Grafismo, multitemporalidad y textos como objetos de poder en la biografía de una Machi Mapuche en Chile

Summary

Mapuche oral shamanic biographies and performances serve as vital tools for creating indigenous history in southern Chile. A mixed-race Mapuche shaman requested the author to document her life in a 'bible', which functions as both a ritual object and a means of preserving her shamanic power. This process allows her to communicate with future audiences and enables the transformation and circulation of her experiences, ultimately challenging conventional academic views on indigenous history and literacy.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mapuche oral shamanic biographies and performances —some of which take the form of “bibles” and involve shamanic literacies— play a central role in the production of indigenous history in southern Chile. In this article, I explain how and why a mixed-race Mapuche shaman charged me with writing about her life and practice in the form of such a “bible”. This book would become a ritual object and a means of storing her shamanic power by textualizing it, thereby allowing her to speak to a future audience. The realities and powers her “bible” stored could be extracted, transformed, circulated, and actualized for a variety of ends, even to bring about shamanic rebirth. Ultimately, I argue, through their use and interpretation of this kind of “bible”, Mapuche shamans expand academic notions of indigenous history and literacy.

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