Wallmapu
/waʎˈmapu/noun
A Mapuche term for the traditional ancestral territory of the Mapuche people, spanning areas of present-day Chile and Argentina.
Did you know?Wallmapu is often used in Mapuche political and cultural discourse to describe a territory divided by modern national borders but understood as historically interconnected.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial period
Mapudungun
wallmapu
“A broad territorial expression referring to the ancestral land of the Mapuche people”
Precolonial period
Mapudungun
wall
“Around, surrounding, or encompassing”
Precolonial period
Mapudungun
mapu
“Land, earth, or territory”
16th Century
Spanish records
Mapuche territory
“The lands inhabited by the Mapuche, recorded by Spanish colonizers”
20th Century
Mapudungun and Spanish
Wallmapu
“A revived cultural and political term for the wider ancestral Mapuche territory”
Modern English
English
Wallmapu
“A loanword used in scholarship, journalism, and Indigenous-rights discussions for Mapuche ancestral territory”
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