Cerros bravos in northern Chile: Force and voracity of mallku in contexts of political-legal defence of indigenous territories

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analytically shift the Andean category ‘cerros bravos’ towards certain forms of force and political participation that these non-human entities have presented in the defence of indigenous territories intervened by mining projects in recent years (2018-2025). It is argued that these agencies respond to indigenous considerations about their voracious and predatory nature, which constitute modes of existence in the territories. From the theoretical perspective of relational ontologies, the category ‘cerros bravos’ is ethnographically characterised to analyse the strength and social agency of these non-human entities in the framework of a set of political strategies that have involved Aymara groups translocated between the coast and the foothills. Methodologically, the article is the result of qualitative ethnographic research sustained by long field relations and by the anthropological accompaniment of the litigation undertaken by these indigenous groups. It concludes that these modes of force and voracity constitute an inseparable part of the indigenous territories affected, appearing in these contexts of crisis and demonstrating that these indigenous groups do not proceed alone, but also with their hills.