{"title":"Documenting Territorialidad: an intercultural approach to the provenance of Mapuche land records","authors":"María Montenegro","doi":"10.1007/s10502-024-09466-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using critical place research and documentary methods, this article examines the Mapuche territorial cause in Chile and exposes the deficiencies of state-produced Mapuche land titles, known as <i>Títulos de Merced</i>, which are required for and (mis)used as evidence by Chile’s Indigenous land restitution program. The <i>Títulos de Merced</i> were granted to Mapuche families during and after the military occupation of <i>Wallmapu</i> (Mapuche territory), as documentation of their relocation to <i>reducciones</i> (reservations) between 1884 and 1929. However, these approximately 3000 titles do not fully represent Mapuche land claims. Instead, they were used by the newly formed Chilean state to reduce Mapuche territory to approximately 5% of its ancestral span, leaving undocumented much of the territories that communities were effectively using before the reduction process––what Mapuche claimants refer to as <i>tierras antiguas</i> or ancestral lands. Despite this, CONADI, the government agency that administers the land program, defines these titles as the primary sources of documentary evidence to prove Mapuche land dispossession. Therefore, not only are the <i>Títulos de Merced</i> not enough, but they negatively impact Mapuche land claims by purposefully reducing, once again, Mapuche ancestral territory, this time discursively. Mapuche claimants are paradoxically forced to validate claims to their ancestral land through documents that were designed to legitimize their dispossession. By examining the insufficiency and inappropriateness of the <i>Títulos de Merced</i> as evidence for Mapuche territorial claims, this paper proposes the intercultural practice of documenting <i>territorialidad</i>—the expression of cultural, economic, and spiritual Mapuche practices over the territory—in addition to colonial demarcations of land, as a form of producing/using evidence for Mapuche land restitution claims. Suggesting the <i>mapu</i> (land/territory) as provenance and <i>territorialidad</i> as evidence, this alternative documentary practice unsettles the <i>Títulos de Merced</i> as the only legitimate form of evidence for Mapuche land claims and theorizes <i>interculturalidad</i>—the recognition of and dialogue between diverse ways of knowing coexisting within the same territory—as a framework for thinking about provenance when working with Indigenous land records.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46131,"journal":{"name":"ARCHIVAL SCIENCE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10502-024-09466-6.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ARCHIVAL SCIENCE","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-024-09466-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Using critical place research and documentary methods, this article examines the Mapuche territorial cause in Chile and exposes the deficiencies of state-produced Mapuche land titles, known as Títulos de Merced, which are required for and (mis)used as evidence by Chile’s Indigenous land restitution program. The Títulos de Merced were granted to Mapuche families during and after the military occupation of Wallmapu (Mapuche territory), as documentation of their relocation to reducciones (reservations) between 1884 and 1929. However, these approximately 3000 titles do not fully represent Mapuche land claims. Instead, they were used by the newly formed Chilean state to reduce Mapuche territory to approximately 5% of its ancestral span, leaving undocumented much of the territories that communities were effectively using before the reduction process––what Mapuche claimants refer to as tierras antiguas or ancestral lands. Despite this, CONADI, the government agency that administers the land program, defines these titles as the primary sources of documentary evidence to prove Mapuche land dispossession. Therefore, not only are the Títulos de Merced not enough, but they negatively impact Mapuche land claims by purposefully reducing, once again, Mapuche ancestral territory, this time discursively. Mapuche claimants are paradoxically forced to validate claims to their ancestral land through documents that were designed to legitimize their dispossession. By examining the insufficiency and inappropriateness of the Títulos de Merced as evidence for Mapuche territorial claims, this paper proposes the intercultural practice of documenting territorialidad—the expression of cultural, economic, and spiritual Mapuche practices over the territory—in addition to colonial demarcations of land, as a form of producing/using evidence for Mapuche land restitution claims. Suggesting the mapu (land/territory) as provenance and territorialidad as evidence, this alternative documentary practice unsettles the Títulos de Merced as the only legitimate form of evidence for Mapuche land claims and theorizes interculturalidad—the recognition of and dialogue between diverse ways of knowing coexisting within the same territory—as a framework for thinking about provenance when working with Indigenous land records.
期刊介绍:
Archival Science promotes the development of archival science as an autonomous scientific discipline. The journal covers all aspects of archival science theory, methodology, and practice. Moreover, it investigates different cultural approaches to creation, management and provision of access to archives, records, and data. It also seeks to promote the exchange and comparison of concepts, views and attitudes related to recordkeeping issues around the world.Archival Science''s approach is integrated, interdisciplinary, and intercultural. Its scope encompasses the entire field of recorded process-related information, analyzed in terms of form, structure, and context. To meet its objectives, the journal draws from scientific disciplines that deal with the function of records and the way they are created, preserved, and retrieved; the context in which information is generated, managed, and used; and the social and cultural environment of records creation at different times and places.Covers all aspects of archival science theory, methodology, and practiceInvestigates different cultural approaches to creation, management and provision of access to archives, records, and dataPromotes the exchange and comparison of concepts, views, and attitudes related to recordkeeping issues around the worldAddresses the entire field of recorded process-related information, analyzed in terms of form, structure, and context