Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906–2001 (Radical Perspectives) [Paperback]

Florencia E. Mallon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Radical Perspectives | Publication Date: October 28, 2005

Until now, very little about the recent history of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous group, has been available to English-language readers. Courage Tastes of Blood helps to rectify this situation. It tells the story of one Mapuche community—Nicolás Ailío, located in the south of the country—across the entire twentieth century, from its founding in the resettlement process that followed the military defeat of the Mapuche by the Chilean state at the end of the nineteenth century. Florencia E. Mallon places oral histories gathered from community members over an extended period of time in the 1990s in dialogue with one another and with her research in national and regional archives. Taking seriously the often quite divergent subjectivities and political visions of the community’s members, Mallon presents an innovative historical narrative, one that reflects a mutual collaboration between herself and the residents of Nicolás Ailío.

Mallon recounts the land usurpation Nicolás Ailío endured in the first decades of the twentieth century and the community’s ongoing struggle for restitution. Facing extreme poverty and inspired by the agrarian mobilizations of the 1960s, some community members participated in the agrarian reform under the government of socialist president Salvador Allende. With the military coup of 1973, they suffered repression and desperate impoverishment. Out of this turbulent period the Mapuche revitalization movement was born. What began as an effort to protest the privatization of community lands under the military dictatorship evolved into a broad movement for cultural and political recognition that continues to the present day. By providing the historical and local context for the emergence of the Mapuche revitalization movement, Courage Tastes of Blood offers a distinctive perspective on the evolution of Chilean democracy and its rupture with the military coup of 1973.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Courage Tastes of Blood explores how ordinary, marginalized indigenous peoples in Chile construct historical memory in small, discontinuous steps, a process which enables them to sustain a ‘politics of difference’ in a world where globalization threatens to further homogenize diversity in the name of economic progress and stability. Following this logic in her own practice, Florencia E. Mallon highlights the importance of everyday practices in understanding oral sources, and, in so doing, she challenges readers to reconsider the preconceptions of history as a field of knowledge that reproduces the rationality of power. This is a bold, fascinating, and highly original contribution to our understanding of indigenous lives, repression in Chile, and racism, and it provides a methodological lesson in rethinking fields of inquiry from the perspective of alternative knowledge producers.”—Arturo Arias, past president of the Latin American Studies Association

“Florencia E. Mallon combines a historian’s sensitivity to context and an ethnographer’s attention to cultural description, capturing the everydayness of life in the midst of rapid social transformation. While focusing on one Mapuche community, she provides insights into larger histories of social mobilization, state formation, political violence, and community identity.”—Greg Grandin, author of The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War

“Florencia E. Mallon gives history a human face. Her description of a Mapuche community’s struggle to recover land rights previously lost in extremely adverse conditions underscores the promise of historical work to go way beyond the cold, distanced analysis of things past. The Mapuche navigate the pages of Courage Tastes of Blood with the sturdy competence of devoted craftsmen carving their own destiny.”—Alcida Rita Ramos, author of Indigenism: Ethnic Politics in Brazil

From the Publisher

"In this beautifully written book, Florencia E. Mallon combines a historian’s sensitivity to context and an ethnographer’s attention to thick cultural description, capturing the everydayness of life in the midst of rapid social transformation. While focusing primarily on one Mapuche community, she provides important insights into larger histories of social mobilization, state formation, political violence, and community identity. "—[RR; PP] Greg Grandin, author of The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822335743
• ISBN-13: 978-0822335740
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Chile
  • #49 in Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Chile

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like poetry, November 13, 2010

By 

Valeria - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906–2001 (Radical Perspectives) (Paperback)

Florencia Mallon's book is a insightfull and groundbreaking proposal to understand Mapuche and Chilean history.
Is also very well written.