THE MAPUCHE COSMOS
According to the Mapuche, the cosmos is divided into seven levels overlapped in space. The four upper platforms are inhabited by deities, ancestors and benefical spirits. There is a platform for evil between the terrestrial and the four benefical ones, where the WECUFE or malefical spirits live. On the earthly platform, the land of the Mapuches, good and evil strengths affect human behaviour. The last underground platform is the residence of dwarf evil men called CAFTRACHE.
***Cultural and political articles and links are posted in my blog section.***
The Mapuche are especially noted for their skills in:
Silversmithing:
Here are some examples of traditional silver jewelry made by Retrafe Mapuche Silvia Rinque.(Retrafe = Silversmith)You can view her work on her website at : http://silviarinque.com.ar/
Textile designs:
"La tradición textil mapuche tiene sus orÃgenes en el perÃodo Precolombino. Durante este periodo, las mujeres mapuche desarrollaron técnicas de hilado, tejido a telar y métodos tintóreos con vegetales."
Images and meanings of more of these beautiful textile designs are located in my blog section.
Pottery:
Certain Mapuche pottery pieces are also important in their customs. The ketru metawe jug is a Mapuche bridal dowry piece a woman carries at her wedding. The form of a duck is an expression of woman as a maternal protective vessel. In Mapuche funeral rites, earthenware vases play the crucial role of “transporting†the deceased’s Gods and traditions into the next world
Woodworking:
This website has a quick history of the art of Mapuche wood carving: http://www.artesaniasdechile.cl/artes2/elaboracion5.htm
I'd like to meet:
Anyone who has interest in Mapuche culture and preservation.
Anyone who has an interest in Native cultures and their preservation.
Anyone with an anthropological bent.
Anyone who finds interest in further educating themselves about the world at large.
Anyone who can appreciate the arts.
Anyone who has compassion for Mother Earth and her creatures, big or small.
**A Ruka**
THE MACHI ( doctor, sorcerer, shaman) The machi is the mediator between men and the divinity, and maintains the equilibrium between good and evil forces on the Earth. In earlier times, this task was performed by homosexual men or women, but later it became almost exclusively femenine.
Having a deep knowledge of their beliefs and traditions, Machis act as priests and conduct ceremonies, specially in Chile. They prey for good luck and predict future events. They elevate their spirit to get in touch with protective beings in the celestial world. This trip takes place in a state of ecstasy or trance provoked by the sound of the KULTRUN, dances, ritual songs and occasional hallucinations.
Diagnosis and cure of the sick are specially important tasks. Disease is considered to have a supernatural origin caused by evil spirits (WECUFE) at the service of a sorcerer (KALKU) who induces evil to go into the human body.
The function of the Machi is to drive evil away. In ecstasy, she receives help from the good spirits, who also guide her in the administration and selection of herbs and other healing techniques to restore physical and spiritual fitness to the sick.
NGUILLATUN
The NGUILLATUN is the main religious celebration of the Mapuches. They meet every year to thank and ask deities and ancestors for the common welfare.
In agricultural communities, the celebration takes place in harvest time during the full moon, at the moment when it gives fertility to farms. In Argentina, since the communities of R¡o Negro, Neuqu‚n and Chubut live basically on ovine and caprine cattle, prayers are generally offered in March to ask for the fertility of animals. Floods, earthquakes, long draught or other calamities may also be the reason to call for a NGUILLATUN.
The ceremony lasts four days. It is celebrated in a plain farm where they set a ritual space in "U" shape open to the West., the sacred part of the World.
**REWE**
For the celebration, they set up an altar or REWE made of canes (Chusquea culeou) forming a ladder decorated with yellow, blue or white flags and also with branches of maitenes (Maitenus boaria), lengas (Notophagus pumilia), coihues (Notophagus dombeyi) and other trees. In Argentina, the ceremony is conducted by the NGUEMPIN, a lay celebrant, while in Chile it is directed by the Machi. During the celebration, there are alternate rituals, dances, prayers, sacred songs, riding on horseback around the sacred place (AWUN), and offerings to the Earth, where they spread MUDAI or CHICHA, mate, tobacco and the blood of sacrificed animals. Traditional musical instruments like the KULTRUN, the TRUTRUKA and the PIFILKA play a very important role in the celebration of the NGUILLATUN.
WEAVING
Weaving is an exclusively femenine task. Skilled weavers or DUWEKAFE are the only ones who know the symbols hidden in colours and designs.
SPINNING
They generally use llama or guanaco wool to weave, but since the arrival of the Spaniards, they use mainly sheep wool. It is washed, disentangled and combed in such a way that threads are stretched. They use a spindle ( COLIU ) consisting of a stick with a heavy stone or a piece of ceramics in one end called CHINQUED.
THE LOOM "STANDING ON THE FLOOR"
The Mapuche vertical loom is called HUICHA HUICHAHUE, which means "standing on the floor". The most rudimentary one is formed by four sticks of varying thickness, while the size of the frame depends on the cloth they are going to make.
A more evolved form of the same loom is made of square sticks. The vertical ones have holes carved at a distance of 20 centimetres from each other, where the pegs support the separator.
http://www.travelsur.net
Music:
The Kultrun is a Native drum used by the Mapuche.
KULTRUN
To make the box of the KULTRUN, they generally use the bark of the VOIGUE (Drymis winteri), a sacred shrub for the Mapuches. The drumhead may be made of guanaco, sheep or colt skin. The Machi "introduces her song" in the Kultrun before stretching the skin to leave her soul in it. She also introduces small sacred objects, like stones, feathers or healing herbs, which make it sound as a rattle.
On the head, they draw different symbols representing the Universe. A cross divides the head into four parts, the vertical line representing the cosmos and the horizontal one the Earth. The intersection is the centre of the World, the sacred place from where the Machi gets in contact with their Gods and ancestors helped by the sound of the Kultrun.
Mapuche and Mack Yidhacky- MAPUCHE
They are a culture of warriors living in Chile and the South of Argentina. Their philosophy is the synchrony with the sun, the moon, the animals and the earth. In this video a Mapuche man plays his traditional wind instrument named Trutruka together with Mack Yidhaky on the digeridoo. It is a mix of two sacred instruments. The video takes place on ceremonial territory.
Enjoy!
Mack Yidhacky on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mackyidhaky
El Kultrun es considerado un tambor chamánico. Su membrana constituye una réplica del cosmos, dividida en cuatro partes que simbolizan las cuatro partes del mundo, los cuatro puntos cardinales, los cuatro vientos y lo cÃclico de la vida.
Other Mapuche musical instruments:
TRUTRUKA
For the manufacture of this wind instrument, they select a colihue cane (Chusquea culeou) about 2.50 metres long and a diameter between 2 and 5 centimetres. The dry cane is split longitudinally and hollowed up, the n both halves are tied with wool or leather to form the sound tube. They close it hermetically by introducing it in a fresh animal's intestine that seals the tube completely once it is dried. A bull horn at one end works as a cornet. They slice the sharp end, insert it in the cane and fasten it with a cord adorned with wool pompons or bundles of different colours.
During the NGUILLATUN, they pour MUDAY or CHICHA inside the tube, and the last day they pour in the blood of the sacrificed animals. They blow it as strongly as possible to get to NGUENECHEN and wake him up.
PIFILKA
It is a wind instrument made of lenga (Notophagus pumilia), cipr‚s (Austrodecrus chilensis) or oak wood. The external part is carved first, then the sound tube is perforated with a hot iron rod and some fluid grease is poured into it to seal any possible pores or fissures. According to narrations from the XVI century, PIFILKAS were manufactured with the long bones of dead Spanish enemies and they used to play them to express victory during ceremonies and before battles. Then it was used as a religious instrument in the NGUILLATUN.
Movies:
Some Youtube videos:
Mapuches reclaman por derechos en Chile.
(Mapuches argue for their rights in Chile. Video in Spanish.)
Apaga y vámonos es una pelÃcula de 87 minutos dirigida por Manel Mayol y producida por Esteban Bernatas (Andoliado producciones).
Apaga Y Vamonos is an 87 minute film directed by Manel Mayol and produced by Esteban Bernatas (Andoliado Productions).
A storm interrupts the Mapuche new year celebration in the south of "Chile".
Un temporal interrumpe una celebración del año nuevo Mapuche.
Mapuche
Kunva Kultura Nativa- Mapu
Un pequeño video con música en lengua mapuche-castellano. El MAPUCHE VIVE.
A short video with mapuche-spanish lyrics.
Mensaje a la Mineria
Message to the Mine
ethnic video of Chile "mapuche birdman"
ethno video de Chile "hombre pajaro
Cortometraje de ficción que trata de la relación entre una mujer Mapuche y la tierra, la ferilidad y el ciclo vital.
Short film about the relationship between a Mapuche woman and the earth, fertility and the life cycle.
Mapuche..ary Video by Pachamamaconservation.org- Click Here
An organization dedicated to raising awareness of Mapuche culture and preservation.
Books:
Pablo Neruda
Also some reading material on the web:
The art and history of the Patagonia:
Educar para la Inmortalidad (In Spanish):
Heroes:
My ancestors
My mother and father
My family.
To our Elders who teach us of our creation and our past so we may preserve Mother Earth for ancestors yet to come-
We are the land.
This is dedicated to our relatives before us, thousands of years ago and,
To the 150 million who were exterminated across the western hemisphere in the first 400 years time, starting in 1492.
To those who have kept their homelands, and to the nations extinct due to mass slaughter, slavery, deportation and disease unknown to them and,
To the ones who are subjected to the same treatment today.
To the ones who survived the relocations and the ones who died along the way.
To those who carried on traditions and lived strong among their people, to those who left their communities by force or by choice and for generations who no longer know who they are.
To those who search and never find.
To those who turn away- the so called non accepted.
To those that bring us together and to those living outside, keeping touch-
The voice for many.
To those that make it back to live and fight the struggles of their people to those that give up and those who do not care.
To those who abuse themselves and others and those who revive again.
To those who are physically, mentally and spiritually incapable, by accident or by birth.
To those who seek strength in our spirituality and ways of life, and those who exploit it-
Even our own.
To those who fall for the lies and join the dividing lines that keep us fighting amongst each other.
To the outsiders that step in, good or bad, and those of us who don't know better.
To the leaders and prisoners of war, politics, crime, race and religion-
Innocent or guilty.
To the Young, the Old, the Living and the Dead.
To our Brothers and Sisters, and all living things across Mother Earth, and her beauty we have destroyed.
And denied the honor that the Creator has given each individual-
The Truth that lies in our hearts.
All My Relations.
~Ulali
