship which
present a similar logic in different state actions, penetrating more or less deeply
according to the local context.
The relations between the various actors involved have differed, as we have seen
already. Local state employees have been trained to work with indigenous com-
munities, specialising on the basis of their participation in programmes and proj-
ects, often changing but always remaining in the territory. The possibility of
gaining experience in this area of indigenous policy or programmes for indigenous
peoples has enabled them to develop a level of work enhanced by their knowledge
of the territory and the users; both employees and users say that this is reflected in
the maintenance of trust and even friendship. This helps to establish the legitimacy
of new public actions and policies in the territory and ensures less resistance or
better conditions for implementation and acceptance by the beneficiaries.
The indigenous counterparts have also varied over the years, as we have indi-
cated. In the first period, the Council of Werkenes were the representatives of the
territories identified; from them are derived the current Mapuche Round Tables as
the counterpart of municipal indigenous policy. During the Or
ıgenes Programme,
however, the counterpart was provided by the ‘indigenous communities’ with their
presidents. Finally, the basic relation today for programme implementation is
more individual and has developed into a state employee–user relationship also
involving the ‘participative’ counterparts appointed by the public programmes.
This transformation of the programme counterparts is important since the
interventions that have occurred in the comuna of Saavedra to date show a weak-
ening of the organisational networks which act as the counterpart to the state. In
this context, we should clarify that we have not included the traditional structures
14 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

which operate in the territories since they do not necessarily become involved in
this state system.
The three moments discussed have led to the forms of state action existing
today, which favour the individual user and his/her family, while the broader
organisations function as the ‘social control’ defined by and incorporated into a
programme. This may suggest new actions, but it does not mean that the pro-
gramme is questioned. These forms tend to be constituted as public–private round
tables, in which – as in the various productive programmes – women are taking an
increasingly important role. Although the leadership of the communities is gener-
ally assumed by men, when women take leading roles they stand out for their
commitment and persistence. Despite the economic and social difficulties that
they must contend with, many of them assume the risk and step out of their private
environment to take part in these organisations, resulting not only in personal
growth but also a contribution of fresh minds to the weakened social network
(Gálvez and Galilea, 2016). This trend is encouraged by the programmes, for
example the creation of Round Tables for Rural Women Community Members
(a counterpart of INDAP). Two of these exist in the comuna of Saavedra and enjoy
strong participation.
These features are fundamental in the political aspects of state dependence
mentioned above. The counterparts are transformed, relations with the pro-
grammes reach an accommodation, and the programmes work according to the
needs of the public, losing their effectiveness as basic organisations for questioning
and influencing policies.
Another set of key actors in the coordination between users and programmes
are the intermediaries who implement the public funds in the sectors where they are
applied, for example, the consultancies who receive the funds disbursed to hire
experts and purchase services or consumables.
During the periods when the ADI and Or
ıgenes Programmes were being set up,
expectations were created that money would be distributed; however, the aid took
the form of consumables, training, meetings, diagnoses, technical advice, etc., and
not cash as was hoped at first. This led to some frustration and misunderstandings,
reinforcing the idea, accepted by public opinion, that the people who finally got the
money were the consultancy companies and advisers, while very little actually
reached the users. It is important to contrast assistentialist actions, which deliver
resources, with the discursive idea of programmes and projects which are meant to
deliver training and education; this is why the technician/expert is the key person in
the transfer, since the result is supposed to be a change in the way the user
produces and acts, leading to improvement.
State action through programmes and projects has led to dependencies and
practices among state employees, consultants and users based on access to differ-
ent environments. Important aspects include access to timely, high-quality infor-
mation on potential applicants; personal relationship and development of trust
with state employees; and stability in the relations between consultants and
users. The intermediaries have a key niche of local power which they must cherish
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 15

since it is this that ensures their continued involvement and access to new resources
and programmes.
For decades the users or participants in these actions have been part of state
initiatives and have responded through various types of organisation. Their par-
ticipation in the programmes has varied in intensity, assuming the demands
imposed and generating local forms of containment. An interesting subject from
this perspective is the type of territorial organisation of the comuna which grew up
with the support of the GTZ. As a result, today these territories are recognised in
local public policies, as are their representatives through various kinds of organi-
sation. The election of Mapuche mayors since 2000 has broadened the actions of
indigenous state employees working on indigenous issues in the town hall and
dependent organisations.
We have defined the relationship as assistentialist since it generates forms of
dependence, very often associated with political clientelism but under a neoliberal
logic which is strengthened by the way government operates. The forms of depen-
dence are not only economic, in the form of resources, but also political. Although
state employees who are appointed to work in programmes or projects may be
selected through public competition, selection may also be through more closed
competition or by direct recommendation, often by the political parties which
govern or control certain institutions. It is common in Chilean politics for
public appointments to be made in accordance with party quotas: who executes
the programmes will then depend on the decision-maker. State programmes, proj-
ects or actions generally establish clientelist practices with both the users and those
participating in the technical and political work.

Local practices in relation to state actions

Every programme or project which starts must carry out a new diagnosis since
there is no coordinated way of organising and sharing existing information. As a
result users or beneficiaries have to participate in each institution and meet its
requirements in order to implement any programme or project. In one meeting
which we attended we heard the complaint: ‘Yet another SWOT analysis!’ (the
methodology for identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
This reflects the history of interventions in the comuna in which participative diag-
nosis strategies were first incorporated into territorial diagnoses by GTZ and con-
tinued with Or
ıgenes and later public and private actions like Araucan
ıa Tierra
VIVA, the territorial and social control round tables, etc.
A local agent mentioned that the diagnosis of poverty in the territory is agreed
by consensus, but that the aid or interventions provided by regional institutions,
such as the regional government and the universities, have always been delivered in
the context of a power relationship which controls access to resources and leaves
little room for involvement with the territory. Institutions must, therefore, start to
learn about the territory afresh every time, hindering the design of strategies.
16 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

The permanent preparation of diagnoses and the attempt to incorporate par-

ticipative methods have led to the practice of consensus and the use of a local
counterpart which have become crystallised in the Community Meeting. This has
become one of the principal practices for establishing agreements, clarifying sit-
uations, imparting information, raising questions or criticisms and evaluat-
ing results.
Meetings are generally held in community meeting rooms or in the offices of the
municipality or other institution. Those at the meeting may be the counterpart
organisation of the project or programme, a territorial organisation or one with
deeper political or traditional roots, or certain programme leaders or users who
may come from outside the micro-territory, in which case they represent the
comuna or a larger area. The practice of holding meetings has established a
social dynamic, with directors or leaders obliged to set aside a lot of time and
resources in order to participate. It should be noted that there is a long tradition of
such meetings as a means to action, going back to before the Indigenous Law. One
aspect which has changed is that nowadays many of the programmes for which
people attend meetings refund their travel costs and sometimes include subsistence
for meals, in order to raise attendance or help families which have to absorb this
additional expense. This kind of relationship is quite well established and leads to
people deciding whether to attend depending on whether money is available.
Today the meeting organiser is expected to provide lunch, coffee and biscuits,
sometimes with an ethnic touch.
Meetings and seminars are an aspect of the performance of programmes and
projects since they legitimise a participative style of development action. In many
cases, the final object is not achieved, since this tends to be very broad, expressed as
transforming ways of life and community organisations. Most users opt to partic-
ipate, since it is accepted implicitly that by participating they ensure their right to
the benefits, despite the complaints and criticism about the intervention.
Another type of action which has become institutionalised is that involving
training, education and study visits, under the logic of empowerment and skills
transfer, both for state employees and indigenous users. These actions not only
transfer skills or share visions of the project or of comparable situations in other
parts of the country or the world, but also generate spaces for socialisation or
interchange between actors and participants, and exchange of knowledge and
experiences.
Like the meetings, the object of this investment is to ensure participation, to
bring together invited trainers and speakers and to provide an ideal space for
executing the training, including accommodation and certification. Providing
these conditions helps to ensure the success of the training and the associated
investment, and is appreciated by the users probably more in terms of logistics
and how well they are looked after than for the content. These are key spaces for
the creation and establishment of links between the programme and the users from
different places of origin, but may also be understood as a space for catharsis, for
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 17

criticism, which in a well-organised and executed activity strengthen the implemen-

tation and progress of the programme and the direct action involved.

The objects of the actions: ‘Resources’ and ‘improvements’

The weight of self-awareness and self-perception of the beneficiaries as poor, added
to that of being indigenous, have strongly marked many of the local policies and
the actions of external agents which have been implemented in the territory. The
discourse of ‘being poor’ has become internalised as a way of gaining permanent
access to more resources, both among local and regional state employees and
among the citizens themselves. This installed discourse does not seek to hide or
understate the socio-economic and historical structural conditions of the Mapuche
communities, but emphasises the fact that this discourse is associated directly with
a possibility of access to resources, thus limiting the forms of organisational auton-
omy and self-determination of the local actors.
This leads to an assistentialist relationship between state employees and pro-
gramme users, strengthened by decades of state practices. The actions of the state
employees and development agents impose a paradigm of ‘improvement’ in the
quality of life of the population. This ‘improvement’ occurs hypothetically through
innovation, which may or may not have an indigenous cultural framework,
depending on the context and the action.
For example, when the concept of interculturality is introduced into the areas of
health and education, this supposes that elements of Mapuche culture will be
incorporated into state actions to make the service and the ‘improvement’ more
pertinent to their context. This requires appropriate agents: in health the intercul-
tural facilitator and in education the traditional educator. It also adds elements of
Mapuche culture which become institutionalised as part of appropriate public
policies, such as their own indigenous medicine, language and world-view.
On the level of production, this incorporation is not usually accompanied by
strengthening a cultural practice but rather by the incorporation of a non-
indigenous technique which will improve conditions for production and seeks to
progress from a subsistence and home-consumption economy to one in which
excess produce can be commercialised. This implies incorporating new productive
techniques, seeds, fertilisers and insecticides, mechanisms for the associative orga-
nisation, production and sales, production of new plant species, new breeds of
animal, improving the water-supply, irrigation systems, etc. There have also
been efforts to promote local products with an indigenous identity for commerci-
alisation such as handicrafts (e.g. textiles, fibres, wood), tourism (Mapuche cook-
ing and overnight stays in a ruka (Mapuche house)) and farmed products such as
maqui berries.
The discourse of extreme poverty is used by state employees as a way of obtain-
ing resources and demanding help from national or international institutions, but
also of maintaining a form of long-term economic – and political – dependence
among the users, many of whom have lived for years dependent on state subsidies
18 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

or support, which make up a large part of the family’s income. This generates its
own discourse, and a relationship focused on access to new resources competed for
both within the comuna and with others. The same discourse of being considered
poor is also appropriated and instrumentalised by the leaders when negotiating
resources. Furthermore, there is the perceived historical debt owed them for being
poor and for being Mapuche, implying that the state must assume responsibility
for them and provide them with a remedy, repressing their individual capacities
and the locally coordinated actions by which they had provided their own remedy
for centuries.

Conclusions
This article examines three moments in state action in a particular territory over the
period from the 1990s to the present. On the basis of this study, we have analysed the
forms of action of Chilean public policy oriented towards the Mapuche indigenous
population. We have seen the transformations in the discourses and implementation
of state policies, in the local counterparts, and finally in the forms of state depen-
dence. This leads to a particular type of relationship between state programmes and
actions on the one hand and the indigenous population on the other – with the
population becoming increasingly dependent on the resources provided by the state
in the form of subsidies and regular or special programmes. There is an evident shift
in the focus of indigenous policy, from territorial development focused on public
investment, through development with identity during which interculturality was
gradually incorporated into public agencies, to, finally, the institutionalisation of
interculturality both in institutions and at municipality level.
Likewise, the local counterparts – the interlocutors validated by public instru-
ments – have also evolved. In the early period, it was the Council of Werkenes who
represented each territory and the territory as a whole; this later became the
Mapuche Round Table, the counterpart of the municipality (i.e. its level of rep-
resentation shifted from national, regional and municipal to solely municipal). In
the second period, the ‘indigenous communities’ assumed an important role as the
organisations on which resources were focused; the presidents and leaders were of
key importance because they were the representatives who negotiated with the
programme experts. In the final period, there were institutionalised counterparts
(created by the programmes, which tend to be more collective but to focus on a
particular actor or beneficiary); as a result an individual – rather than a collective
or organisational – relationship reappeared.
State dependence takes various forms, the most significant being as follows:
Among the actors, the key role is that of state employees who work on actions
oriented towards the communities, developing expertise in this kind of state action.
This allows them access to new resources, maintaining their own jobs and making
them valid counterparts for both the programmes and the users. Different institu-
tions have taken a leading role. For example, CONADI was important early on
but today has virtually dropped out; subsequently, first GTZ and the Or
ıgenes
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 19

Programme and then the municipality and specific programmes have assumed the
leading position.
In terms of actions, state practices exercised by local state employees have
generated various control mechanisms towards the population, creating depen-
dence and leading them to organise themselves largely as a function of the pro-
grammes and projects, and with the ability to adapt to meet changes in context.
The practices of relations between the state and the indigenous community have
become everyday practices which strengthen hard forms of dependence and assis-
tentialism, justified by poverty and by the historical debt, which limits processes of
autonomy and self-determination at different levels.
Thus, the state is diffuse in its discourses, its practices, and in the reconstruction
of its interventions in the comuna of Saavedra. There is a mixture of public and
private initiatives which appropriate and borrow from one another. The role of
experts and their political action is the key to understanding and analysing these
processes, but without forgetting the personal relations, policies and party sup-
porters of each of the actors who play a part.
To summarise, assistentialism – habitually used to address poverty – jointly with
state dependence, as we have indicated, need to be understood as something more
complex, since together they enable us to explain the multiple forms, evident or
not, by which state practices have constructed and strengthened a type of relation-
ship between the state and Mapuche society.
The claims of, and forms of containment applied to, local actors have also
changed. Today there is more stress on increasing the provision of resources,
incorporating better experts and technicians and better spaces for participation
in programme decisions.
At the end of the 1980s, and during much of the 1990s, Mapuche organisations
put their weight behind claims related with political autonomy, rights, the historical
debt and land. Today, however, although the discourse of recognition and indige-
nous rights is present in the public arena due to the actions of some sectors of
Mapuche society in support of their claims, leading to state repression and confron-
tation (Llaitul and Arrate, 2012; Pairican, 2014), state actions rather show deepen-
ing forms of dependence, accepted and assumed by the various local actors, with a
more individualist than collective character. Both sides of the relationship, Chilean–
Mapuche, state–indigenous peoples, are represented in one way or another by these
aspects which oscillate between deepening state dependence – associated with a
structural relationship of poverty and lost land – and political demands for land
restoration and autonomy. This article seeks to contribute to understanding of one
of these aspects, probably the less visible, namely the various forms of state depen-
dence and the relationship between the state and its indigenous counterparts.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank all the people who participated in the study and the Mapuche
professionals who made this research possible.
20 Critique of Anthropology 0(0)

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Centre for
Intercultural and Indigenous Research-CIIR CONICYT/FONDAP/15110006 and
Regular Fondecyt N 1170236.

Notes
1. The comuna is the smallest administrative unit in Chile, the next higher level being the
province and the largest the region.
2. Surveys carried out by the Chilean government every two to three years to obtain a socio-
economic picture of the country at national, regional and comuna levels.
3. The Chilean Fishing Law, promulgated in 1989 at the end of the dictatorship, defined
how coastal resources were to be managed. It was damaging to the Lafkenche commu-
nities, as it did not consider acceptable the collection of marine resources by families
(Toledo, 2005). The result was the mobilisation of groupings of the coast-dwelling
Mapuche, who demanded the creation of a law to protect their interests; this law was
passed in 2008 and is known as the Lafkenche Law. Unfortunately, this law was weak-
ened by the large number of requirements made on Lafkenche groups to allow them to
exercise the right to use and exploit marine resources (Zelada and Park, 2013).
4. Construction of the highway has been implemented by Chile’s democratic governments
(1990 to the present) and created tension about the ideas associated with development,
since construction was justified by the idea that the affected communities would gain
access to development by developing tourism (Arancibia, 2012; Caniguan, 2007;
Lobos, 2009).
5. Throughout this text we will use ‘indigenous communities’ (in inverted commas) to refer
to the organisations created under the Indigenous Law.
6. The lof is a Mapuche concept referring to the territorial/political and family organisation
of a territory.
7. Reconstruction of the cattle-purchasing process in the framework of the Or
ıgenes
Programme, Phase I, based on several interviews which all tell the same tale.
8. Between 2015 and 2016, an assessment of the PDTI programme was carried out. A new
set of rules was drawn up and approved at the end of 2016, incorporating subjects like:
recognition, consideration and respect for indigenous peoples; improvements in the sup-
port programmes; programme organisation and care of the environment. This implied a
series of changes which are still in progress, including: participative working methods;
joint planning; a new distribution of users by territory; training in interculturality for
state employees, etc.
de la Maza Cabrera and Bolomey C
ordova 21

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Author Biographies
Francisca de la Maza Cabrera, a PhD in Social Anthropology Research Center and
Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), Mexico. She completed her
master’s degree in the same institution and professional title of anthropologist at
the University of Chile. From 1999 to date, she has been teaching at the Villarrica
Campus of the Catholic University of Chile. She served as Deputy Director of
Research since 2006 until January 2013. She has conducted several research proj-
ects with internal funds of the university in the areas of: public policy, intercultur-
ality, ethnography of the state, education, rurality and local development. She is
currently the Deputy Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for
Intercultural and Indigenous Research-CIIR funded FONDAP-CONICYT
(2012–2022).

Carlos Felipe Bolomey C
ordova, Sociologist from Pontificia Universidad Cat
olica
de Chile, dedicated to ethnography in schools and rural contexts. Currently, he is
working as a research assistant at the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous
research (CIIR). He works on different research projects related to public policy
in intercultural and indigenous contexts.