Lawen and Ontological Struggles: Memories, Territories, and Epistemic Conflicts in Patagonia

SANTISTEBAN, KAIA

Vernacular Worldmaking and the Pluriverse: Stories, Practices, and Identities Between Latin America and the Globe,

Kipu-Verlag

Lugar: Bielefeld; Año: 2026; p. 1 - 6

This chapter aims to understand how partially connected worlds (Strathern 2005, 28) are articulated and disarticulated in their ways of understanding the world, revealing tensions and possibilities in the coexistence of epistemological, ontological, and ideological differences (Blaser 2010; Law 2015; Briones 2019). To this end, I analyze the struggles surrounding the defense of lawen (Mapuche medicine) as a contested space that exposes ontological and epistemic boundaries within specific sociopolitical contexts. These struggles, deeply rooted in divergent conceptions of health, territory, history, and citizenship, articulate demands for the ontological and epistemic self-determination of the Mapuche-Tehuelche people in Patagonia, Argentina.To frame this analysis, I connect the concept of the pluriverse with key authors such as Arturo Escobar (2015) and Marisol De la Cadena (2015). Both reflect on the pluriverse as a space of alliances among heterogeneous worlds negotiating their coexistence in diversity, challenging the notion of a single world. The pluriverse requires a political transformation that recognizes relationships among multiple worlds, including non-human agents as legitimate actors. In general terms, these authors propose that worlds interweave with one another, co-produce, and mutually affect each other through partial connections. This is challenging in contexts dominated by hegemonic conceptions. In response, Escobar (2015, 35) posits the historical possibility of a significant alternative project: envisioning globality as a strategy to protect and promote the pluriverse. This strategy, referred to as the “political activation of relationality” (Blaser, De la Cadena, and Escobar 2009, 35), suggests forms of action that recognize and strengthen the multiple relationships among diverse worlds.