The Exorcising Sounds of Warfare: The Performance of Shamanic Healing and the Struggle to Remain Mapuche
Anthropology of Consciousness June 1, 1998 DOI: 10.1525/ac.1998.9.2-3.1
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractSince the end of Mapuche guerrilla warfare in 1881, machis (mostly women) have incorporated traditional warring elements—guns, knives, war cries, and male pre-war bonding—into their shamanic healing and collective nguiUatun rituals. They use these to "kill" or "defeat" illness, evil, and the effects of acculturation, which the Chilean Mapuche often see as the root of illness, evil, and alienation. These forces are conceived as enemies threatening the Mapuche self from outside and harming physical and spiritual well-being. The warring complex in ritual and healing reinforces contemporary Mapuche identity, traditions, and wholeness by aggressively opposing self, tradition, and life against otherness, acculturation, and death.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Chilean Mapuche people and their machis |
| Citations | 13 |
| Key finding | Mapuche machis have adapted traditional warring practices into healing and collective rituals to combat illness, evil, and acculturation, thereby reinforcing contemporary Mapuche identity and wholeness. |
Abstract
Since the cessation of Mapuche guerrilla warfare against Chileans in 1881, machis who are predominantly women, have progressively incorporated aspects of traditional warring into their shamanic healing and performance of collective nguiUatun rituals. Guns, knives, war cries, and male pre‐war bonding acts are used by machis to "kill" or "defeat" illness, evil, and the effects of acculturation on their patients and the community. Acculturation is often seen by the Chilean Mapuche as the root of illness, evil, and alienation. All three are conceived as enemies that threaten the Mapuche self from the outside and are detrimental to the physical and spiritual well‐being of the individual or group. While ritual played an important role in gaining supernatural help to strengthen warriors in the past, the warring complex in ritual, and healing in particular, is crucial in reinforcing contemporary Mapuche identity, traditions, and wholeness. I analyze the performance of spiritual warfare in healing and collective ritual as the Mapuche way of aggressively advocating the opposition between self, tradition, and life on one hand, and otherness, acculturation, and death, on the other.