Female shamanism and modernity

The Mapuche Indians as Chilean farmers

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2492432
AutoresLydia Nakashima Degarrod (Bowdoin College, autor correspondente)
Ano1997
Volume3
Fascículo5
Páginas84-104
Data de publicação1997-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHorizontes Antropológicos (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0104-7183 • E-ISSN: 1806-9983
EditoraFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/s0104-71831997000100005
OpenAlexW4412699832
SCIELO_PIDS0104-71831997000100084
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas9

This article examines the emergence of a new form of shamanism among the Mapuche of Chile during their first decades under the dominion of the Chilean state. Specifically, it links the emergence of a female shamanism with the policies implemented by the Chilean government and the Catholic Church to integrate the Mapuche into the Chilean society as Christian farmers. The material of this paper is based on historical material from 1881 to the 1930's. From the end of the 19th century to the present, the period in which the Mapuche have been under the dominion of the Chilean state, the Mapuche religious world has been mainly represented by the machi or women shamans. The dominance of the machi in the Mapuche religious world is relatively recent since prior to the domination and subjugation of the Mapuche by the Chileans, their religious world was represented by an assortment of practitioners of both genders. The feminization and dominance of the machi in the religious world of the Mapuche will be discussed and linked in this paper to the educational, political, social and economic policies of the Chilean government and the Catholic Church to integrate the Mapuche into the Chilean society. In the implementation of these policies, there was implicit to them a redefinition of Mapuche gender based on the ideal roles proposed by the newly emerged Chilean nation state. I argue that the imposition of new gender roles and definitions influenced the male political sector of the Mapuche society and, thence Mapuche cultural constructions of tradition, female behavior, and shamanism. All these were reshaped in light of Mapuche's gender related conceptions of defeat and humiliation. As the male chiefs of the dominated group attempted to be integrated into Chilean society, traditionalism was revalued and consciously identified with the female sector of the society. Consequently, the male sector of the Mapuche reproduced the domination and regenderized those elements of the culture that were criticized by the Chilean society. There is a division according to genders, one the male sector tends to side with the progressive 'political' and the female with the 'traditional and religious realm. This paper focuses on the period of 1881 to 1930, the time during which the Chilean government placed the Mapuche on reservations, the first Mapuche political organizations were born, and the campaigns to integrate the Mapuche into Chilean society were advanced. I have divided this paper in three sections. The first presents the changes in the Mapuche religious world. The second section presents the political, religious, economic and social interests of the Chilean society in the construction of the Mapuche as a Chilean citizen. The third section discusses the impact of the efforts at political and cultural integration on Mapuche culture. Specifically, I discuss the gender-specific labor shifts in agriculture and shamanism, the rise of the Mapuche political organizations, and the feminization of tradition and of defeat

Archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnology · Geography · Modernity · Shamanism · Sociology · Anthropology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy