Guadalafquén Riverine Culture

Mapuche-Huilliche Persistence and Hybridization

Bibliographic Data

ID24224832
AuthorsLeonor Adán (0000-0002-4486-6338, Austral University of Chile), Diego Carabias (0000-0001-8936-8482, ARQMAR, Centre for Maritime Archaeology Research of the Southeastern Pacific, Valparaíso, Chile), Ricardo Alvarez (0000-0002-0987-6717, Austral University of Chile), Marcelo Godoy (0000-0002-3066-3900, Austral University of Chile)
Year2026
Volume73
Issue4
Pages489-518
Publication date2026-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-12536939
OpenAlexW7221811017
LanguageEN
References cited22

This article studies the riverine or riverside culture developed by the Mapuche-Huilliche population, focusing on the province of Guadalafquén, or Valdivia (Chile, latitude 39° south). Using various sources, it highlights the importance of water landscapes in the settlement, mobility, and belief systems of Mapuche society. It also describes the technologies and knowledge used in navigation practices, and how they were adopted by settlers of European origin who resettled in the region following the refounding of Valdivia as a Plaza Presidio. The article then recognizes the way in which this riverine culture contributed to preserving Indigenous territoriality and ways of life, as well as to the indigenization of the Hispanic population and the manner in which dissimilar social logics and practices coexisted for the settlement of Mapuche-Huilliche riverine and forest territories.

cultural hybridity · European settlers · forest territories · Indigenization · indigenous beliefs · indigenous knowledge · indigenous territoriality · river navigation · riverine culture · Valdivia · water landscapes · Indigenous Cultures and History · Indigenous Studies in Latin America · Latin American history and culture

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