Different Relational Models have Shaped the Biocultural Conservation over Time of Araucaria araucana Forests and Their People

LADIO A H; MAURICIO SEDREZ

Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas. A Perspective from Historical Ecology

Taylor & Francis Group

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023; p. 104 - 119

For the Mapuche people, Araucaria araucana, which is known as "Pewen" inMapudungum, Mapuche language, is a cultural keystone species. Evidence shows thatthe species has been part of the food sovereignty of the Pewenche (Pewen people inMapudungun) and their ancestors since 3000 BP. The Pewen landscape has held astrong material and symbolic significance for the Mapuche communities since beforeEuropeans arrived in the region. The concept of relational models (RMs) provides aframework that contributes to the spatial-temporal pattern analysis of the use ofPewen by people through time. This framework involves a set of preferences,principles, and virtues that explain the degree of responsibility toward Nature thatdifferent cultural groups have developed. This chapter describes and analyzes RMsthat have prevailed on Pewen forest management, based on bibliographical sources inthe fields of archeology, historical ecology, ethnohistory and ethnobotany. The RMs ofdomination, exploitation, custody and mutual nurturing provide clues tounderstanding human-Pewen forest relationships and vary over time and socioculturalcontexts, as colonial processes and their neo-colonial legacies have shaped the fate ofthe conservation of these forests and their native inhabitants. The results herein showthat the RM of mutual nurturing of Pewenche communities is a model that has anindispensable ethic for building resilience in contexts of socio-environmental change.