“Ever since your cradle rocked, you were brave”. Mapuche leadership in a post-conquest context, late 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

In the present article we will refer to some specific lines of thought opened by Martha Bechis’ research in the field of studies of politics and leadership in the so-called frontiers of the Southern Cone. In general, to the field of historical studies of the indigenous peoples of Pampas, Araucanía and Patagonia her work became a legacy in terms of concepts, themes and interpretative frames. To be precise, we will reflect on the implications and limits that Bechis’ proposal has offered in approaching process of submission and incorporation to the stateof indigenous peoples during the late 19th and 20th centuries in Norpatagonia.