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From the April 2008 Newsletter

The Mapuche: People of the Earth
Belinda Gore

In southern Chile the Mapuche, literally the People of the Earth, are the living link to 12,000 years of civilization and, until the arrival of the Spaniards in the 18th century, represented what we might call the apotheosis of the Stone Age. The Spaniards brought silver which they exchanged for the Mapuche cattle but since bartering was the basis for the existing economy, there was no need for this “money.” Instead the coins were melted and pounded into elegant jewelry so that mothers and wives could display the family wealth, in the tradition of so many indigenous people around the world. However, those items that represented power and were used to communicate with the gods were made of stone. Fortunately, don Gonzalo had collected both silver and stone for his private museum, the Museo Mapuche, in Pucon, Chile.

During our weeklong stay in the area surrounding Lago Villarrica and the volcano also named Villarrica, we had settled into La Hosteria de la Colina, in the town also named Villarrica. To our happy surprise, we discovered Glen and Beverly Aldrich, the American innkeepers of this lovely sanctuary. Sitting on the veranda overlooking the gardens and the lake in the distance, we could drink in the landscape and consider the array of choices of what to do. Both Glen and Bev, who have operated the Hosteria for nearly twenty years, have a never-ending store of information about where to go and what to see. One morning a group of us were scheduled for a private tour of the Mapuche Museum, thanks to Bev, so we headed off for the short drive to the town of Pucon. As we arrived in town, the sign on the street said only “Museo” and I was glad that I was not trying to find it on my own.

The group of us waited in the lobby of the Araucarian Hotel and Spa, owned by don Gonzalo and his wife Marianna, then went next door to the adjacent museum. Descending a few steps into the mostly subterranean museum, I was struck by the warmth of the tile floors and wooden cabinets, and the rich displays enhanced by small can lighting. The entire museum is only about 400 square feet but the space is used efficiently to exhibit as much of the collection as possible. This is the best collection of Mapuche artifacts in Chile, don Gonzalo told us proudly but matter-of-factly. His family has been collecting for decades and everyone in the area knows that he will pay well for good pieces. Suddenly shy, he says that the stones know that he will care for them and they find him. It was don Gonzales’ passion for his collection and the stories he told that made the museum come alive.

About 5,000 years ago Patagonian warriors came up from the south, easily conquering the local Araucarians who were horticultural people who used their time to weave and carve rather than prepare for war. The Mapuche include ten or twelve related tribes that draw their lineage from the integration of the mix of the local tribes and the Patagonians, and apparently they thrived. When the Spaniards arrived there were a million Mapuche living in southern Chile. Smallpox decimated their numbers, as usual in the story of the conquistadores, and also the people became poor through the system of dividing their land to the ownership of each son (the women were not landowners) for generations. Traditionally the Mapuche lived in communities of 7,000 to 10,000 people, and there were 10,000 of these communities. The resources went back into the community and so the group remained strong. When the European system of parceling out the land, in smaller and smaller bits, to each successive generation was implemented, there was eventually not enough land on which each family could make an adequate living. Despite their being a strong, hardy people, their numbers diminished. Today, that decline is reversing and the Mapuche maintain an active political life, petitioning the Chilean government for remuneration for the land that was taken from them.

My own interest, of course, is in their spiritual traditions and especially in the presence of sacred postures that link them with other indigenous people around the world. Theirs was a lunar calendar following the thirteen lunar months of the women’s menstrual cycles and the fertility of their bodies along with the body of the Earth. Women are respected and can be chiefs or community leaders. The distinctive clava that designated persons of authority were created in abstract designs to represent birds: doves, parrots, or hawks. Throughout the world, those who called themselves people of the Earth recognized birds as messengers from the Sky World which is the home of the gods. To hold the clava was to acknowledge one’s ability to speak with the gods. In his collection, don Gonzalo displays a dozen clava and he has more in storage, awaiting expansion of the museum space.

Several methods assisted in this communication with the Sky World. About ten different hallucinogenic plants grow in the area, to be dried and smoked in the tiny pipes that were fashioned in a variety of forms. Additionally musical instruments shaped exactly like the ubiquitous Incan pipes, but made of stone, were used for religious purposes only. The sound is a monotonous series of single notes, not very musical but ideal for generating the neurological conditions that we know facilitate a trance state, the religious altered state of consciousness. Along one wall don Gonzalo displayed his collection of stone masks, also used to help the shaman talk with the gods. Some masks had handles, much like hand mirrors, to permit one to hold the mask in front of the face, while others, according to don Gonzalo, were attached to totem poles to create a face. A few were decorated with long strands of black human hair, and one was even adorned with a pair of traditional silver earrings. These, he suggested, must have been used specifically by the women.

From years of experience we know that artifacts from indigenous people include sacred postures that assist in the essential task of maintaining an active and open communication with the world of the spirits. It was no surprise to recognize several postures among the carvings in don Gonzalo’s collection, like the Birthing Posture in both standing and kneeling forms, as well as the Bear Spirit and the Feathered Serpent Postures. To my delight there were a few new ones as well. In the Bear Spirit carving from the northwest Pacific coast the bear stands with hands raised palms forward. I have seen this same position in Mexican figures and there was a stone carving in the same pose. Similarly I saw a figure that I have also seen in Mexico, with the arms raised, but without bent arms as in other postures we have researched. And finally there was a male figure with stiff arms extended in front of his genitals with the fingers of both hands spread wide. His mouth was open to display his teeth. I suspect this may be a metamorphosis or shape-shifting posture because one version showed the head of an owl and the body of a human, but with a human head held in the hands in front of the body. The owl is an important figure among the Mapuche and apparently most homes included at least one figure of an owl to give protection to the family.

There were several figures in which two heads emerged from one body. When I asked what they represented, don Gonzalo said that in the Mapuche spiritual worldview balance is of primary importance. All of the forces of the universe converge into the central figure known as Ngenenmapun, a being that governs the universe as a whole. It is both male and female, old and young, has eyes and arms, and breathes. The function of the shaman, or machi, is to maintain the balance between humans and Nature, and between humans and the gods or spirits. Two-headed beings reveal the balance of the good and the bad, the dark and the light. In some tribes the shaman was gay or androgynous because his or her body could best hold the balance of masculine and feminine.

The relationship between the earth, humans, and the spirit world is shown in carvings that are essentially a series of steps or stairs connecting the four levels of the Sky world, one level of the middle world where humans live, and two levels of the Lower world. The souls of the Mapuche come from the Blue Place in the east and when they die they return to find their ancestors who reside there. In the meantime, during our journey on earth, elders interpret dreams, and presumably other visionary experiences, for guidance about how to live a good life.

For more information about the Mapuche, there is an excellent website in Spanish, www.museomapuche.com. Another primary source is Mapuche: Ethnic Race of Chile, by Liliana Oyander Shultz, first published in 1995 by L.O.S.Editores, Santiago. Her oral sources were identified as Mapuche elders Sofia Painiqueo Tragnolao, Juan Nanculef Huaiquinao, and Elicura Chihuailaf Nahuelpan.

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