This is an ethnographic study carried out during the years 2017 and 2018, in eight Mapuche rural communities of the La Araucanía region. Its objective is to describe the cultural practices and strategies that Mapuche families use to support the stimulation and development of their young children. The data was obtained through field observations and in-depth interviews with 16 families and their informed consent. The analysis was textual and inductive, using the Atlas.ti 8 software. The results indicate that the stimulation and development strategies are carried out through processes of participation and active collaboration of children in the family-community dynamics, by observing, listening and practicing with the elderly; and also through the activation of ancestral practices that involve performing spiritual protection ceremonies, helping them to explore nature, stimulating the imitation of sounds, listening to mapudungun, practicing traditional games, listening stories , riddles, and sayings taught by families or people in the community. As conclusions, the cultural practices of care and stimulation of the development of Mapuche children are immersed in the daily life of the culture and in the set of adaptive mechanisms that families and the community have been developing to protect, care for, and stimulate their children. Nature and the Mapuche culture itself provide the space, rhythm and ways of stimulation for children to become respectful and autonomous collaborator.
Alarcón, A., Astudillo, P., Castro, M., & Perez, S. (2021). Cultural practices and strategies to promote the development of Mapuche children up to 4 years. La Araucania, Chile. Revista Chilena De Antropología, (43), 80–95. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1472.2021.64433
