Extractivist configuration and restriction of future self-determination in Chile's Mapuche communities

Abstract

Introduction: Extractivism in southern Chile has generated deep tensions surrounding the Mapuche people's territorial claims and restitution. These processes, driven by economic logic geared toward capital accumulation, directly affect the ways in which communities relate to their territory and plan their collective future. From this perspective, it is essential to understand how extractive dynamics affect not only access to land, but also the possibilities for Mapuche self-determination. Development: From a political geography approach, and in dialogue with the concepts of value grabbing and pseudocommodification proposed by Andreucci et al., we analyze how current property regimes and land uses shape territories that serve the interests of capital. These configurations restrict material access to claimed lands and condition the basis for the development of their own political projects. Beyond the physical transformation of space, extractivism captures the future of communities by imposing rationalities of valorization incompatible with their historical and political trajectories. Using a mixed methodological strategy of exploratory sequential analysis and the layers of dispossession approach, overlapping trajectories of historical territorial dispossession and extractivist appropriation are identified that continue to influence current conditions of restitution. This framework highlights a legal geography that hinders the resolution of territorial conflict at the local level. Conclusions: The analysis allows us to understand that extractivism not only produces immediate territorial impacts, but also structurally limits the possibilities for future self-determination of the Mapuche people. Incorporating the study of claimed territories—and not only those formally owned—is key to broadening the debate on land grabbing in Latin America and advancing toward approaches to indigenous territorial justice.