Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the importance of seasonal migration to understand Mapuche relationships with the environment, focusing on the ways in which sensorial experience, storytelling and enskillment contribute to acknowledging non-human entities and establishing a relationship of mutual respect.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper is a product of long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a Pehuenche community in southern Chile. The Pehuenche are a sub-group of the Mapuche people who have a tradition of seasonal migration between small valleys at the foothills of the Andes, known as invernadas (sp. winter lands), and the forests located higher up in the hills, called veranadas (sp. summer lands). In this paper I will discuss the importance of the trips to the veranada to understanding Mapuche relationships with the environment. I will do so by looking into the ways sensorial experience, storytelling and skill development work towards acknowledging non-human entities as existent and establishing a relationship of mutual respect. The tradition of seasonal migration allows my informants to complement the experiences, learning and relationships acquired both in the invernada and the veranada. I will analyse the way in which the visits to the veranada present an exceptional time of the year in which children learn particular mode of sociality, a mode that very much includes non-humans as well as humans and that gives them a strong sense of place and attachment to the landscape. This contact with non-humans can be either beneficial or harmful for both parties. Therefore, it is important for children to learn about this and for adults to keep the relationship on good terms the way they do with family and friends in the invernada through intense visiting and hosting.