The whale has been perceived since the Middle Ages through the curious monster/resource duality, which will remain in Western thought for many centuries, especially since the beginning of its commercial exploitation in the 10th century of the Christian era. In Chile whales were seen as “marine beasts of immense grandeur” which were not hunted in the 17h century, even though those that stranded on the shores were very well used. In the 19th century they were systematically captured to obtain oil, baleen plates, bones and, to a lesser extent, meat. The press of the time picks up a rich imaginary that contains diverse elements: an enormous and fierce animal, therefore monstrous; heroic whalers in a very dangerous activity; a battle between men and cetaceans; and great expectations about the amount of money the whale will generate. But there is also the “very animated show” that involves the presence of “many curious onlookers” admiring “the monstrous whale”. The reference to “the spectacular”, that is, to the attraction that the whale exerts over people, is a very frequent element in the news published in the press.

This article analyzes the development of a criminal defense case that took place in Chile’s Araucanía Region in 2013, and in which a Mapuche man was convicted of femicide. The man’s legal defense was provided by the specialized Mapuche Public Defender’s office. In this article we examine the legal defense provided to this man, the manner in which the specific socio-cultural conditions were taken into account, the theoretical and methodological frameworks and juridical resources considered in the defense’s arguments, and the internal limitations met by said arguments in terms of the judicial convic- tion. Our analysis covers the defense’s actions, the arguments presented by the defense, and the assimilation of exculpatory legal categories and of categories of understanding that are typical of the Mapuche cognitive and medical worldview. This case is especially interesting because it allows us to recognize a specific type of socio-cultural legal defense and to derive lessons that can inform a pluralistic and fair legal theory and practice in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural contexts such as the Chilean society today.En el presente artículo se analiza el desarrollo de un caso de defensa penal realizado en La Araucanía de Chile, en el que se condenó a un hombre mapuche por femicidio, el cual contó con la defensa especializada de la Defensoría Penal Mapuche el año 2013. A través del caso nos preguntamos en qué consistió la defensa realizada, de qué modo encaró la singularidad sociocultural, qué marcos de referencia teórico-metodológicos y recursos jurídicos incorporó en su argumentación y qué límites internos tuvo dicha práctica en el orden del convencimiento jurídico. El análisis considera las acciones de la defensa, la argumentación y la asimilación de categorías jurídicas exculpatorias y categorías de comprensión provenientes del universo cognitivo y médico mapuche. El valor de este caso radica en que, a través de él, es posible reconocer una forma de defensa penal sociocultural y visualizar los límites y potenciales pedagógicos que ésta tiene para una teoría y práctica penal pluralista y transformadora en contextos multiétnicos y multiculturales como el chileno actual.

The article presents an ethnographic case study carried out between 2016 and 2017 with elderly women who participated in weaving and embroidery classes in a community center in the district of Providencia (Metropolitan Region, Chile). The research investigated practices, knowledge, and meanings articulated through care relationships among women from medium and high social strata. We aim to understand how aging was experiencied by these women of Providencia, inquiring the strategies they developed at the community, personal, and family level to face the challenges and possibilities of aging. To address the results of our research, we will start by describing, in the second section, the research methodology, and then, in the third section, we will synthesize the debates on gender and aging in the social sciences. The fourth section describes the sociodemographic, economic and public policy aspects of Providencia regarding its elderly population. The fifth and sixth sections further explore our ethnographic feminist experience, detailing the narratives of the women regarding care, and the political articulations that permeate their lives. We conclude with reflections based on the ethnographic data, and wich expand some of specific contributions of the current theoretical debates.