(Re)Imagining the Relationship Between Society and Nature in Northern Chilean Patagonia: Encounters and (Mis)Encounters with the Modern World

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the emergence of alternative ways for inhabiting the territory of Southern Chile which invite us to consider that other models of living are possible. First, we compare Indigenous and Western paradigms for sustainability. This serves as a framework through which we can then evaluate different alternative living projects. We document and describe three local community projects that are being developed in the mountainous area of the Araucanía region, which have raised awareness through a profound transformation of the way people relate to nature, to each other, and to themselves. The three projects are as follows: (1) a community project that recreates Mesoamerican Indigenous practices; (2) the Waldorf Educational Project, which represents a pedagogical counterproposal developed by the European spiritual thinker Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925); and (3) permaculture projects that seek other, new forms of food production through a close link with nature. We observe that although these projects open paths, they also present limitations and contradictions to re-imagining our relationship with the world. We suggest that in order to respond to the current multidimensional crisis we must construct new forms of living that break away from the dualistic ways of thinking that we have inherited from modernity.