De escuelas indígenas sin pueblos a pueblos sin escuelas indígenas: la educación en la Araucanía en el siglo XIX

Resumen

This article studies Republican State policy regarding indigenous education as a form of iniegration and dominatíon of the Mapuche people who maintained their independence until 1881. It begins with colonial background information and goes on to study the continuatíon of míssion policy during the Republican period, in which the school is inserted, in order to conclude that the school was not successfully established because Mapuche social organization rejected the formation of towns. The school's establishment became successful together with the spontaneous advancement of the Spanish-Chilean population in Mapuche terrilory and the formation of towns. This public school, as opposed to the mission school, was not indigenous but rather mixed. The liberal State, after the occupation oí Araucanía (the Mapuche's región), extended the zone's education without considering indigenous issues, under the supposition that the Mapuche population would accede to the national school and upon enrolling would give up their own culture. This article proposes that the indigenous school was not successfully established due to a lack of twons and that when these were created, the school was publie and not indigenous. Thus, the liberal State's homogenizing educational policy was an important means towards the cultural adaptation of the Mapuche people, although it did not make their culture disappear.