THE LIFE, DEATH, AND REBIRTH OF A MAPUCHE SHAMAN: Remembering, Disremembering, and the Willful Transformation of Memory

The biography of a Mapuche shaman, Francisca Colipi, reveals how marginalized indigenous communities construct and mobilize historical consciousness. Drawing on ethnographic and archival work from 1991 to 2008, the account shows that Francisca's liminal position as an outsider and mediator within her community in southern Chile offers a vantage point for understanding how shamanic narratives of the past shape the present and rewrite local history. Her life, death, and rebirth illuminate the interplay between indigenous agency and national history, remembering and disremembering, and individual versus collective memory, providing new insights into how particular groups see themselves in time.

Study at a glance

Abstract

I draw on ethnographic and archival material collected between 1991 and 2008 to explore the story of a Mapuche shaman in her community in southern Chile and illuminate the ways in which particular marginalized groups see themselves in time. Francisca Colipi's unique position as both an anomalous, liminal outsider and a powerful mediator between internal community factions and ethnicities makes her biography a productive place from which to view Millali's conflicted history. Through Francisca's experiences in her community I explore how Mapuche shamanic historical consciousness is produced and mobilized, how shamanic narratives of the past construct the present and rewrite local history, and how change and its agents are conceived of in shamanic practice. An analysis of Mapuche shamanic historical consciousness through Francisca's life, death, and rebirth offers a new understanding of the relationship between indigenous agency and national history, remembering and disremembering, and individual and collective memory.