Mapuche

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Mapuche women at the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Rancagua .
The home of the Mapuche

The Mapuche (formerly along with other nations around Araukaner are called) an indigenous people of South America . Their traditional territory extends to the states of Chile and Argentina . The Mapuche are divided into various regional identities, for example the Picunche ( people of the north ), the Wilhiche, the Lafkenche ( people of the sea ), the Wenteche ( people of the valleys ) and the Pewenche , who form the best-known and largest group. The Pikunche, the people of the north , were conquered by the Inca in pre-Columbian times and used as laborers , although the land structures remained. The Huilliche , also known as the people of the south , were hunters and gatherers until the 13th or 14th centuries , before they also introduced limited horticulture . The rich game population and pine fruits still provided the most important subsistence basis . In the 16th and 17th centuries they switched to agriculture (wheat, potatoes) and cattle breeding (llama, cattle, sheep, horse).

The Mapuche (more precisely: the Pewenche and parts of the Wilhiche) opposed the Spanish colonization with bitter and - in contrast to most other indigenous peoples of America - more than 300 years of successful resistance. From the middle of the 16th century, the Mapuche established their own state (partly based on the Spanish model), which lasted until 1883.

history

Pre-Columbian culture

The Mapuche were the only indigenous people in America who managed to evade colonization by the Spaniards and to maintain their independence for a long time. Their settlement area extended from the Río Choapa in the central north of Chile to the island of Chiloé , so it had a north-south extension of about 1,600 kilometers. In the Mapuche language, the Mapudungun , Mapu means earth and Che as much as human. The Mapuche call themselves, like many other indigenous peoples, "people of the earth".

“Mapuche” as an identitarian generic term for the various regional identities did not develop until the 17th and 18th centuries to differentiate it from the “Winkas” (< we igka , “new Incas”), foreigners, like first the Spanish colonizers and later the Chilean ones Majority society was designated. The self-designation as "Mapuche" is to be understood as the result of resistance and reorganization processes under the influence of the Spaniards. The Mapuche see themselves as a ethnic unit, called Jeqmonche , which is divided into several groups named according to their geographical areas of origin. The pre-colonial Mapuche were semi-nomads who only practiced agriculture and livestock to a small extent. They lived in small family groups, so-called Lofche , which formed self-sufficient and autonomous units. They didn't know any bigger villages or cities. The wheel was also unknown. The Mapuche still manage their land in common ownership .

Araucans weaving (late 19th century)
Meeting with Mapuche, Hans Steffen's expedition (1895)

The pre-Columbian Mapuche people are sometimes referred to in today's literature as "Reche-Mapuche", which means something like "original" or "authentic" Mapuche, from Mapudungun Re (pure, unmixed, unadulterated) and Che (human). According to some authors, the Reche-Mapuche had a social structure that was free from any form of rule and had no fixed territorial boundaries or barriers between the social classes until the appearance of the Spanish colonizers . Order was established through social ties such as kinships or alliances that could be freely entered into. This interpretation of the Mapuche social model as a form of coexistence close to anarchism , which is also advocated by representatives of the Mapuche themselves, criticizes modern political anthropology for the fact that it could not think of a society without rule and therefore only the domination-free societies of the American double continent with regard to functionaries such as “chiefs” (for example the temporary war chiefs of the Mapuche) or machis (female or homosexual “ shamans ”). In the original Mapuche society, such persons would certainly have had power (in the sense of influence), but not the means of coercion and violence necessary to enforce actual rule. Those who did not want to bow to them went their own way and were left in peace. There was also no universal figure of God among the Reche-Mapuche. Unlike the Maya and Aztecs, they did not know any central deities and representative bodies of the religious sphere, which were to be recognized by everyone without reservation.

So the Spanish conquistadors also saw in the Mapuche a kind of counter-image to their own, strictly hierarchically organized system: " They have no head, they do not recognize any authorities, they have no written language, they have no law, they lack faith and reputation " ( Holdenis Casanova Guarda )

In any case, an ethnocentrist view of the Ur-Mapuche as a society of shortages without a state, without writing, without history and without a market does not do justice to reality insofar as it ignores the fact that these societies had succeeded in achieving a satisfactory mastery of the natural environment fully met the needs of their way of life. The conventional notion of “development”, which assumes a parallelism of economic development and the development of political power structures, is in the opinion of many unsuitable for an interpretation of this form of community.

colonization

Lautaro (around 1535–1557) was a war chief (Toki) of the Mapuche in the Arauco War in Chile. Painting by Pedro Subercaseaux Errázuriz (1880–1956).

The Spaniards, who had invaded since 1536, were fought bitterly - like the Incas before. The Araucans took over the horse very quickly and in a much more targeted manner than, for example, the North American Indians through systematic theft and learned the art of riding and breeding animals. Within a few decades a warlike South American equestrian culture developed , which managed to exist for centuries as an anti-colonial counter-state (which copied much from the Spanish).

In 1546, Spanish conquistadors under Pedro de Valdivia met the Mapuche for the first time on the Bío Bío river , who initially prevented the colonizers from building a fortress. It was not until 1550 that the Spaniards succeeded in founding the city of Concepción . The Mapuche then decided to go to war. In December 1553 there was the Battle of Tucapel, which ended in a disaster for the Spaniards and was killed in the Valdivia itself. Under their joint war chief, the Toki  ("hatchet") Lautaro , they destroyed a number of bases in several waves of attack from 1554 to 1556, including the fortress Arauco and the fortified city of Concepción, but were then on the march to Santiago de Chile in the Battle of Peteroa (April 1, 1557) fought by Francisco de Villagra in a nighttime surprise attack in which Lautaro was also killed. The new governor García Hurtado de Mendoza undertook another campaign to the south from the summer of 1557, which however came to a standstill after several loss-making battles and finally had to be broken off. Arauco could, however, be occupied again and was finally overrun by the Mapuche in 1723. Lautaro's successor, Caupolicán , was captured by the Spaniards and cruelly killed. He served the Spanish writer Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga , who witnessed the campaign himself, as a model for his verse novel La Araucana , published in 1569 . The chronicler Pedro Mariño de Lobera also vividly describes the battles with the Mapuche from the perspective of the conquerors in his "Chronicle of the Kingdom of Chile" ( Crónica del Reino de Chile , published 1595) .

In the following period, the Indians destroyed most of the settlements founded by settlers in the south of the country, thus preventing further colonization of Chile. Another major uprising occurred between 1598 and 1604 after the Huilliche defeated the Spanish troops in 1598 at the Battle of Curalaba. The Spanish governor of Chile, Martín García Óñez de Loyola , was also killed. The Spanish administration in southern Chile was then only able to stay on the island of Chiloé .

The Mapuche realized very quickly that the Spaniards could only be fought successfully if they were defeated with their own means. Therefore, in addition to the art of riding, they took over numerous Spanish cultural elements and established a society based on strict military upbringing and systematic "hatred" against the Spaniards: captured Spaniards were already tortured, humiliated, raped and finally killed and eaten by children (→ cannibalism ) . Even Christianity could not expand until the end of the Mapuche state. Even Araucans were threatened with death if they adopted the new faith.

The persistent resistance of the indigenous people forced the Spaniards to recognize an independent Mapuche nation in the Treaty of Quillín in 1641. In it, the Bío-Bío River was established as a border to the Mapuche area that had actually existed since 1602 and the Mapuche people were granted sovereignty, a process unique in the history of indigenous peoples in South America. Although there were always armed conflicts and attempts at conquest afterwards, the demarcation of the border essentially lasted until the end of the colonial period.

During this time, the Mapuche gradually expanded their settlement area across the Andes to the east, where they hunted feral cattle and horses. This resulted in a cultural transfer to the ethnic groups living there, the so-called " Araucanization ". A part of the Tehuelche living there took over the horse breeding and from the connection of this group with the Mapuche the Araukaner group of the Pewenche emerged. The new home, a steppe landscape , was ideal for cattle breeding. The Mapuche kept large herds of cattle, horses and sheep there and at times controlled the salt and cattle trade throughout southern South America.

“El Malón”, painting by Moritz Rugendas (1802–1858). "Malón" was the name given to a mounted Mapuche attack on European settlers.

In 1825, the now independent Chile also expressly recognized the independence of the Mapuche. Only in the context of the so-called "pacification of Araucania" proclaimed by President José Joaquín Pérez in 1861 was the Mapuche area forcibly annexed to Chile and finally subjugated in 1883. Subsequently, the south of Chile and thus the areas previously inhabited by the Mapuche were massively settled by new immigrants from Europe, including a particularly large number of Germans. The remaining Mapuche had to leave large parts of their ancestral settlement areas and were concentrated in relatively small reserves , where they often found no livelihood due to the limited space. Impoverishment, crime, social conflicts with the European resettlers and finally emigration to the cities were the result. In 1934 the last major uprising of the Mapuche failed near Ranquil.

The Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia

The Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia is one of the most bizarre episodes in Chilean history. In 1858 the French lawyer Orélie Antoine de Tounens traveled to Chile. He was obsessed with the idea of ​​establishing a kingdom of his own with the Mapuche and the Patagonian Indians . After negotiations with the Kaziken Mañil, he traveled to the Bío-Bío region . Mañil had since passed away, but his successor Quilapán welcomed him warmly. Tounens presented the Mapuche with a draft constitution he had drawn up himself and was able to convince the Indians to elect him on November 17, 1860 as "King of Araucania and Patagonia". The Chilean government and other governments simply ignored him for the time being. Eventually his servant Juan Rosales Baptist betrayed him to the Chilean authorities, who had him arrested. In 1862 Tounens was deported to France. Nevertheless, he tried several times to get back to South America in order to build up his "kingdom".

20th century

Due to the loss of their land to large landowners ( latifundistas ) and timber companies, many Mapuche migrated to the cities in the 20th century, around 40 percent now live in the Chilean capital Santiago , Temuco and other metropolitan areas. Certain improvements resulted for the Mapuche under the government of Salvador Allende , who drove the massive expropriation of farms, which led to the return of land to the residents. It was also planned to enable bilingual school lessons. However, under the Pinochet dictatorship, the expropriation of the large landowners was reversed. More severe reprisals followed (especially through the abolition of common property , which in fact meant the expropriation of the Mapuche communities). In addition, the Río Bío Bío was dammed, which flooded large areas of the Mapuche country.

In nationalist circles in Chile, the existence of the Mapuche people is regularly denied to this day; According to a common thesis, it was absorbed by “mixing” ( mestizaje ) in the general population. The saying by Pinochet: “There are no indigenous people, we are all Chileans.” By contrast, most representatives of the Mapuche communities ( comunidades ) emphasize their independence and at least the more radical among them refuse to call themselves Chileans. Historically based mutual reservations shape the relationship between the Mapuche and white cultures to some extent to this day.

The Chilean census of 2002 showed 604,349 Mapuche on Chilean territory (928,500 in 1992). The extent to which this decline reflects assimilation effects or is due to survey techniques is controversial. The original language of the Mapuche, the Mapudungun , is only understood by about 260,000 people in Chile. In Argentina, the Mapuche population is approximately 250,000 people, of whom approximately 10,000 understand Mapudungun. The literacy rate in both the official language Spanish and Mapudungun is very low. The majority of the Mapuche live in simple circumstances. Men often work as casual workers, for example in agriculture, women often as domestic servants in houses of the upper class.

For years, the relationship between the Mapuche, who make up the majority of the indigenous movement in Chile , and the Chilean state has been clouded by land law conflicts. In the meantime, there have been land restitutions to a certain extent, but also new conflicts and controversial court judgments against militant Mapuche members. The legal status is also difficult because the Chilean constitution (unlike in most South American countries) does not grant indigenous groups any special ethnic and cultural status.

21st century

Wenufoye flag, created in 1992 by the indigenous organization Consejo de Todas las Tierras .

According to press reports, Microsoft intended to release a version of Windows XP in Mapudungun. In November 2006, it was announced that the Indian leaders wanted to sue Microsoft for infringement of intellectual property .

In 2008 the conflict over the natural resources of forest and water flared up again. In order to defend their interests and protect the araucaria forests , some of which are a thousand years old , from being processed into cellulose , activists occupied farms and set fire to lumberjacks' trucks. While trying to occupy a farm, a 22-year-old activist was killed in a clash with police.

In 2018, the murder of activist Camilo Catrillanca by a Chilean police officer sparked violent protests. In 2019, representatives of the Mapuche submitted a petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Chile and Argentina of genocide and crimes against humanity and calling on the ICC to take action.

Religion and mythology

The chief god of the Mapuche - almighty creator and sun god - is Gynechen (span. Ngenechén ). For the Mapuche, he is father, mother, brother and sister at the same time. Next to him, a "friend of the sun" heals people's diseases and star gods are worshiped. The East and the South are sacred to the Mapuche, as the good winds come from there. The blue of the sky is also sacred. In mythology, a huecuvus is an evil spirit who appears, for example, as a whirlwind and brings diseases. The sacred animals of the Mapuche are the horses, which are mainly used for riding and which are also slaughtered and eaten on high holidays such as Gilhatun (Spanish: Ngillatún ).

The biggest festival of the year is the so-called We Tripantu , the New Year of the Mapuche, which is celebrated on the shortest day of the year. The day when the sun rests and the moon takes over the role of the sun so that the sun can rest and reappear invigorated for a new year. The Mapuche bathe in the waters at dawn to clean themselves, because the waters are warmest on that day.

The most important ritual of the Mapuche is the Gilhatun . The little Gilhatun takes place annually, the big one every four years around Christmas time. For the Mapuche, everything occurs in pairs, good and bad, man and woman, etc. It is a ritual of supplication and thanks that can last several days. Gynechen is thanked for the past years, evil spirits are driven away and at the same time prayers are made for the next few years, for fertility for crops and cattle, good weather and wealth. Gilhatun is also of great social importance, as it is the ritual in which the community comes together and spends the days together, honoring known families and people by sharing food with them, typically a piece of meat (Horse, pork, beef or sheep, boiled or grilled) and a piece of iwiñ kofke , bread fried in horse fat. It is not uncommon for a family to slaughter at least one horse and one pig in order to serve all guests and friends. The festival combines elements of the European New Year with an impressive display of traditional Araucanian equestrian culture: A rustic altar is erected, which is ridden around in a solemn procession, faster and faster, finally at full gallop. In addition, lambs are sacrificed, the blood of which is offered to God in bowls on the altar. Finally, chicha (corn or apple beer) is drunk in large quantities . This festival usually includes the appearance of a machi. She climbs a stair-like notched block of wood, the symbol of the ladder to heaven, on which she reaches the gods in the afterlife. Beating kultrún on the shaman's drum , she spins around on the top of the ladder until she falls into a trance . She finally falls to the ground, lies there for a while, and then wakes up to report what she has learned from God and whether he is satisfied with the sacrifices and prayers.

This ritual of journeys to the hereafter, some of which are still accompanied by auxiliary spirits and which take place in ecstasy , the deeds in the spirit world, the calling of the Machi by God, the several years of apprenticeship, the shape and meaning of the drum and the central symbol of the ladder to heaven is so reminiscent to concepts of Siberian shamanism that the term shamanism is often mentioned in connection with the Mapuche - although in all probability it can only be a coincidental analog development. Establishing homologous references to Siberia here is now considered highly speculative.

According to the ongoing surveys by the evangelical-fundamentalist conversion network Joshua Project , 19 percent of the Mapuche still officially profess the traditional religion, about ten percent are not religious and 71 percent call themselves Christians. However, in practice “Mapuche Christianity” is rather a “Catholic paganism”. The classical rituals and the (or the) machi continue to have a central meaning. 80 percent of all machi today are women.

Culture

Craft

The Mapuche are known for their silversmithing, which, however, did not fully develop until the 17th century. Each piece of jewelry has its own name and its own magical meaning. Also worth mentioning are weaving (here the special shapes and colors of the Mapuche), pottery, carving and the stonemasonry.

House building

The Mapuche used to live in big houses of wood and mud, the Ruka were called. The floor was left natural, as the Mapuche saw the earth as mother and wanted nothing between them and the earth. A Ruka has no windows and the doorway always faces east. In the middle there was always the fire, which the Mapuche attribute healing powers. In the meantime, the Mapuche also mostly live in houses based on the European model in the countryside, although here, too, care is often taken to keep the doors open to the east.

dress

Traditionally, women wear the chamalh or kemalh, a square, black cloth that is wrapped around the body and one end pulled over the shoulder. The women wear the ekulh , a shawl with blue corners, also black, over their shoulders. A richly decorated sash is worn around the waist.

Men wear the chiripa - a kind of three-quarter-length trousers - and a finely woven poncho with decorations. Both sexes wear headbands. Today these clothes are mainly worn by the older generations and for festivities.

Agriculture

The traditional form of agriculture has been with the Mapuche since the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, the land-changing economy with potatoes, wheat, quinoa, beans and chilli on commons . In the past, there was also hunting and the gathering of wild fruits (especially from the araucaria ).

literature

The orally transmitted literary tradition has a high priority with the Mapuche. Since the 1920s and increasingly the 1960s, the written literature of the Mapuche has also flourished. Mention should be made of authors such as Elicura Chihailaf, Jaime Luis Huenún and Leonel Lienlaf, among others. Characteristic of the more recent Mapuche literature is the intercultural dichotomy of the authors (cf. Antillanca / Cuminao / Loncón: Escritos Mapuche (1910–1999). Santiago: Asociación Mapuche Xawun Ruka, 2000)

music

Traditional Mapuche music is mainly religious; there are also love songs and chants about home. Percussion instruments are used, e.g. B. exclusively for ritual use the kultrún (a flat kettle drum that is used as a shaman's drum ) and the cascahuillas (bells). Two further characteristic instruments are the trutruca , a natural trumpet , which from the tube a bamboo ( Colihue ) and a mouthpiece is, similar nolkin whose sound is however produced by sucking air out of the tube and the jaw drum trompe . Outstanding singers in Mapuche music are Aimé Paine and Nancy San Martin.

See also

literature

  • Joanna Crow: The Mapuche in Modern Chile: A Cultural History. University Press of Florida, 2013.
  • Stefan Eim: The Conceptualization of Mapuche Religion in Colonial Chile (1545–1787). (Dissertation) University of Heidelberg, 2010 (at heiDOK )
  • Carmen Arellano Hoffmann, Hermann Holzbauer, Roswitha Kramer (eds.): The Mapuche and the Republic of Chile. Father Siegfried von Frauenhäusl and the Mapuche Parliament from 1907 in Coz Coz. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006. ISBN 3-447-05270-8 .
  • Olaf Kaltmeier: Marichiweu! We'll win ten times! A reconstruction of the current Mapuche movement in Chile from the dialectic of rule and resistance since the Conquista. Edition ITP-Kompass, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-9809421-0-2 (at academia.edu )
  • Ricardo E. Latcham: The Art of War of the Araucanos. Junius, Hamburg 1988. ISBN 3-88506-403-0 .
  • Rainer Lucht: "We want to preserve our identity". Mapuche organizations and their positions in today's Chile . Lit, Münster 1999. ISBN 3-8258-4297-5 .
  • Elke Rahausen: The community is changing. On the situation and integration of the Mapuche smallholders in the Chilean economy and society . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2003. ISBN 3-8322-2124-7 .
  • Helmut Schindler: farmers and cavalry warriors. The Mapuche Indians in southern America. Hirmer, Munich 1990. ISBN 3-7774-5240-8 .
  • Jens Schneider: Newen Domo - "The Power of Women". Women in the Mapuche movement in Chile . Lit, Münster 1993. ISBN 3-89473-644-5 .

Web links

Commons : Mapuche  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olaf Kaltmeier: Movements in space. Identities, territorialities and resistances of the Mapuche in Chile . In the S. (Ed.): Neoliberalism - Autonomy - Resistance: Social Movements in Latin America . Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2004. pp. 122–140.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Wolfgang Lindig, Mark Münzel: Die Indianer. Cultures and history of the Indians of North, Central and South America. dtv, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-423-04317-X pp. 119–125.
  3. ↑ Mirco Lomoth: Mapuche, forest company and state: a dispute from today's Chile. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2007.
  4. ↑ a b c The mirror . Hamburg 2008, No. 4 (January 21), p. 91. ISSN  0038-7452
  5. ↑ a b Olaf Kaltmeier: In search of anarchy. In: Jürgen Mümken (Ed.): Anarchism in Postmodernism. Edition AV, Frankfurt am Main 2005. ISBN 3-936049-37-8
  6. ↑ Holdenis Casanova Guarda: La Araucania Colonial - Discursos y Esteriotipos (1550-1800). 1998, cit. According to Olaf Kaltmeier: In search of anarchy. In: Jürgen Mümken (Ed.): Anarchism in Postmodernism. Edition AV, Frankfurt 2005, pp. 99 f., ISBN 3-936049-37-8 .
  7. ↑ a b Hartmut Motz: Languages ​​and Peoples of the Earth - Linguistic-Ethnographic Lexicon. Volume 1, Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2007, ISBN 978-3-86634-368-9 . Pp. 230-232.
  8. ↑ WinFuture: Language conflict: Mapuche Indians sue Microsoft , Michael Diestelberg, November 24, 2006 ; Retrieved December 8, 2016 .
  9. ^ John Bartlett: Chile: four police officers arrested over fatal shooting of indigenous man. In: The Guardian . November 29, 2018, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Mat Youkee: 'We are hostages': indigenous Mapuche accuse Chile and Argentina of genocide. In: The Guardian . April 12, 2019, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  11. ^ Walter Hirschberg (founder), Wolfgang Müller (editor): Dictionary of Ethnology. New edition, 2nd edition. Reimer, Berlin 2005, pp. 326-327.
  12. ↑ Joshua Project: Chile and Argentina ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Mapuche, Araucanian), accessed January 16, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / legacy.unreachedresources.org
  13. ↑ Ramón Francisco Curivil Paillavil: Considerations on the possibility of an interreligious and interspiritual dialogue in view of the cultural and religious colonization in the Mapuche area. In: Klaus Krämer u. Klaus Vellguth (Ed.): World Church Spirituality. Re-experience the faith. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Sebastian Painadath SJ. Herder, Freiburg-Basel-Wien 2012. pp. 152–266.
  14. ↑ Carmen Arellano Hoffmann, Hermann Holzbauer, Roswitha Kramer (eds.): The Mapuche and the Republic of Chile: Father Siegfried von Frauenhäusl and the Mapuche Parliament from 1907 in Coz Coz. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-447-05270-2 . Pp. 143-144.
  15. ↑ dradio.de, Das Feature, August 24, 2012, Karl-Ludolf Hübener: Trees with Blue Roots - Encounters with Elicura Chihuailaf (August 26, 2012; manuscript: dradio.de )