La escuela como mecanismo de aculturación en la Araucanía durante el siglo xix

Abstract

This article aims to show the role of Chilean education during the nineteenth century in the Araucania region, in terms of the interethnic relations between the mapuche people and the young Chilean republic. There was a process of integration and homogenization of the mapuche people supported by the State, in search of a new society that would break the old social schemes imposed by the Spanish people. By using a qualitative and phenomenological approach, an ethno-historical study has been conducted, aimed at showing the essential facts, processes and dynamics of the implementation of the educational system in the region during the nineteenth century. The study will show how the educational system introduced over the years —in which the Catholic missionaries played a crucial role— was shaped as part of an integration policy and as a domination mechanism, leading to deliberately eliminate the cultural particularities of the mapuche people.