Küme Mongen as a contribution of the Mapuche Kimün to a new relationship with nature in the Chilean constituent process

Abstract

The current pandemic shows the imminent crisis caused by the metabolic fracture of the relationship between human beings and nature, turning them into commodities (work and land) which is necessary for the accumulation and expanded reproduction of capital. In the current constitutional process in Chile, both Mapuche leaders and constitutionalists have positioned the Küme mongen (Mapuche Good linving) as the central axis of a new paradigm of social organization and its connection with nature, an alternative to the neoliberal prevailing extractivist model. This article analyzes the contribution of the Küme mongen, as a “mobilizing metaphor”, to the fundamental definitions of the constituent process. The principles and key concepts synthetized in order to guide the restoration of the social metabolism towards the sustainability of the Good living, are: 1) Mapu as a territorial system, 2) Itrofill mongen as biodiversity and 3) Admapu as a biocentric legal system. Based on qualitative and theoretical-empirical research, the approaches made by both Mapuche constitutional and organizations during the electoral campaign period and in the sessions of the Constitutional Convention have been triangulated with the information obtained in field work carried out in the Araucanía region, Chile, between 2010 and 2020.