Sacred sites lie at the core of indigenous peoples' land claims and negotiations with the state. They are often subject to accusations of inauthenticity by state actors, potentially leading to the delegitimization of claims over ancestral land. This article focuses on the origins and implications of misunderstandings by state officials concerning both the presence and the role of sacred sites in Mapuche land claims.
Sacred sites lie at the core of indigenous peoples' land claims and negotiations with the state. They are often subject to accusations of inauthenticity by state actors, potentially leading to the delegitimization of claims over ancestral land. This article focuses on the origins and implications of misunderstandings by state officials concerning both the presence and the role of sacred sites in Mapuche land claims.
Sacred sites lie at the core of indigenous peoples' land claims and negotiations with the state. They are often subject to accusations of inauthenticity by state actors, potentially leading to the delegitimization of claims over ancestral land. This article focuses on the origins and implications of misunderstandings by state officials concerning both the presence and the role of sacred sites in Mapuche land claims.
ontological pluralism in Mapuche land negotiations Pi ergi orgi o Di Gi mi ni ani Ponticia Universidad Catlica de Chile Sacred sites lie at the core of indigenous peoples land claims and negotiations with the state. These sites are often subject to accusations of inauthenticity by state actors, which potentially lead to the delegitimization of claims over ancestral land. This article argues that misunderstandings in Mapuche land negotiations in Chile do not originate as strategic refusals to understand, but rather in a form of understanding which aims to make radical differences commensurable within the logics of statecraft and national society. In the process of cultural translation, the ontological principles that make certain places sacred in the Mapuche lived world are not recognized, resulting in the transformation of these sites into symbols of identity strategically employed for political ends. Can sacred sites evoked in land negotiations between indigenous claimants and state ofcials be more than a performance? Questions such as this reverberate in govern- mental ofces around the world, where indigenous communities and state actors participate in exhausting negotiations over the restitution of lands of which indigenous communities have been historically dispossessed. The supposedly strategic use of sacred sites, and their role in strengthening claims over ancestral territories, has been observed in most national contexts in which indigenous groups have entered negotia- tions with the state within the legal framework of land restitution programmes (see Fay and James :oo,; Fontein :oo,; James :oo,). Chile is no exception, as many Mapuche communities have begun demanding compensation for loss of land suffered in the last I,o years. Critics are often sceptical of what seems to be the sudden appearance of new sacred sites around the Chilean countryside. Are they just a show, as many function- aries and observers consider them to be? This article focuses on the origins and implications of misunderstandings by state ofcials concerning both the presence and the role of sacred sites in Mapuche land claims. In ethnographic research, linguistic and cultural misunderstandings have come to be understood as potential sources of valuable information, revealing conditions of understanding (Fabian I,,,: ), while simultaneously pointing towards the mutual incommensurability of different notions of common sense (Herzfeld :ooI: :). Outside the eld of ethnographic research, however, misunderstandings in indigenous-state bs_bs_banner Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, relations are far from being constructive. When sacred sites and their use are misun- derstood as inauthentic by state ofcials, they can ultimately be used to delegitimize indigenous demands. This article will show that misunderstandings concerning sacred places in land negotiations originate in a failure to recognize radical differences in the understanding of Mapuche sacred sites by state actors. By interpreting these features as symbols of identity employed for political purposes, state ofcials ignore the inherent ontological principles that make these sites sacred in Mapuche society. Their sacredness is predicated upon their status as agential objects involved in a complex network of mutuality and exchange with the people around them, both members of the associated ritual congregations and their potential enemies. While Mapuche claimants can intentionally employ sacred sites in a strategic sense, these sites are more than mere symbols of identity. In fact they reveal the conditions of possibility for multiple ontologies: in other words, the emergence of divergent ways in which the world can be considered to exist (Henare, Holbraad & Wastell :oo,; Holbraad :oo,; Pedersen :ooI; Viveiros de Castro I,,8). Misunderstandings thus cannot be explained by simply presupposing the impossibility of mutual communica- tion between state actors and Mapuche claimants, a scenario far from the complex forms in which Mapuche and winka, the canonical other, interact day by day in contemporary Southern Chile. Rather, they originate in the extension of familiar meanings and expectations onto homonymic phenomena: that is, those concepts, such as sacred sites, which might look or sound the same, but point to divergent ontological principles in different societies (Viveiros de Castro :oo). Misunderstandings ultimately originate not from a refusal to understand, but from a form of understanding that aims to annul radical difference. In land negotiations they emerge as a reection of late liberal ideologies of public reason and multiculturalism, which aim to domesticate radical difference by making incommensurable worlds appear unremarkably similar (Povinelli :ooI; :oo:). Liberal strategies of commensu- ration are inspired by the ideal of mutual agreement among negotiating parties, which masks the profoundly asymmetrical ways in which indigenous desires and demands are addressed by the state. The failure to recognize the possibility of radical difference allows state actors to think about difference such that it is commensurable with the principles of standardization and public reason inherent in the liberal state. By illus- trating the manner in which ontological difference is disregarded in indigenous-state relations, this article will suggest that the anthropological analysis of political pluralism is incomplete unless we take seriously the possibility of ontological pluralism. After introducing the reader to the national and local context of indigenous land claims in Chile, this article will show the ontological premises behind the sacredness of Mapuche sites, to later show how difference is misunderstood and played down by state ofcials within the broader context of statecraft and liberal ideologies of multiculturalism. Mapuche land claims The Mapuche population is concentrated in the south-central regions of Argentina and Chile, where the majority of Mapuche reside. According to the latest census (INE :oI,), I,,o8,,:: Chileans are Mapuche, a number corresponding to roughly ,.I per cent of the national population. Previous studies indicate that the majority of Mapuche people, roughly o, per cent, live in urban areas such as the Chilean capital, Santiago (Terwindt :oo,). The high concentration of Mapuche in urban areas can be explained by large migratory uxes from rural communities in the south since the beginning of the Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 528 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, twentieth century. Migration was primarily a response to the spiralling effects of land shortage, which emerged as a consequence of the military invasion of the Mapuche territory by the Chilean army known as the Pacication of Araucania (I8oI-8,) (Bengoa :ooo). The Mapuche people successfully resisted the Spanish army, a fairly rare occurrence in the colonial history of the continent, and nally lost their independence only to the recently founded Chilean and Argentinean republics. Following the end of the Chilean military invasion in I88,, collective land titles (Titulos de Merced) were instituted and a member of each newly founded reservation (reduccin) was appointed as a local delegate (cacique). Fluency in Spanish was a determining factor in the appointment of caciques, and accordingly they did not necessarily correspond to the customary authority of the lonko, the headman of a local lineage. Land assigned to the Mapuche covered approximately ,,,ooo hectares a remarkably small amount in comparison with the ,,,oo,ooo hectares of the pre- war sovereign Mapuche territory (Marimn :ooo). Land loss continued throughout the rst half of the nineteenth century, when state-owned land was redistributed among European settlers. In many cases, non-indigenous landowners annexed large sections of Mapuche reservations into their own properties through unintelligible contracts in Spanish and the arbitrary extension of property boundaries. As a conse- quence of land shortage, subsistence farming and husbandry became economically unsustainable, and most Mapuche residents had no options other than working in nearby agricultural estates (fundos) under exploitative conditions or migrating to the cities. Although legal disputes over land were common throughout the twentieth century, Mapuche land loss was not a major issue on the political agenda until the I,,os (Mallon :oo,). In I,,,, under the pressure of a growing social movement, the Chilean Senate approved the Indigenous Law I,.:,,, which, among its various objectives, aimed to tackle land shortage among indigenous people in two ways. This law intro- duced land subsidies for Mapuche residents aficted by high levels of poverty, and also provided mechanisms for the settlement of disputes between landowners and registered Comunidades indgenas (Indigenous Communities) through the mediation of the state agency CONADI (Corporacin Nacional de Desarrollo Indgena). Accord- ing to the current law, arrogated land can be transferred to claimants only if the current owners are willing to sell their properties to the Chilean state. Since I,,,, only a minority of Indigenous Communities have secured the restitution of demanded land. In some cases, their various claims were not approved; in others, those commu- nities with proven cases of land dispossession were compensated with alternative properties (predio alternativo) away from their original settlement areas. Over the years, failures in negotiations have led to mounting frustration among Mapuche rural residents. Mobilizations, such as land seizures, aimed at pressuring the Chilean state for a resolution to land demands, have, however, been largely met with police repression. Soon after my arrival in Chile in :oo,, I had the chance to follow the process of land negotiation of one community, Comunidad Manuel Osses, 1 an Indigenous Commu- nity of roughly oo inhabitants located in the Araucana region. Like virtually all Mapuche settlements in Chile, Comunidad Osses is characterized by dispersed home- steads that encompass privately owned lots, rarely exceeding ve hectares per house- hold. This community is engulfed by agricultural estates standing in tracts of land acknowledged as ancestral by the local population. In :ooo, after collecting evidence for The contested REWE 529 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, land dispossession, such as colonial cartography, titles of property, and archaeological data proving ancestral occupancy, the members of Comunidad Osses presented their claim. A few months later, CONADI recognized the legitimacy of their claim over El Roble estate, and soon after, negotiation with the current owners of the demanded property began. A positive resolution to the demands of the Osses seemed at hand, as the owners of El Roble agreed to sell their property. However, at the end of :oo8, CONADI assigned this property to Comunidad Pichico, an Indigenous Community located ,o kilometres from El Roble. Comunidad Osses reacted against this controver- sial decision by mobilization, setting up road blockades and protests in the nearby city of Temuco. Simultaneously, the board of Comunidad Osses had been meeting with state functionaries and intermediaries from NGOs in Temuco in order to revert the allocation of El Roble estate. For the members of Comunidad Osses, the relocation of the Pichicos was a mess caused by the state, and a solution to the legal dispute could only come from them. Tension between Comunidad Osses and Comunidad Pichico rapidly escalated. On two different occasions, members of both communities were involved in physical confrontations. These episodes revolved around the presence of a sacred site, a rewe, erected by the residents of Comunidad Osses in the disputed property. Rewe is a polysemantic term, as it refers to both the sacred site standing in the middle of a ceremonial ground (ngillatuwe) where rituals are ofciated, and the ritual congregation celebrating this collective rite. The rewe as a sacred site consists of a step-notched tree trunk of laurel, or triwe in Mapudundun (the Mapuche language), which is adorned with branches of maki (Aristotelia Chilensis) and cinnamon tree (Drymis Winteri), known as foye or canelo. In my area of study, this site may occasionally be referred to as altar in Spanish. The rewe located in El Roble was installed by the members of Comunidad Osses at the end of :ooo in a ritual known as amunrewe, 2 a term roughly translatable as the making of the rewe, ofciated by a local machi (shaman-healer). Confrontations between members of the two communities began when a few Pichicos attacked the rewe by setting it on re and removing it by truck from its original location. For them, this sacred site represented a potential threat to their ownership of El Roble estate, since it could further motivate the members of Comunidad Osses in their demands over the property. The history of the rewe in El Roble estate leaves several questions open. How could the members of Comunidad Osses care so much about it, while explicitly acknowledg- ing it as part of their political strategy to attain land? How can this site be truly sacred if it is attacked by other Mapuche people? And howcan the site, which has been recently installed in a tract of land claimed as ancestral in negotiations with the state, be truly sacred? These questions are not only of interest to the anthropologist; they were also being asked by state actors involved in the negotiation over the El Roble dispute. Their reservations ultimately led them to the conclusion that this site was a mere show (demostracin) to attain land benets. Before exploring the reasons why functionaries misunderstood the rewe in El Roble as inauthentic, we can attempt to answer these questions by focusing on the premises and actions that make rewe sites sacred in the Mapuche lived world. The rewe as sacred site: agency and exchange The most common Mapuche sacred places are ancient burial grounds known as eltun, where no rituals take place, and rewe, the main focus of the present ethnographic Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 530 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, analysis. Rewe sites stand in the middle of the ngillatuwe ceremonial grounds, where ngillatun rituals are ofciated. The ngillatun ritual is particularly complex and charac- terized by numerous regional variations. The number of participants may vary from a few dozens to hundreds. It generally lasts between two and three days and encompasses several activities, including dances and collective incantations known as llellipun (Bacigalupo :oo,; Casamiquela I,o; Foerster I,,,; Grebe, Pacheco & Segura I,,:; Pereda & Perrotta I,,; Schindler :ooo). In accordance with the meaning of the term nguillan, to ask for and to elevate (Alonqueo I,,,: :,), ngillatun can be taken as a ritualistic action aimed at the fullment of a vast array of appeals. As explained by my informants, it also serves to express gratitude (dar la gracia) towards the main deity, Chao Ngenechen, or Chao Dios, as it is often referred to in my area of study. With the exception of Evangelical individuals, most residents in Comunidad Osses identify Chao Ngenechen with the Christian God, to whom prayers are offered the Mapuche way (a la Mapuche) in ngillatun. For some scholars, ngillatun are essentially fertility rituals (Dillehay :oo,; Faron I,o; Hassler I,8,), mainly taking place before the harvest and only occasionally after it. However, as my informants explained, the concerns expressed in a ngillatun also extend to the physical well-being of the participants and specic events related to their community. The main motivation for the members of Comunidad Osses to place a rewe in the disputed property was to carry out ngillatun rituals, which would strengthen the Indigenous Community in their struggle for land restitution by way of divine inter- cession. At the same time, the specic location of this sacred site served as a symbolic form of land occupation and a marker of identity. Antonio, a neighbour of mine at the time, once explained to me: The rewe is necessary to show CONADI that we are Mapuche. Is the sacredness of this particular site at odds with its strategic use? A focus on its main features reveals that, far from being a mere show, this site emerges as a powerful and sacred object. Its sacredness can be broadly ascribed to the role of rewe as axis mundi, sacred centres connecting one plane of existence with another (Eliade I,oI [I,,:]), in this case the world inhabited by humans with the spiritual world known as wenumapu, literally the land of above. While this interpretation is instructive in estab- lishing the symbolic value of the rewe, it is necessary to explore the reasons why this particular site is regarded as extremely powerful by the people interacting with it. I propose that the power of rewe and their sacredness are predicated upon one major property, namely their engagement with the ritual congregation in exchanges of newen, a spiritual force also referred to as fuerza in Spanish. Newen consists of a volitional multiplicity of forces inherent within and constitutive of the world (Course :oI:: Io). The existence of this collective force is to be traced to the power ascribed to Chao Ngenechen. This deity is generally conceptualized as the determinant of all occurrences and actions in the cosmos, an idea that is sustained by the frequent utterance of sentences like it all depends on God (either dios or Chao Ngenchen) in conversations among members of Comunidad Osses. Yet newen is not exempt from human control, as it can be passed between people through various modalities. In the case of the rewe, ritualistic practices, such as purrun (circular dances) and llellipun incantations, are performed by members of the local congregation in order togive newen to the rewe. Similarly, the rewe is thought to give force to the ritual congregation in their land negotiations as long as it is protected from evil-doing by potential enemies. Newen is thus an extremely uid force that can be exchanged in a complex web of relations involving both humans and inanimate things. The contested REWE 531 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, The dynamic way in which newen travels across boundaries between different beings and entities is also reected in the possibility that evil-doing (mal) can be transferred between people through the mediation of the rewe. As reported in numerous ethno- graphic works (e.g. Course :oII; Faron I,o; Foerster I,,,), exposure to evil-doing by enemies, including humans and malevolent beings, such as the wekufe spirits, is a widespread concern in rural Mapuche society. In a manner similar to that found in the phenomenon of assault sorcery observed in other Amerindian societies (Wright & Whitehead :oo: I,), spiritual aggression in Mapuche society can be perpetrated through the manipulation or physical destruction of material substances. The physical attack on the rewe by members of Comunidad Pichico was thought to affect the members of the ritual congregation by potentially provoking diseases and obstacles in the process of land restoration. Residents often insisted on the need to protect their site against possible aggressions by their rivals and thereby ensure their success in the land dispute. The local machi shaman who ofciated the amunrewe installation of the rewe also expressed her anxieties about the possibility that a witch (kalku) could act against the rewe in order to inict harm on her and her family. Soon after nding out about the aggression towards the rewe, the local machi asked local residents to remove all the burned branches that adorned the main body of the site, since their presence could directly harm the members of Comunidad Osses. Following specic instructions, two volunteers gathered the burned branches in sacks and threw them into a nearby river. The reason for this specic form of disposal is that the potential harm of the burned parts of the rewe could only be annulled through the purifying action of running water, a phenomenon observed in numerous religious traditions (Strang :oo: ,I). In Mapuche society, running water (witrunko) is thought to be able to purify the human body and protect it from diseases and evil, both in traditional healing practices per- formed by machi and in rituals. The particular method of disposal reveals that evil- doing, as well as newen, does not simply exist on an immaterial plane, but can be transmitted through material substances, such as burned ashes. Rewe, however, are far from being merely the potential object of evil-doing, as they can also actively react against malevolent actions. Months after the assaults, the aggressors of the rewe in El Roble suffered several misfortunes, including the emergence of internal feuds among them, and, nally, the legal success of Comunidad Osses in attaining the disputed property at the beginning of :oI:. For my informants, these events were consequences of the rewe responding to the attacks made against it. The ethnographic analysis presented so far illustrates how the agentive nature of the rewe is predicated upon its ability to engage in exchanges of both newen and evil with humans around it. Contrary to the universal theory of agency proposed by Latour (:oo,), according to which agency is dispersed across a network of associations imbri- cating both human and non-human components as actants, in most societies only a few material objects are fully capable of embedding human action (Alberti & Bray :oo,; Robb :oo). This is true for most Amerindian societies, where only specic material objects are endowed with the ability to communicate with humans. For instance, baby hammocks and shamanic stones among Urarina people in the Amazo- nian lowlands (Walker :oo,), and carved gures known as illas among Andean Quechua speakers (Sillar :oo,), act as intermediaries between humans and divinities. In Mapuche society, an illustrative example comes from kltrun, drums made from laurel wood and sheepskin, which are typically played in shamanic healing practices Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 532 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, and ritualistic dances. While kltrun are ubiquitously sold to tourists in handicraft markets throughout Southern Chile, only those built by experienced Mapuche manu- facturers are considered to be effective in the transference of newen. Lonko Juana, the ritual specialist of this community, once commissioned a kltrun from a renowned maker. 3 Upon receiving the instrument, she was asked by the maker to pass on her newen by breathing into the drum, a practice observable in rituals and shamanic practices as well. Once they receive newen, kltrun drums are able to exchange it with humans. One way to pass newen on to the rewe is, in fact, by playing kltrun drums around it. The relation between the rewe in El Roble and the humans around them reveals an inherently Mapuche form of agency, which is predicated upon two ethnographically abstracted ontological principles, namely the facility for action possessed by certain cultural objects and the porosity of borders between those objects and human beings. The type of agency associated with rewe reveals that these sites engage in relations with humans from a subjective position, a point initially suggested by the twofold indexicality of the rewe, indicating both a sacred site and its associated ritual congre- gation. My point contrasts with interpretations of the power of sacred sites as being centred exclusively on their symbolic signicance and the emotional attachment of the people around them. If we follow Gells proposal regarding art objects, agency in this case would be predicated upon the apprehension of the site by an emotionally affected recipient (I,,8: :). It is certain that the biography (Kopytoff I,8o) of Mapuche sacred sites and objects begins with human action in ritualistic contexts, as in the case of the amunrewe the making of the rewe. However, as shown earlier, once these objects are consecrated, they become autonomous and are able to engage in exchanges of newen with human beings. Contrary to a denition of agency centred on reception, which implies the identication of a signifying subject the social group in this case and a signied object their sacred site, the relation between rewe as a sacred site and rewe as a ritual congregation unfolds rather as one existing between two subjects. The agential nature of rewe suggests the possibility that we might be facing prin- ciples governing these sacred sites that do not belong to a universal ontology. My use of the term ontology is broad; it refers to the understanding and afrmation of what exists in the world, rather than the characterization of different categories and forms of being. Taken this way, ontology can be seen as a concern with being expressed in different cultural contexts, such as rituals, in which the relations among deities, inani- mate objects, and people become patent (Pedersen :ooI). The recognition of the plural character of ontology implies a reconguration of alterity, away from a focus on discursive articulations of identity, and towards one in which difference belongs to the realm of those properties with which different beings are endowed. As suggested by Holbraad, the questions that alterity poses to us anthropologists pertain to what exists rather than what can be known. They pertain, if you like, to differences between worlds rather than worldviews (:oo,: 8I-:). An ethnographic approach to ontol- ogy, like the one proposed for the analysis of the rewe in El Roble estate, bears sig- nicant implications. Firstly, it invites us to take things encountered in the eld as they present themselves, rather than immediately assuming that they signify, repre- sent, or stand for something else (Henare et al. :oo,: :). Secondly, it suggests more broadly that social realities ... are analytically subordinated to ontological realities i.e. the systems of properties that humans ascribe to beings (Descola :ooo: I,8). To say The contested REWE 533 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, that the rewe gives newen and receives it from its associated ritual congregation is thus not a discursive claim ordering reality for a group of people through a consensually legitimated religious institution, as is the case with a Christian congregation, for instance. Rather, the actions of the rewe and their consequences for the lives of the people are the initial condition from which the connotation of sacred is derived. Rewe, in other words, can be sacred only if they act as powerful and agential objects. After seeing what makes sacred sites sacred in the Mapuche lived world, the two major doubts expressed by state actors concerning the authenticity of the rewe in El Roble estate can nally be shed. Firstly, how can this site be truly sacred if attacked by other Mapuche people? While rewe are found throughout the Mapuche region with little regional variation, 4 their status as sacred sites does not depend on consensual agreement or on the ascription of their status as sacred by a central religious authority. Rather, their power depends upon their capacity to be actively involved in a complex web of relations involving localized human groups, such as the corresponding ritual congregation and their potential enemies. Secondly, how can this site, which has been recently installed in a tract of land claimed as ancestral, be truly sacred? This question can be answered by pointing to the fact that the power of rewe to affect people around them is predicated upon relations and actions in the present. Rewe do not express spatial continuity with the past, since their locations can vary according to different contingencies, such as the preference for a at eld (more apt for the activities of the ngillatun ritual), the willingness of a resident to offer a section of his or her landed property to host such a ritual, and even the role of rewe as markers of land occupation, as in the case of that installed in El Roble estate. Furthermore, rewe are not the manifestations of ancestral spiritual forces embroiled in the land. Certain sites, such as the kuel burial grounds, which consist of large mounds, articially levelled, are believed to be the location of ancestral spirits (Dillehay :oo,: Io8-,). Kuel, however, represent only a small minority of sacred sites in indigenous Southern Chile, and the assumption of the presence of ancestral spirits cannot be automatically extended to other sacred places, such as rewe. While the ancient ones (los antiguos) are regarded as sources of knowledge (kimn) indispensable in ensuring appropriate behaviours towards sacred sites (Di Giminiani :oII; :oI:), my informants do not regard them as active spiritual forces. Having shown that sacred sites involved in land claims are more than strategic means by which to attain governmental benets, we can now explore some of the reasons why sites like the rewe in El Roble estate are subject to accusations of inau- thenticity in land negotiations. The rewe as realpolitik: analogies and misunderstandings by state actors Negotiations concerning the legal dispute over the ownership of El Roble estate proved particularly difcult. CONADI functionaries were, in fact, not interested in making the legal dispute over El Roble public and thus exposing themselves to allegations of ineptitude for the unsound relocation of Comunidad Pichico in a tract of land demanded by another Mapuche community. A possible solution to this thorny legal dispute came only when a newly elected council of Comunidad Pichico decided to negotiate with the Osses over the possibility of leaving El Roble estate. The co-operation between the two communities converged into a written agreement, in which the Pichicos accepted relocation elsewhere in order to leave El Roble to its ancestral owners. Not surprisingly, CONADI ofcials did little to help in reaching this Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 534 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, agreement and members of both communities were to be credited for nding a solution totheir dispute, whicheventually materializedin:oI:. For my hosts, the agreement of the two communities represented an exemplary case for the unity of the Mapuche people, despite tensions and divisions provoked by state policies. While Comunidad Osses were able to achieve their goals regardless of the difculties posed by CONADI ofcials, many negotiations inChile are destinedtoremainunresolved. Several reasons canbe foundfor these failures. The political inuence exercised by wealthy non-indigenous landowners and the intricate system of clientelist relations between Indigenous Communities and state functionaries constitute considerable obstacles to the resolution of Mapuche demands. I would like to propose one particular reason for the failed land negotiations in Southern Chile. I am referring to the possibility that land claims are deligitimized by state ofcials according to their judgements on the cultural signicance of ancestral territories and sacred sites involved in land disputes. Duringnegotiations betweenthecouncil of ComunidadOsses andstatefunctionaries, the rewe was a major topic of conversation. When details about this site were discussed, state functionaries consistently showedtheir doubts about the authenticity of the rewe in El Roble estate. They were generally surprised to nd out that the rewe was installed only in :ooo, as it appeared to them to be a contradiction that this particular sacred site was meant to express relatedness with ancestral land, while being itself a new feature in the landscape. The other major doubt regarding the sacrednature of this rewe concernedthe reasons why it was possible that a sacred site could have become the object of attacks by members of the same ethnic group. The Pichicos also erected a rewe in the disputed property, roughly a kilometre away from that installed by the Osses. The simultaneous presence of two newsacred sites seemed to suggest that they were both inauthentic. This point reected the impression, which I have frequently heard during negotiations, that thereweinEl Robleestatewas onlyashow.As is oftenobservedinLatinAmerica, conicts betweengovernments andindigenous communities reveal howcertainphenomena, such as natural resources, are signied in different manners (Orlove I,,I). In negotiations betweenthemembers of ComunidadOsses andstateactors, thesameobject, therewe, was clearly seen from very different angles. The reasons why sacred sites involved in land negotiations might appear so differently to indigenous claimants and state functionaries are better unfolded if we explore the possibility that the same concepts can be employed by bothparties torefer toradically different worlds. Twonotions inparticular,Mapuche and sacred, are subject to divergent interpretations. For state ofcials, Mapuche is a category which encompasses an ethnic group and a religious congregation. In accordance with this assumption, the aggression of the Pichicos against the rewe of Comunidad Osses can only be explained by presupposing that this sacred site is not authentic. The conceptualization of Mapuche as a rigidly demarcated ethnic and religious group might be of little help, however, in explaining how this ethnonym is understood in indigenous rural areas. While gurative con- sanguinity is extended to virtually all Mapuche people through the expression people of the same blood (gente de la misma sangre), in rural areas this category always appears as relative, since it emerges from the particular context in which the term is employed (Course :oIo: ,). Hence, the Mapucheness of an individual can be judged according to his or her relative position between two poles: on the one hand, the very Mapuche and, on the other, the awinkados, individuals who behave simi- larly to winkas. Moreover, Mapuche is a category that can be extended to individuals belonging to other indigenous groups, and indigenous people outside the Southern The contested REWE 535 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, Cone are generally referred to as Mapuche. Mapucheness thus emerges as both a practice-orientated form of identity (Astuti I,,,) and a form of self-determina- tion centred on the value of autochthony. Certain practices, such as participation in rituals, uency in Mapudungun, and involvement in formalized forms of exchange with neighbours and friends, are constitutive elements of Mapuche identity. Similarly, Mapuche identication with a place of origin (tuwn) is regarded as a fundamental marker of distinction from the winkas, who in contrast are generally represented as uprooted and unpredictable people. The open and uid character of Mapuche identity contrasts with the assumptions of state actors, for whom Mapuche is the conation of a clearly dened ethnic boundary with an extended ritual congregation. The other major source of misunderstanding concerning the rewe in El Roble estate refers to the meaning of sacred place. While in theory all sacred sites are characterized by the imposition of restrictions and prohibitions on human behaviour, what makes something sacred in one society might have none of the characteristics of things and places regarded as sacred in other cultures (Hubert I,,: Io). In cultural translation, analogies are necessary to translate one group of basic meanings into another, thus allowing for the understanding and objectication of alien cultures (Wagner I,8I: ,). However, the unreective use of analogies might lead to the impo- sition of standards of sacredness from one society on sacred sites in other social contexts, thus contributing to misunderstanding. During my stay in Comunidad Osses, my informants offered me analogies to dene the rewe quickly, as in the case of Juan, who once told me: The rewe is like the church for the Mapuche people. Here, we come to pray. The analogy between this Mapuche sacred site and the church, a familiar image for non-indigenous Chileans and Mapuche, served immediately to convey the sacred nature of the rewe in El Roble estate. However, accusations of inauthenticity were also grounded on the use of this analogy, once the standards of sacredness of Christian churches were applied to the understanding of this site. As I was once told by a CONADI functionary, How can this rewe be sacred if other Mapuche have attacked it? The interpretation of Mapuche sacred sites involved in land disputes is illustrative of the inherent limitations of cultural translation, and, in particular, of the problems inherent in translating and interpreting terms in which profound semantic differences may be concealed behind apparent phonic similarity (Davidson I,8: Ioo). For Viveiros de Castro, anthropology as a form of cultural translation is inevitably exposed to the effects of equivocation, a set of potential misinterpretations arising from the transla- tion of the natives practical and discursive concepts into the conceptual apparatus developed by anthropology (:oo: ,). Rather than attempting to annul it by way of grouping ostensibly equivalent phenomena, such as sacred places, into universal cat- egories, an ideal form of cultural translation should attempt to make the most of equivocation by emphasizing radical difference. Controlled equivocation unfolds as an operation of differentiation a production of difference that connects ... two dis- courses to the precise extent to which they are not saying the same thing, in so far as they point to discordant exteriorities beyond the equivocal homonyms between them (:oo: :o). An uncontrolled equivocation can be said to occur whenever differences between discordant exteriorities are played down in order to allow them to be subsumed under the category of a universal concept, in this case, sacred sites. This is exactly what occurs Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 536 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, in the case of state actors for whom the sacredness of Mapuche sites implicated in land claims is questionable, owing to their apparent failure to accord with the state actors expectations of what sacred sites should be and do. Different misunderstandings of and reservations about the sacredness of the rewe in El Roble estate ultimately led to the conclusion that this site could only be another example of an instrumental use of symbols of indigenous identity, or, as commonly heard throughout eldwork, a show. In virtually all indigenous-state relations, unambiguous perceptions of non-conictual indigenous identity by state representatives are critical in ensuring a successful claim (Clifford I,88; de la Cadena & Starn :oo,; Povinelli :oo:: o). In negotiations, the use of cultural objects by indigenous people as a form symbolic capital serves as a marker of difference, legitimizing demands in the eyes of state ofcials (Graham :oo,). The strategic use of cultural objects, however, can prove to be a double-edged sword. Indigenous activists often run the risk of being perceived as no longer truly living their identity when their actions are seen as deliberate exploitations of symbolic capital (Warren & Jackson :oo,: ,,). As seen earlier, for Mapuche claimants, these sites can be employed instrumentally as markers of indigenous identity, as well as being powerful places endowed with a particular form of agency. In marked contrast to this, accusa- tions of inauthenticity made with regard to Mapuche sacred sites involved in land claims derive from the supposition that political usefulness and sacredness are mutu- ally exclusive. The analysis of the interpretations of sacred sites by state actors shows that mis- understandings emerge through the uncontrolled use of analogies and unexamined expectations about what sacred sites are and do. This particular form of interpreta- tion ultimately leads to the transformation of objects responding to divergent onto- logical principles into symbols of identity employed for political purposes. This point bears one signicant implication with regard to the power relation between national majorities and indigenous people. A commonly held view in social science is that conicts between national majorities and indigenous minorities can be reduced to radical ontological misunderstanding, as the cognitive and affective worlds of domi- nant and dominated remain unknown to one another (Clammer, Poirier & Schwimmer :oo: 8). Such a scenario nds little correspondence in contemporary Southern Chile. Land negotiations are carried out in Spanish, the rst language of both parties. Many Mapuche residents regard themselves as Chileans, and identify as Christians as most Chileans do. Furthermore, ties of friendship and kinship between winka and Mapuche are today common and state actors have often ongoing relations with indigenous activists. Misunderstandings in interethnic relations can thus be conceptualized without presupposing rigid ethnic boundaries, which would make attempts for mutual understanding impossible. Quite the contrary, it seems that failures to recognize radical difference originate in those interethnic contexts, where visible signs of indigenous identity are little apparent to the non-indigenous observer. One signicant conclusion can be drawn here. Rather than presupposing irrecon- cilable cultural and communication differences, or state actors refusal to understand, misunderstandings in land negotiations are inherent in a type of understanding aimed at the abduction of radical difference. Such a form of understanding can be better contextualized within the framework of statecraft and the liberal ideology of multicul- turalism centred on the ideal of mutual agreement, which masks the actual asymmetry of the relation between indigenous people and national majorities. In particular, forms The contested REWE 537 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, of social power serve to commensurate disparate ethical and epistemological systems in liberal national forms (Povinelli :ooI: ,:o), thus domesticating difference in ways that appear more legible according to the statecraft principles of standardization (Scott I,,8). So far in this article, misunderstandings in land negotiations have been presented as rooted in the failure to recognize the reality of radical difference by state actors. We can now clarify the inuence of the state and its related ideology in shaping state actors understanding of radical difference. Conclusion: the state and incommensurable ontologies The expansion of indigenous social movements in recent decades is part of the global emergence of subaltern public cultures in open conict with the ideals of national cohesion and peaceful relations promoted by the liberal state (Povinelli :ooI: ,:o). By challenging current systems of land tenure and property relations, indigenous demands for land rights highlight a central concern for statecraft. Historically conictive rela- tions between indigenous minorities and national majorities can in fact be appeased by responding to indigenous claims. However, demands for collective rights pose a threat to the national cohesion that multiculturalist policies aim to achieve. The demarcation of acceptable difference is an ongoing process involving both state and indigenous actors, whose primary outcome is the establishment of a horizon for cultural difference shared and accepted by both indigenous and non-indigenous interlocutors (Ramos I,,8: ,I). While the redenition of acceptable cultural differences unfolds as intercul- tural mediations in the public sphere as well as in face-to-face encounters, such as land negotiations, this process largely depends on the ability of the state to make difference commensurable with the existing technologies of governability. The principle of standardization is a determining factor in establishing what sort of difference can be addressed by the state apparatus. Standardization refers to the his- torical development of a metric that allows the state to translate what it knew into a common standard necessary for a synoptic view (Scott I,,8: :). Historically, failures in the implementation of grand schemes of governability can be traced back to the difculties inherent in appropriately reading the complexity of divergent social phe- nomena to be standardized. Bureaucratic apparatuses are the mechanisms through which different social phenomena are tted into a common legal framework. In the case of the land programme, standardization implies the translation of local notions of land and belonging into the jural language of property (Abramson :ooo: 8). Further- more, the state imposes the rules by which negotiations proceed (Nadasdy :oo,: 8,), including the denition of legitimate negotiating parties according to imposed national standards of ethnic identity (Scholtz :ooo; Sutton :oo,). The principles of standardi- zation are patent in the Chilean land programme: negotiations are open only to those indigenous settlements ofcially registered with CONADI and formed by members who have been granted a certicate of indigenous status (Certicado de Calidad Ind- gena) according to their surnames and genealogical history. Furthermore, oral evidence is secondary, and in order to prove the loss of property they had held in the past, claimants are forced to rely on colonial documents and property titles originally designed to reduce their land. While the indigenous land programme in Chile is largely shaped by the principle of standardization, misunderstandings in land negotiations cannot be explained only by invoking this principle. There are no guidelines concerning negotiations, and, as pre- viously suggested, the judgements of state actors are central factors in the conclusion of Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 538 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, any arbitration. Misunderstandings of indigenous phenomena by state actors are thus better explained as the result of a form of understanding that makes standardization possible by way of commensuration and annulment of radical difference (Povinelli :ooI). The issue of commensuration is of central importance in the philosophy of language. For Davidson (I,8), radical interpretation that is, the interpretation of two or more beliefs that cannot be commensurated by way of a third system of reference can be successful only through the employment of a theory and practice of translation maximizing agreement between interlocutors. Agreement in this case leads to an inevi- table paradox: [J]ust as we must maximize agreement, or risk not making sense of what the alien is talking about, so we must maximize the self-consistency we attribute to him, on pain of not understanding him (Davidson I,8: :,). The dilemma of agreement at the cost of mutual understanding is central not only to the philosophy of language, but also to liberal ideologies of multiculturalism and public reason. The problem of understanding radical difference is in this case resolved by communication strategies aimed at commensurating morally and epistemologically divergent social groups by making radical worlds unremarkable (Povinelli :ooI: ,:o). In particular, for Povinelli, liberal ideologies of multiculturalism are inspired by the ideal that the state can accommodate difference by mimicking the self-correcting movement of reasoned public debate (:ooI: ,:,). The main principle behind liberal ideologies of public reason is indeed the search for a shared agreement, a value coherent with the ideals of national cohesion and peaceful interethnic relations promoted by the liberal state. The extent of what can be agreed on, however, is only apparently the result of mutual agreement between state actors and indigenous claimants. The ideal of agreement conceals the fact that the establishment of acceptable difference unfolds as an asymmetrical relation between the state and indigenous claimants. Cultural differ- ence that cannot be addressed as the naturalized outcome of mutual agreement between minorities and majorities is marginalized. In Chile, public policies targeting indigenous minorities are characterized by both principles of standardization and liberal ideologies of multiculturalism centred on the ideal of agreement. On the one hand, the land programme is designed as an open competition, in which Indigenous Communities must go through approximately thirty-two phases before they can receive land compensations. The language used by this programme is evocative of that used by welfare systems, as land subsidies can be offered to two types of applicants: Indigenous Communities presenting a legal claim of property loss, or households demonstrating sufcient levels of poverty. On the other hand, state representatives, such as cabinet members, can participate in negotiations over land disputes, which results in agreements with indigenous claimants, as com- monly described in the national media (see El Austral :oII). The emergence of the indigenous land programme in Chile as simultaneously both a standardized subsidization and a space for mutual agreements between the state and indigenous claimants reveals the profound connection between liberal strategies of commensuration and the principle of standardization. This point illustrates that stand- ardization can be achieved only insofar as a form of understanding that annuls radical difference is at work. In the liberal imagination promoted by multiculturalism, state apparatuses, as well as its law, principles of governance, and national attitudes, need merely to be adjusted to accommodate others (Povinelli :ooI: I8). Only once radically different worlds are made unremarkable can they be commensurated within existing grids and practices of governability. The contested REWE 539 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, What role is played, then, by misunderstandings by state actors within the broader framework of standardization and liberal ideologies of multiculturalism? Such misun- derstandings are certainly useful to the state in that they help to ensure the frail balance between preventing conicts with indigenous populations and delimiting indigenous demands that might otherwise pose a threat to existing property relations. However, misunderstandings do not necessarily occur as deliberate refusals to understand indig- enous demands and sacred sites to further the ends of state actors, as failures in land negations indeed bear them little in the way of benets. In land negotiations, the transformation of ancestral land into property and sacred sites into evidence for property is founded on the premise that Mapuche land and sacred sites are semantically compatible with the meanings ascribed to land and sacred sites in the Chilean legal system. While misunderstandings in land negotiations can be understood within the logics of liberal strategies of commensuration, this article has further suggested that accusations of inauthenticity against sacred sites originate in a more conned process: the transformation of these sites from animate powerful objects into symbols of identity employed for political purposes. The focus of this article on the potential ramications of failing to recognize difference in ontological terms bears two signi- cant implications for the ways in which the state addresses radical difference. Firstly, the points raised by this article can be taken as invitations to reconsider state appa- ratuses regulating indigenous land negotiations. The growing global tendency to rely on technocratic rule and expert knowledge has largely inspired negotiation policies (Boyer :oo8). In late liberal governability, experts have been allowed to estab- lish enclosures within which their authority cannot be challenged or affected by political attempts to govern them (Rose :ooo: I,,). The development of a culture of expertise is particularly evident in Chile, a stronghold of neoliberalism in Latin America (Silva :oo,). A handful of experts such as lawyers and economists are responsible for the design, modication, and implementation of the land pro- gramme. Participation of indigenous representatives is not considered in the current system, and negotiations are carried out in the absence of indigenous voices. Recent proposals by Chilean President Sebastin Piera aim to restructure the land pro- gramme run by CONADI by shifting its focus from negotiations over land restitution towards development projects aimed at fostering private initiatives among indig- enous farmers under the supervision of experts in agriculture (El Mercurio :oI:). The failures of land negotiations outlined in this article reveal how abandoning the ideal of making the land programme a standardized system of land allotment might open the possibility for negotiations to unfold as mediations more responsive to indig- enous desires. Secondly, by drawing attention to the ways in which the state understands and addresses radical difference, this article has suggested that the recognition of onto- logical pluralism is central in the debate on the political self-determination of indig- enous groups. Conicts over the recognition of cultural difference have been generally regarded as negotiations over meaning involving different, culturally con- ditioned interpretations of social reality (Eriksen :oo:: I,). However, claims point to the possibility that divergences refer not only to discordant representations of society, but also to differences in ontological terms. As for the broader study of indig- enous activism, land claims have been primarily interpreted through constructivist approaches inspired by the politics of identity (see Occhipinti :oo,; Saltman :oo:). Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 540 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, In this paradigm, collective action is the form through which land is re-signied as a symbol of a restructured collective identity. This article has shown that treating land and sacred sites exclusively as symbols of identity can lead us to misunderstand the ways in which these objects appear and matter to the people around them. Far from being a mere analytical interest, the failure to recognize radical difference in land negotiations is a critical concern for indigenous claimants. As shown in the case of negotiations over El Roble estate, resolutions depend on judgements, such as those concerning the authenticity of sacred sites. Within anthropology, allowing for the conceptual recognition of the pluralist character of ontology is a political act in itself. The question for the political self-determination of indigenous people is indeed incomplete unless we take into account questions concerning the conceptual and ontological self-determination of each society (Holbraad :oI:: Io; Viveiros de Castro :oo,). To take a step further, anthropology can offer a decisive contribution to the study of indigenous-state relations not only by taking radical difference seriously, that is, in ontological terms, but also by showing the implications of failing to do so. NOTES This article is based upon fourteen months of eldwork carried out in :oo8 and :oo, in Chile. This research was made possible with nancial assistance from the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant of the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Abbey Santander Research Award, the Sutasoma Award of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the UCL Graduate School Research Projects Fund, the Central Research Fund of the University of London, and the Interdisciplinary Center for Intercultural and Indig- enous Studies ICIIS, GRANT: CONICYT/FONDAP/I,IIoooo. The Institute of Sociology at the Catholic University of Chile also provided logistical and nancial support for the writing of this article. I would like to thank Allen Abramson, Giovanna Bacchiddu, Mukulika Banerjee, Magnus Course, Martin Holbraad, Eric Hirsch, and the anonymous reviewers of the JRAI for their productive comments on previous versions of this article. Further insights came from participants in the panel Towards an Anthropology of Misunderstand- ings at the EASA biennial conference (:oI:) held at the University of Nanterre. My profound gratitude goes to the people of Comunidad Osses for their wholehearted hospitality and endless patience in discussing experiences and opinions concerning their land claims. 1 Pseudonyms have been used throughout this article. 2 In other rural areas, the installation of the rewe is named rewetun. 3 Customarily, lonko is the headman of a dominant lineage and is in charge of organizing the activities of the local group lof. In many Indigenous Communities, lonko are today chosen according to their ritualistic knowledge. 4 A notable exception concerns the Pewenche regional group located in the Andean areas, among whom araucaria trees take the role of the rewe. REFERENCES Abramson, A. :ooo. Mythical land, legal boundaries: wondering about landscape and other tracts. In Land, law and environment: mythical land, legal boundaries (eds) A. Abramson & D. Theodossopoulos, I-,o. London: Pluto. Alberti, B. & T.L. Bray :oo,. Animating archaeology: of subjects, objects and alternative ontologies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal :p, ,,,-,. Alonqueo, M. I,,,. Instituciones religiosas del pueblo Mapuche. Santiago: Editorial Nueva Universidad. Astuti, R. I,,,. People of the sea: identity and descent among the Vezo of Madagascar. Cambridge: University Press. Bacigalupo, M. :oo,. Shamans of the Foye Tree: gender, power and healing among Chilean Mapuche. Austin: University of Texas Press. Bengoa, J. :ooo. Historia del pueblo mapuche: siglo XIX y XX. Santiago: Lom Ediciones. Boyer, D. :oo8. Thinking through the anthropology of experts. Anthropology in Action :,: i, ,8-o. Casamiquela, R. I,o. Estudio del nillatun y la religin araucana. Baha Blanca: Cuadernos del Sur. The contested REWE 541 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, Clammer, J.R., S. Poirier & E. Schwimmer :oo. Figured worlds: ontological obstacles in intercultural relations. Toronto: University Press. Clifford, J. I,88. The predicament of culture: twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Course, M. :oIo. Los gneros sobre el pasado en la vida mapuche rural. Revista Chilena de Antropologia i:, ,,-,8. :oII. Becoming Mapuche: person and ritual in Indigenous Chile. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. :oI:. The birth of the word: language, force, and Mapuche ritual authority. HAU: Journal of Ethno- graphic Theory i: :, I-:o. Davidson, D. I,8. Inquiries into truth and interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. de la Cadena, M. & O. Starn :oo,. Introduction. In Indigenous experience today (eds) M. de la Cadena & O. Starn, I-,o. Oxford: Berg. Descola, P. :ooo. Beyond nature and culture. Proceedings of the British Academy :p, I,,-,,. Di Giminiani, P. :oII. Ancestral lands, contemporary disputes: land restoration and belonging among the Mapuche people of Chile. Ph.D. thesis, University College London. :oI:. Tierras ancestrales, disputas contemporneas: pertenencia y demandas territoriales en la sociedad mapuche rural. Santiago: Ediciones UC. Dillehay, T. :oo,. Monuments, empires, and resistance: the Araucanian polity and ritual narratives. Cam- bridge: University Press. El Austral de Temuco :oII. Conadi cierra negociacin para compra de tierras. , May. El Mercurio :oI:. Presidente Piera anuncia fortalecimiento del Plan Araucana tras cumbre en La Moneda. , August. Eliade, M. I,oI [I,,:]. Images and symbols: studies in religious symbolism (trans. P. Mairet). Princeton: University Press. Eriksen, T. :oo:. Ethnicity and nationalism: anthropological perspectives. London: Pluto. Fabian, J. I,,,. Ethnographic misunderstanding and the perils of context. American Anthropologist p, I-,o. Faron, L. I,o. Hawks of the sun: Mapuche morality and its ritual attributes. Pittsburgh: University Press. Fay, D. & D. James :oo,. Restoring what was ours: an introduction. In The rights and wrongs of land restitution: restoring what was ours (eds) D. Fay & D. James, I-:. London: Routledge. Foerster, R. I,,,. Introduccin a la religiosidad mapuche. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria. Fontein, J. :oo,. We want to belong to our roots and we want to be modern people: new farmers, old claims around Lake Mutirikwi, Southern Zimbabwe. African Studies Quarterly :o: {, I-,,. Gell, A. I,,8. Art and agency: an anthropological theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Graham, L. :oo,. How should an Indian speak? Amazonian Indians and the symbolic politics of language in the global public sphere. In Indigenous movements, self-representation, and the state in Latin America (eds) K.B. Warren & J.E. Jackson, I,-8o. Austin: University of Texas Press. Grebe, M., S. Pacheco & J. Segura I,,:. Cosmovisin mapuche. Cuadernos de la realidad nacional :{, o-,,. Hassler, W. I,8,. Nguillatunes del Neuqun: costumbres araucanas. Neuquen: Siringa Libros. Henare, A., M. Holbraad & S. Wastell :oo,. Introduction: thinking through things. In Thinking through things: theorizing artefacts ethnographically (eds) A. Henare, M. Holbraad & S. Wastell, I-,I. Abingdon: Routledge. Herzfeld, M. :ooI. Orientations: anthropology as a practice of theory. In Anthropology: theoretical practice in culture and society (ed.) M. Herzfeld, I-:o. Oxford: Blackwell. Holbraad, M. :oo,. Ontography and alterity: dening anthropological truth. Social Analysis ,: i, 8o-,,. :oI:. Truth in motion: the recursive anthropology of Cuban divination. Chicago: University Press. Hubert, J. I,,. Sacred beliefs and beliefs of sacredness. In Sacred Sites, sacred places (eds) D. Carmichael, J. Hubert, B. Reeves & A. Schanche, ,-I,. London: Routledge. INE :oI,. Estadisticas sociales de los pueblos indigenas en Chile, Censo :o:,. Santiago: Mideplan. James, D. :oo,. Burial sites, informal rights and lost kingdoms: the contesting of land claims in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Africa p, ::8-,I. Kopytoff, I. I,8o. The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process. In The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective (ed.) A. Appadurai, o-,. Cambridge: University Press. Latour, B. :oo,. Reassembling the social: an introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: University Press. Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 542 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, Mallon, F. :oo,. Courage tastes of blood: the Mapuche community of Nicols Ailo and the Chilean state, :,oo-:oo:. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. Marimn, P. :ooo. Los Mapuches antes de la conquista militar Chileno-Argentina. In ... Escucha, winka ...! Cuatro ensayos de Historia Nacional Mapuche y un epilogo sobre el futuro (eds) P. Marimn, S. Caniuqueo, J. Millalen & R. Levil, ,,-I:8. Santiago: LOM ediciones. Nadasdy, P. :oo,. The antithesis of restitution? A note on the dynamics of land negotiations in the Yukon, Canada. In The rights and wrongs of land restitution: restoring what was ours (eds) D. Fay & D. James, 8,-,,. London: Routledge. Occhipinti, L. :oo,. Claiming a place: land and identity in two communities in Northwestern Argentina. The Journal of Latin American Anthropology 8, I,,-,. Orlove, B. I,,I. Mapping reeds and reading maps: the politics of representation in Lake Titikaka. American Ethnologist :8, ,-,8. Pedersen, M. :ooI. Totemism, animism and North Asian indigenous ontologies. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) , II-:,. Pereda, I. & E. Perrotta I,,. Junta de hermanos de sangre: un ensayo de analisis del nguillatun a travs de tiempo y espacio desde una visin huinca. Buenos Aires: Sociedad Argentina de Antropologa. Povinelli, E. :ooI. Radical worlds: the anthropology of incommensurability and conceivability. Annual Review of Anthropology o, ,I,-,. :oo:. The cunning of recognition: indigenous alterities and the making of Australian multiculturalism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. Ramos, A. I,,8. Indigenism: ethnic politics in Brazil. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Robb, J. :oo. The extended artefact and the monumental economy. In Rethinking materiality: the engage- ment of mind with the material world (eds) E. DeMarrais, C. Gosden & C. Renfrew, I,I-,. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Rose, N. :ooo. Governing the present: administering economic, social and personal life. In The anthropology of the state: a reader (eds) A. Sharma & A. Gupta, I-o:. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. Saltman, M. :oo:. Land and territoriality. Oxford: Berg. Schindler, H. :ooo. Acerca de la espiritualidad mapuche. Berlin: Martin Meidenbauer Verlagsbuch. Scholtz, C. :ooo. Negotiating claims: the emergence of indigenous land claim negotiation policies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. New York: Routledge. Scott, J. I,,8. Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Sillar, B. :oo,. The social agency of things? Animism and materiality in the Andes. Cambridge Archaeo- logical Journal :p, ,o,-,,. Silva, P. :oo,. In the name of reason: technocrats and politics in Chile. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Strang, V. :oo. The meaning of water. Oxford: Berg. Sutton, P. :oo,. Native title in Australia: an ethnographic perspective. Cambridge: University Press. Terwindt, C. :oo,. The demands of the true Mapuche: ethnic political mobilization in the Mapuche movement. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics :,, :,,-,,. Viveiros de Castro, E. I,,8. Cosmological deixis and Amerindian perspectivism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) {, o,-88. :oo,. And: after-dinner speech given at Anthropology and Science, the ,th Decennial Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth. Manchester: Department of Social Anthropology. - :oo. Perspectival anthropology and the method of controlled equivocation. Tipiti i: :, ,- ::. Wagner, R. I,8I. The invention of culture. Chicago: University Press. Walker, H. :oo,. Baby hammocks and stone bowls: Urarina technologies of companionship and subjection. In The occult life of things: Native Amazonian theories of materiality and personhood. (ed.) F. Santos- Granero, ,8-II,. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Warren, K. & J. Jackson :oo,. Introduction: studying indigenous activism in Latin America. In Indigenous movements, self-representation, and the state in Latin America (eds) K.B. Warren & J.E. Jackson, I-o. Austin: University of Texas Press. Wright, R. & N. Whitehead :oo. Introduction: dark shamanism. In In darkness and secrecy: the anthro- pology of assault sorcery and witchcraft in Amazonia (eds) R. Wright & N. Whitehead, I-I,. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. The contested REWE 543 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI, Le rewe contest : rites sacrs, malentendus et pluralisme ontologique dans les ngociations pour les terres des Mapuche Rsum Les sites sacrs sont au cur des revendications et ngociations des peuples autochtones avec les gouvernements. Les pouvoirs publics mettent souvent en doute lauthenticit de ces sites, ce qui peut dlgitimer les droits invoqus sur les terres des anctres. Lauteur afrme ici que les malentendus lis aux ngociations sur les terres des Mapuche au Chili ne sont pas ns dun refus stratgique de comprendre mais dune forme de comprhension qui tente de rendre des diffrences radicales compatibles avec la logique du pouvoir public et de la socit nationale. La transition culturelle ne reconnat pas les principes ontologiques qui rendent certains sites sacrs dans le monde vcu par les Mapuche, sites qui se trouvent de ce fait transforms en symboles didentit et employs stratgiquement des ns politiques. Piergiorgio Di Giminiani is a lecturer in anthropology at the Catholic University of Chile (Sociological Institute, Anthropology Programme). He is the author of the book Tierras ancestrales, disputas contem- porneas: pertenencia y demandas territoriales en la sociedad mapuche rural (Ancestral lands, current disputes: belonging and territorial demands in rural Mapuche society) (Ediciones UC, :oI:). Instituto de Sociologa, Ponticia Universidad Catlica de Chile, Av. Vicua Mackenna ,8oo, Macul, Chile. pdigiminia@uc.cl Piergiorgio Di Giminiani 544 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :p, ,:,-,,, Royal Anthropological Institute :oI,