Los caminos sinuosos del kizugüneun (autonomía): reflexiones situadas en las luchas mapuche

Abstract

The interactions between social movements and State vary depending on socio-political and historical contexts, making up heterogeneous relational spaces of convergence and disputes between people, organizations, networks and institutions. Without disregarding that relational dynamic -long worked in Argentina by other colleagues- I am interested in thinking the notion of autonomy from the point of view of mapuche militancy (argentinian Patagonia) which understands the struggle of its people as a historic confrontation with the State governmentality. Considering autonomy as a critical attitude and expression of the art of not being governed, I explore the constitutive tensions that emerge whenever a political practice is made concrete and is then projected as a new step towards the kizugüneun (action to decide for oneself). I am specifically referring to tensions between State control, illegitimate practices from the State view and the State recognition. In order to push among these three relationships - in a movement for which autonomy is not a present quality but a long-term goal- I describe two ethnographic situations in which some sectors of the mapuche movement in the mountainous area of Río Negro and Chubut triggered as People to extend their autonomy.