Experiencias locales de salud materna con perspectiva intercultural en Putre y Tirúa, Chile

Abstract

This article analyses two experiences of maternal health in the Chilean territories of Tirúa, in the South, and Putre, in the North. Both localities present high indigenous populations Mapuche Lafkenche and Aymara, respectively. The hypothesis held that despite the existence of a discourse favourable to interculturalism in the field of maternal health, various institutional mechanisms prevail in the local health services that tend to discourage rather than strengthen the indigenous health model. Based on empirical material, the article investigates the emergence of an intercultural health model as a field of dispute, revealing the tensions and dialogues generated in the interaction of the biomedical model with the traditional or indigenous model.