The Dynamics of Indigenous Identity: The Mapuche and the State. Review of Florencia E. Mallon' <em> Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906- 2001 </em> (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005)

Abstract

According to Florencia Mallon, anthropologists and sociologists have previously presented two competing and incomplete visions of the contemporary Mapuche.  Anthropologists have emphasized Mapuche cultural retention, while sociologists stress the process of rural proletarianization and, implicitly, the loss of a specific Mapuche identity.  By contrast, Mallon’s historical analysis of the Mapuche community of Nicolás Ailío (the community was named after its first leader) demonstrates that cultural retention and peasant consciousness are not in fact mutually exclusive.