|
Mapuche
The Mapuche
are the indigenous people of the Chile an
Andes. Today there are nearly two million people who can claim to be
Mapuche, though even modern Chilean government is reluctant to return
the ancient lands and privileges to this proud people.
The word Mapuche
comes from the Mapudungun language, where the words Mapu and
Che, translate literally as “people of the land”. These people of
 the
land have a different vision of the world than we have in the western.
They have lived in total harmony with nature for many thousands of
years, such that nature and life and cosmology are one single thing - it
is this that means Mapuche.
Mapuche
culture, or Kimun, is based on Ad-mapu, a concept that
represents permanent knowldege, involving symbols, myths, traditions,
beliefs and laws that have been passed from generation to generatio n.
Their Kimun provides a framework for a fraternal society with a
common sense of community with no hierarchies or castes. They have no
real need for levels of authority and this extends from people to the
environment itself - the Mapuche consider all living things to be
equals. Of course, in reality, some people have specific authority for
specific reasons such as the lonko who is the head of a lof,
the extended family or clan that derives from a common totem. In
addition, there are several important roles within the day to day life
of the Mapuche. The collective memory of the people is entrusted
to the woupife while channeling the ancestral rituals is
performed by the genpin. Finally, fundamental to the ways of this
ancient shamanic culture, there are the Machi, who are
essentially the shamans of this society. The machi are knowledgeable in
the rituals and medicines of natural plants and are responsible for the
physical and spiritual well-being of the people.
As with many of the
South American cultures, the Mapuche concept of time and space is
indistinct from their way of life. The
east is not a physical place where the sun rises, but a mystical and
spiritual dimension representing the source of life. In common with most
shamanic cultures there are three very important "worlds" wh ich
are accessed symbolically using a tree rather like the Yggdrasil, or the
World Tree. The Mapuche cosmology
comprises the wenu mapu, the upper world of the creators of the
universe; nag mapu, the middle world of humans and nature; and
miche mapu, the lower world where the beings who govern the depths
of the earth dwell. Interestingly, in contrast to many neighbouring
cultures, the souls of Mapuche ancestors go to the wenu mapu.
Today, despite
centuries of resisting the ove r-whelming
influences of Catholicism, Mapuche culture is being threatened in
Chile, and the West is not doing enough to help... There are many
websites that discuss this battle for continued existence, but you might
first try the
Mapuche Nation's website.
|
