The Mapuche people (mapu = earth, che = people) are one of the many American native groups who have retained more strongly their beliefs, customs and identity.

All through the Colonial period they opposed a stubborn resistance to the Spanish crown. This forced the administration to let them enjoy certain autonomy, establishing fortifications along the frontier and keeping a professional army, a unique case in the history of the colonies. The Arauco war was finaly over only during the Republic, with a process so-called pacification of the Araucania, that ended in 1891.

The long period of the Arauco War meant, in addition to a war conflict, an intensive cultural and economic exchange as well as a crossbreeding process. In such contacts, the adoption by the Mapuches of the horse and the silversmith's techniques constituted a relevant factor.

Since the pacification, these groups, who had shown great mobility during the nineteenth century, settled down, adopting a farming economy. The ancient cattle exchange activity with the Mapuches of the east zone (Argentine) decreased and the establishment of communities in settlements started.
The fundamental nucleus of this society is the family who lives in the ruka. The man is the head of the family, and works out of the house in agriculture and cattle care, sheep in particular. The woman occupies herself with household duties and the care of her children, but is also in charge of creating and keeping the contents and values of her culture and transmitting them to her family group. After getting married she will live with her in-laws until the new ruka is built. In the old Mapuche society, polygamy was a sort of marriage and was considered a symbol of wealth and power. Nowadays this habit has vanished due to economic reasons and to the influence of Christianity.

A community is the gathering of several families united by the patrilineal relationship and a jointly-owned territory. This vicinity creates economic links such as the execution of agricultural works, construction of houses or different events as, for example, the chueca or palin game (a kind of hockey). The religious institutions and the moral values should also be highlighted as unifying elements of the society and which maintain the culture cohesion.

In the past, the authority in the large family was exercised by the lonko. The social unity turned around this chief, usually the member with more prestige and wealth (ulmen).

During the Spanish conquest, different modifications were introduced to the social organization, reaching the point that the crown itself appointed the headmen. In the lengthy period of the Arauco War, the natives established a military chief: the toki, who only lasts during a war conflict.
After the pacification of the Araucanía (end of the nineteenth century), only the cacique or toki had the right to distribute the land in the settlements.

Nowadays, the division of land among the families has contributed to a social and political disintegration and the consequent migration to cities, with all the transculturation process this involves.

Cosmovision and Religious Beliefs

"This soil is inhabited by the stars. The water of imagination sings in this sky. Beyond the clouds that emerge from these waters and these soils our ancestors dream of us. Their spirit is the moon, they say. The silence, their heart that beats."
Elicura Chihuailaf
(Contemporary Mapuche Poet)

To sum up the richness of the Mapuche cosmovision and religiousness is a complex task. In this respect, we should quote Foerster, who states that "in Chile there are probably few groups or sectors who express themselves as clearly as the Mapuches, that their identity and being (inseparable from the land living conditions (mapu), the animals, and nature) are bound until mixing up with what is sacred."
The Mapuches of today have managed to establish a new dimension of what is religious in a syncretism that includes the catholic religion as well as protestant evangelic cults. The machi or shaman is fundamental in the configuration of Mapuche's myths and rites. She is the mediator between the natural and supernatural worlds. To this effect, she uses the kultrung, a ceremonial drum where the universe is represented symbolically in four parts by means of a cross; the upper quadrants represent sky configurations while the lower quadrant represents the earth. This sky-earth opposition would be equivalent to the masculine-feminine opposition or to the cycles of nature. The Mapuche man is located in the center of the cosmos, where the four cardinal points converge. This is the meli witran mapu (land of four corners).

Further to this quaternary order, the Mapuche's cosmos is structured in an "up" and a "down". The celestial region, wenu mapu, is occupied by groups of deities headed by a Ngnechen, king or owner of men, a deity endowed with opposing attributes, such as masculine-feminine, old-young.
Also the stars are deities, as killen (the moon), weñelfe (the morning star), wanglen (the stars). They have an influence on the machi's public prayers, where she invokes relevant beings already gone.

The ordering of the universe and of all beings has endowed it with a mythical character. There are two cardinal points related to good: south and east, while north and west are evil.

Pillan is a deity proper of the east that lives behind the mountains. The east is not only the place where the sun, the moon or the stars rise, but it also represents the place from where all powers and forces capable of securing life are generated. To invoke this deity is fundamental for ascending toward the sacred world. The ruka should be directed to that point, also as the machi directs the rewe in that sense.

The north and west are identified as evil; the first one as wind bearers of bad weather, while the west is the point where the sun sets and the dead rest in peace.

The nag-mapu subworld (opposed to the wenu mapu) is the place of evil and of occult forces. Black is its symbolic color. The weküfe, beings of darkness, live here. However, kuri as a color symbolizes what is strong and powerful. Christianity has generated a number of changes in Mapuche's beliefs, turning them toward monotheism. Today, the Supreme Being is called God Father (chau-Dios), creator and owner of men and the universe. Pillan is identified more like a demon than a beneficial deity.

Some Ceremonies

In several Mapuche ritual ceremonies, and according to the cosmovision, the compensation of the forces of good (Ngnechen) by those of evil (weküfe) is pursued. The first one means life and construction, the second, destruction and death.

Among the most relevant, the following should be mentioned: nguillatun, a ceremony of prayer, the machitun, healing ritual, the wentripantu or celebration of the New Year, day of the winter solstice; the funeral and initiation rites may also be included.

The nguillatun requires a place specially disposed to that end. The rewe is installed at the center and participants gather around. It lasts a minimum of two days and a maximum of four. In certain zones of the Araucania they were held each two, three or four years, as needed. The public prayer is held for various motives: the weather, the crops, to avoid illness or for plenty of food. During the ceremony there is dancing accompanied by different prayers. Moreover, an animal is sacrificed, generally a lamb for the ngepin, who directs the rite. Then the animal's blood is sprinkled or distributed among the guests, and the ritual drink mudai (fermented grain) is offered to participants. The dead animal's body may be completely burnt down in a bonfire in order to be eaten.

The machitun is a healing rite that was described already in the sixteenth century by Pineda and Bascuñan in their work El Cautiverio Feliz. This is a proper machi's ceremony and is basically made up of three parts:

a) The diagnosis of the illness.
b) Its expulsion.
c) A supernatural revelation on this healing.


In this ceremony, the machi makes examinations concerning certain symptoms and evidences of the sick person or looks for mysterious signs observed by the sick person or his relatives. It is also assumed that an animal that was examined may have become infected. Furthermore, the diagnosis is made through revelations from beyond.


In the whole of this context, the instruments used by the machi are important. In this as well as in other ceremonies, she uses the kultrung and the rewe, to which she climbs, in order to explain the journey of her soul to the upper land.