The unfinished development of the frontier: a Karl Polanyi reading of the conflict between the forestry industry, Mapuche communities and the Chilean State ¹

Abstract

This article explores conflicts between the forestry industry, Mapuche communities and the Chilean State in light of Polanyi’s reading of capitalist expansion. It offers a historical-institutional analysis of the ways in which the Chilean State used afforestation to tame a wild frontier and the native people living there. We argue that the rise of violence in this zone responds to the State’s growing militarization of the area and reflects the counter-movement of social protection initiated by the Mapuche people - both against a free-market forestry industry that has transformed the landscape, limiting Mapuche access to lands and forests, and a modernization process led by the Chilean State that eroded traditional Mapuche institutions and offered them integration on unequal terms as “poor peasants.”

Keywords: Forestry industry; Mapuche; Chilean State; counter-movement; social protection; Polanyi