Mapuche

Mapuche
Cacique Lloncon aprox. 1890.jpg Mujer Mapuche.jpg Hija del Cacique Quilprán, en 1868.jpg CeferinoNamuncura.jpg
Some Mapuches: Cacique Lloncon, a cacique wife, the daughter of lonko Quilapán and Ceferino Namuncurá
Total population
ca. 900,000 , many Chileans have some Mapuche ancestry
Regions with significant populations
Chile, Argentina (Araucanía and Patagonia)
Languages

Mapudungun, Spanish
Religion

Christianity (Catholicism and Evangelicalism) adapted to traditional beliefs
Related ethnic groups

Picunche, Huilliche, Chileans,

The Mapuche are one of the indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. Historically Mapuches were known as Araucanians (araucanos) by the Spaniards. This is now considered pejorative[1] by some people. Mapuche make up about 4% of the Chilean population,[2] who are particularly concentrated in the Araucania Region.

Contrary to popular belief, the Quechua word awqa "rebel, enemy", is probably not the root of araucano: the latter is more likely derived from the placename rag ko (Spanish Arauco) "clayey water".[3][4]

The Mapuche traditional economy is based on agriculture; their traditional social organisation consists of extended families, under the direction of a "lonko" or chief, although in times of war they would unite in larger groupings and elect a toqui (from Mapudungun toki "axe, axe-bearer") to lead them.

The Mapuche are a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups which shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended between the Aconcagua River and Chiloé Archipelago and later eastward to the Argentine pampa. The Mapuche (note that Mapuche can refer to the whole group of Picunches (people of the north), Huilliches and Moluche or Nguluche from Araucanía or exclusively to the Moluche or Nguluche from Araucanía) inhabited the valleys between the Itata and Toltén Rivers, as well as the Huilliche (people of the South), the Cuncos. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Mapuches groups migrated eastward into the Andes and pampas fusing and establishing relationships with the Poyas and Pehuenche. At about the same time ethnic groups of the pampa regions, the Puelche, Ranqueles and northern Aonikenk, called Patagons by Ferdinand Magellan, known now as Tehuelche, made contact with Mapuche groups, adopting their language and some culture in what came to be called the Araucanization.

Contents

History

Origin

Huamán Poma de Ayala's picture about the confrontation between the Mapuches (left) and the Incas (right)
Picture of Mapuches during a malón raid

The origin of the Mapuche is not clear. The Mapuche language, Mapudungun, has been classified by some authorities as being related to the Penutian languages of North America. Others group it among the Andean languages,[5] and yet others postulate an Araucanian-Mayan relationship;[6] Croese (1989, 1991) has advanced the hypothesis that it is related to Arawak. Recent DNA analysis has suggested that Mapuche pre-Columbian Araucana chicken came from Polynesia,[7] suggesting contact between the Mapuche and Polynesia. One of the earliest sites of human occupation in the Americas, Monte Verde, lies within what was later to become Huilliche territory, although there is currently no demonstrated link between the Monte Verde people and the Mapuche.

War of Arauco

The Mapuche successfully resisted many attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, despite their lack of state organization. They fought against the Sapa Inca, Tupac Yupanqui, and his army. The result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. They fell back to the north behind the Rapel and Cachapoal Rivers where they established a fortified border guarded by fortresses like Pucará de La Compañía and the Pucará del Cerro La Muralla.

After the successful subjugation of the Picunche in the Conquest of Chile, the Moluche of the area the Spanish called Araucanía fought against the Spaniards for over 300 years. Initial conquests of land by Spain in the late 16th century were repelled by the Mapuche so effectively that there were areas to which Europeans did not return until late in the 19th century. One of the main geographical boundaries was the Bío-Bío River, which the Mapuche used as a natural barrier to Spanish and Chilean incursion. The 300 years were not uniformly a period of hostility, but often allowed substantial trade and interchange between Mapuche and Spaniards or Chileans. Nevertheless, the long Mapuche resistance has become primarily known as the War of Arauco, and its early phase was immortalized in Alonso de Ercilla's epic poem La Araucana.

From the mid 17th century, the Mapuches and the governors of Chile made a series of treaties in order to end the hostilities. By the late eighteenth century many Mapuche loncos had accepted the de jure sovereignty of the Spanish king of their lands while having a de facto independence.

When Chile revolted from the Spanish crown during the Chilean War of Independence, some Mapuche chiefs sided with the royalists of Vicente Benavides in the Guerra a muerte. The aid of the Mapuches was vital to the Spanish since they had lost the control of all cities and ports north of Valdivia. Mapuches valued the treaties made with the Spanish authorities, however most regarded the matter with indifference and took advantage of both sides. After Chile's independence from Spain, the Mapuche coexisted and traded with their neighbors, who prudently remained north of the Bío-Bío River, although clashes occurred frequently.

Occupation of the Araucanía

Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez in meeting with the main loncos of Araucania in 1869

Chilean population pressures increased on the Mapuche borders, and by the 1880s Chile extended both to the north and to the south of the Mapuche heartlands. Further, Chile in the 1880s, as a result of its preparation for and its victory in the War of the Pacific against Bolivia and Peru, found itself with a large standing army and a relatively modern arsenal for the period. Finally, in the mid- to late-1880s, partially on the pretext of crushing a French adventurer, Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, who had declared himself King of Araucania, Chile overwhelmed the Mapuche in the course of the so-called "pacification of the Araucanía".

Vintage engraving of Mapuche

Using a combination of force and diplomacy, Chile's government obliged some Mapuche leaders to sign a treaty absorbing the Araucanian territories into Chile. The immediate impact of the war was widespread starvation and disease. It has been claimed that the Mapuche population dropped from a total of half a million to 25,000 within a generation,[8] though the latter figure has been called an exaggeration by several authorities. In the post-conquest period, however, there was internment of a significant percentage of the Mapuche, the wholesale destruction of the Mapuche herding, agricultural and trading economies, the wholesale looting of Mapuche property (real and personal - including a large amount of silver jewelry to replenish the Chilean national coffers), and the creation and institutionalization of a system of reserves called reducciones along lines similar to North American reservation systems. Subsequent generations of Mapuche live in extreme poverty as a direct result of being conquered and expropriated.

Recent history

Many Mapuche descendants now live across southern Chile and Argentina; some maintain their traditions and continue living from agriculture, but a growing majority have migrated to cities in search of better economic opportunities. However, contrary to popular imagination, the majority of the Mapuche people live in urban areas, especially around Santiago.[9] Chile's region IX continues to have a rural population made up of approximately 80%; there are also substantial Mapuche populations in regions X, VIII, and VII.

In recent years, there has been an attempt by the Chilean government to redress some of the inequities of the past. The Parliament voted, in 1993, Law n° 19 253 (Indigenous Law, or Ley indígena)[10] which recognized the Mapuche people, and seven other ethnic minorities as well as the Mapudungun language and culture. In the frame of this law, Mapundungun, which was prohibited before, is now included in the curriculum of elementary schools around Temuco.

Despite representing 4.6% of the Chilean population few Mapuches have reached government positions, in 2006 among Chile's 38 senators and 120 deputies only one declared to be indigenous. The number is however higher at municipal levels.[11]

Furthermore, representatives from Mapuche organisations joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) seeking recognition and protection for their cultural and land rights.

Land disputes

Land disputes and violent interactions do continue in some Mapuche areas, particularly in the northern sections of the IX region between and around Traiguén and Lumaco. In an effort to defuse tensions a special government body, the Commission for Historical Truth and New Treatment, issued a report in 2003 calling for drastic changes in Chile's treatment of its indigenous people, more than 80 percent of whom are Mapuche. The recommendations included the formal recognition of political and "territorial" rights for aboriginal peoples, as well as efforts to promote their cultural identity.

Though Japanese and Swiss interests are active in Araucanía (Mapudungun: "Ngulu Mapu"), both of the main forestry companies are Chilean-owned. The firms have planted hundreds of thousands of acres with exotic species such as Monterey pine, Douglas firs and eucalyptus trees, sometimes substituting native Valdivian forests, although substitution is nowadays forbidden.

Chilean exports of wood to the United States, almost all of which come from this southern region, are about $600 million a year and rising. Though an international campaign led by the conservation group Forest Ethics resulted in the Home Depot chain and other leading wood importers agreeing to revise their purchasing policies to "provide for the protection of native forests in Chile," some Mapuche leaders were not satisfied.

In recent years, the delicts committed by Mapuche activists have been prosecuted under counter-terrorism legislation originally introduced by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The law allows prosecutors to withhold evidence from the defense for up to six months and to conceal the identity of witnesses, who may give evidence in court behind screens. There are several violent activist groups, such as the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco, which utilize tactics including burning of structures and pastures, and death threats against people and their families. Protesters from Mapuche communities have used these tactics against multinational forestry corporations and private individuals.[12][13]

Culture

Flag of the Mapuche

At the time of the arrival of Europeans the Mapuche were able to organize themselves to create a network of forts and complex defensive buildings, and also ceremonial constructions such as some mounds recently discovered near Purén.[14] They quickly adopted iron metal-working (they already worked copper[15]) and horseback-riding and the use of cavalry in war from the Spaniards, along with the cultivation of wheat and sheep. In the long 300-year coexistence between the Spanish colonies and the relatively well-delineated autonomous Mapuche regions, the Mapuche also developed a strong tradition of trading with the Spanish/Chileans. It is this which lies at the heart of the Mapuche silver-working tradition, for it was from the large and widely-dispersed quantity of Spanish and Chilean silver coins that the Mapuche wrought their elaborate jewelry, head bands, etc.

Mapuche languages

Main article: Mapudungun

Mapuche languages are spoken in Chile and to a smaller extent in Argentina. They have two living branches: Huilliche and Mapudungun. Although not related, there is some discernible lexical influence from Quechua. It is estimated that only about 200,000 full-fluency speakers remain in Chile, and the language still receives only token support in the educational system. In recent years it has started to be taught in rural schools of Bio-Bio, Araucanía and Los Lagos Regions.

Mythology and beliefs

The main groups of deities and/or spirits in Mapuche mythology are the Pillan and Wangulen (ancestral spirits), the Ngen (spirits of the nature) and the wekufe (evil spirits). Ngenechen and Antu are the main deities.[16]

Central to Mapuche belief is the role of the machi "shaman". It is usually filled by a woman, following an apprenticeship with an older Machi, and has many of the characteristics typical of shamans. The machi performs ceremonies for curing diseases, warding off evil, influencing weather, harvests, social interactions and dreamwork. Machis often have extensive knowledge of Chilean medicinal herbs, though as biodiversity in the Chilean countryside has declined due to commercial agriculture and forestry, the dissemination of such knowledge has also declined but is in revival. Machis also have an extensive knowledge of sacred stones and the sacred animals.

A book by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney, The Highest Altar: Unveiling the Mystery of Human Sacrifice (1989) ISBN 9780140139747 , documents a possible modern ritual human sacrifice during the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 1960 by a machi of the Mapuche in the Lago Budi community. The victim, 5-year-old José Luis Painecur, had his arms and legs removed by Juan Pañán and Juan José Paincur (the victim's grandfather), and was stuck into the sand of the beach like a stake. The waters of the Pacific Ocean then carried the body out to sea. The sacrifice was rumored to be at the behest of local machi, Juana Namuncurá Añen. The two men were charged with the crime and confessed, but later recanted. They were released after two years. A judge ruled that those involved in these events had "acted without free will, driven by an irresistible natural force of ancestral tradition." The story is also mentioned in a Time Magazine article from that year, although with much less detail. [3]

An equally important part of Mapuche belief and society is the remembered history of independence and resistance from 1540 (Spanish and then Chileans) and of the treaty with the Chilean government in the 1870s. In that perception, it is important to include not exclude Mapuches in the Chilean culture. Having said that, memories, stories, and beliefs, often very local and particularized, are a significant part of the Mapuche traditional culture. To varying degrees, this history of resistance continues to this day amongst the Mapuche, though at the same time a large majority in Chile would also strongly include themselves as Chilean similarly to a large majority in Argentina including themselves as Argentines.

Textiles

One of the most notorious arts of the Mapuche is the textiles. The oldest data on the existence of tissue in the southernmost areas of the American continent (southern Chile and Argentina today) are found in some archaeological findings like those of Pitrén Cemetery near the city of Temuco (Chile) Alboyanco site in the VIII Region of Chile and the Rebolledo Arriba Cemetery in the Province of Neuquén (Argentina). They have found evidence of fabrics made with complex techniques and designs with a round date between AD 1300-1350. [17]

The oldest historical documents that refer to the existence of textile art among the aborigines of southern Chilean and Argentinean territory, dating from the sixteenth century and consist of chronicles of European explorers and settlers. These accounts claim that at the arrival of Europeans in the region of the Araucanía, natives of the area wore textiles made with camel's hair that they made from the raw material obtained from the breeding of these animals. Later, and with the addition of sheep brought by the Europeans, these Indians began breeding these animals and use their wool for making their tissues, after which it prevailed over the use of camelid hair. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, these sheep reared by indigenous degenerated in animals with a more robust body and a thicker wool and longer than the cattle brought by the Europeans. These characteristics make possible to suggest that it was a higher quality animals. [18]

These fabrics were made by women who transmitted their knowledge from generation to generation, orally and through imitation of gestures, usually within the family environment. They were highly prized for their textile knowledge: through the development of their tissues, women played an important economic role and also cultural. For these reasons, at the time of giving a dowry for her marriage, a man must give a dowry much greater if the married woman was a good weaver. [19]

Currently, many Mapuche women continue making the tissue according to the customs of their ancestors and transmitting their knowledge in the same way: in the domestic scope and family, from mother to daughter, from grandmothers to granddaughters, as happened in the past. This form of learning is based on gestural imitation, and only rarely, and when strictly necessary, the apprentice receives explicit instructions or help from their instructors. This means that knowledge is transmitted in the moments of realization of fabrics: and “make” and transmission of knowledge go together. [20]

In Andinas societies textiles had a great importance. They were developed to be used as clothing, as tool and shelter for the home, as well as a status symbol.[21] This feature of textiles was also visible in the Araucanía region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, where, as reported by various chroniclers of Chile, the Indians struggled to get Hispanic clothing and fabrics as a trophy of war on treaties with the Spanish, and even the bodies were dressed in their best clothes in their funerals. [22]

In addition, the tissues were a surplus and an exchange good very significant for the Indians. Numerous accounts from the sixteenth century show that the tissues were used to barter among different aboriginal groups, and since the establishment of colonies, between them and the settlers. These barters allowed to obtain those goods that the Indians did not produce or had in high esteem, such as horses. Tissue volumes made by Aboriginal women and marketed in the Araucanía and the north of the Patagonia argentina were really considerable and constitute a vital economic resource for indigenous families. [23] It is therefore wrong to say that the production of fabrics in the time before European settlement was intended solely for the use of the family or members of indigenous groups. [24]

At present, the fabrics woven by the Mapuche continue being destined for domestic as well as for gift, sale or barter. Although now women and their families wear garments with foreign designs and tailored with materials of industrial origin and only the ponchos, blankets, strips and belts are of regular use. Many of the fabrics made are intended for the trade and in many cases are an important source of income for families. [25]

Mapuches in popular culture

The characters Huilen and Nahuel in the last book of the Twilight Saga, "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer, are Mapuche.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.mapuche.info/azkin/az_domingo13.pdf AZ Domingo 17 de Febrero de 2008
  2. ↑ http://www.ine.cl/cd2002/sintesiscensal.pdf
  3. ↑ Mapuche o Araucano (Spanish)
  4. ↑ Antecedentes históricos del pueblo araucano (Spanish)
  5. ↑ Greenberg 1987, Key 1978
  6. ↑ Stark 1970, Hamp 1971
  7. ↑ Polynesians - And Their Chickens - Arrived in Americas Before Columbus
  8. ↑ Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, 109.
  9. ↑ Chile I., 1992, "Censo de Población, Instituto Nacional de Estatisticas, Santiago de Chile.
  10. ↑ Law n° 19 253 Indigenous Law
  11. ↑ [1]
  12. ↑ [2]
  13. ↑ Mapuche struggle for autonomy in Chile
  14. ↑ Dillehay, Tom, Monuments, Empires, and Resistance: The Araucanian Polity and Ritual Narratives (Cambridge University Press, Washington, 2007)
  15. ↑ Pedro Mariño de Lobera, in Crónica del Reino de Chile, Cap. XXXI and XXXIII mentions copper points on the Mapuche pikes in the Battle of Andalien and Battle of Penco. Copper metallurgy was flourishing in South America, particularly in Peru from around the beginning of the first millennium AD. Possibly Mapuche copper metal working was learned from the prior interaction with the Inca Empire or prior Peruvian cultures or was a native craft (copper being common in Chile).
  16. ↑ Alberto Trivero (1999), Trentrenfilú, Proyecto de Documentación Ñuke Mapu. (in Spanish).
  17. ↑ Brugnoli y Hoces de la Guardia, 1995; Alvarado, 2002
  18. ↑ Joseph, 1931; Palermo, 1994; Méndez, 2009a.
  19. ↑ Wilson, 1992; Mendez, 2009a.
  20. ↑ Wilson, 1992; Mendez, 2009a.
  21. ↑ Murra, 1975.
  22. ↑ Palermo, 1994; Méndez, 2009b.
  23. ↑ Guaravaglia, 1986; Palermo, 1994; Mendez, 2009b.
  24. ↑ Méndez, 2009b.
  25. ↑ Wilson, 1992; Alvarado, 2002; Mendez, 2009a.

References

Further reading

External links

Mapuche people
Language
Huilliche · Mapudungun · Placenames · Tsesungún
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Culture
Aillarehue · Butalmapu · Chemamull · Kalku · Lonco · Machi · Mythology · Rehue · Toqui · Ulmen · Werkén · Military
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Boroanos · Chiquillanes · Cuncos · Huilliche · Mapochoes · Moluche · Pehuenche · Promaucaes · Puelche · Picunche  · Poya  · Ranquel  · Tehuelche
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Battle of the Maule · Arauco War · Malón · Araucanization · Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia · Camino de los chilenos · Conquest of the Desert · Occupation of Araucanía · Mapuche conflict
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