L’ange Gabriel dans la forêt du centre du Chili

Abstract

In this ethnographic essay, I explore how the forest in Central Chile is being transformed. Initially interested in the ecological processes that influence the recomposition of the forest after anthropogenic disturbances, I find that the forest becomes difficult to situate in the socio-economic landscape. In a local legend, the angel Gabriel kills the devil caught in the forest by the yarn of his poncho, which comes unravelled, tangled in the trees. But the devil does not die. In a similar way, I try to trace and trap the issues of social inequality and economic transformations that determine what and for whom the forest is used. And even if the inequalities and exploitations of the past are killed - analytically, symbolically, in practice - they reappear in another form. The forest transforms itself with socio-economic changes.

Keywords

• forest restoration
• Chile
• economy
• cattle
• mining