Cultural Practices in Indigenous Chilean Communities

Abstract

Ethnic-cultural diversity is a topic that is widely present in social work, with one of the most developed areas of training being that of cultural competencies. However, there are few proposals for the design of cultural competencies in Latin American indigenous peoples. In this context, the chapter analyses the dynamics and social characteristics of two indigenous peoples in Chile, the Mapuche people and the Aymara people; their historical and social backgrounds with a special emphasis on the maintenance of their indigenous cultural practices; how they perceive various domains of subjective well-being, and the differences in well-being when they maintain these cultural practices; to later discuss how this knowledge can be incorporated into the practice of social work. In this work we specifically offer some cultural competencies that are sensitive to the worldview of the Mapuche and Aymara indigenous people.