Indigenous identity and textiles: an economic policy strategies in the province of Chubut

Abstract

From the conception of the identity of individuals and of the groups as an elaboration, arises that the current indigenous identity employed by the state in the province of Chubut is functional to a policy which aims to prevent the emigration of the few people in rural areas of the province. It affirms that such a strategy is not new and that in the past other versions of this identity have also been useful to legitimate power projects. Through ethnographic and historical work, we explore some physical and social characteristics of rural areas of that province, some provincial regulations of government agencies, and certain attributes, preterits and present, of the indigenous identity employed by the state and of one of its symbols, Mapuche tissues. Laterally it refers in what way this identity is considered by some identified.