Mapuche

Palín

Palin is a communal game practiced by the Mapuches aimed to strengthen friendship between a Lonko and his lof or between two communities. Although the palin is a competition, the encounter and celebration are emphasized, a good reason for avoiding physical damage. Religious ceremonies, dancing and food accompany the game.

The game is played in a large narrow field called paliwe, measuring approximately 90 to 100 meters long by 6 to 10 meters wide. It is played with a wooden or leather ball, or pali, and a 1,2 to 1,3 meters long, curved stick, called wüño.

Each team has a representative who occupies the center of the field, and who also acts as a referee. At the center, a small hole is dug, where the pali is placed. Facing the hole, each team forms a line. The lonko palife, or leaders of the teams, must take the pali out. The players, or palife, dispute the pali, trying to throw it to the opposite border line of paliwe.

The game’s length, number of participants of each team, and the number of goals, or line crossings, are previously accorded between the teams.

Most games are played up to four line crossings, or a kon or kuden.

To score, the pali must cross one of the narrower border lines of the paliwe. When the pali escapes the field, the game must recommence from the center of the field. When the game is played between two communities, the lonkos agree on the rules. The hosting community solemnly welcome their guests following the ancestral rules. They pray and dance around the rewe, or altar made up of canelo branches and white and black flags, being grateful for the celebration and pleading for the sake of the game.

Once the palin is over, no mattering its result, the hosting community entertains its guests with food and drinks.

Information from beingindigenous.org

 

Mapuche

Warlike People

Before the war against the Spaniards, the Mapuches engaged in tribal warfare, using weapons such as bow and arrows, spears, slingshots, stone balls and mace made of wood or stone, known as macanas.
The War Covenant among the different local groups was ratified in a ceremony where a black llama was sacrificed, and its blood drained.

The meat was pierced with spears and arrows and it was then eaten to celebrate the alliance. The winning party either kept their enemies as slaves, or killed them. Defeated chiefs were decapitated, hanging their heads on spears. Victory was celebrated in an open field around a Canelo tree. Around this sacred tree, men and women danced covered with animal skins. They danced, ate and drank large amounts of maqui or corn beer.

During the war against the Spanish Conquest, arose the Aillarewe, a more complex social organization led by a Toki, or military leader. Father Luis de Valdivia uses the term rewe to designate a local group and aillirewe, nine rewes, to refer to the wider group.

Information from beingindigenous.org

 

Mapuche

House

The traditional house, ruka, has a single door, open towards the east, an orientation which expresses the cosmological preference of the Mapuche for Puelmapu (Land of the East), where the deities reside. The ruka has no windows. Inside, the sleeping place is by the internal wall while in the center lies the kutral, or open hearth.

Soot blackens the wall and smoke floods the Mapuche home coming out through the güllonruka, two openings on each side of the gables. In the interior there is space to store food and there are many domestic artifacts, which hang from the ceiling and wall. The most characteristic artifacts are:

– The wenku (bench), a small settle carved from a solid block of wood.
- The witral, or loom, is placed near the ruka entry. During the bad weather the witral is used indoors, and outdoors with good weather.

The smoke and the grease from cooking turn the ruka water proof, sealing the straw-made roof and, even, forming stalactites of soot. The fire is permanently lit in the center. The construction of the ruka was celebrated with the rukatun, a house building ritual with dancers wearing wooden masks known as kollón.

Information from beingindigenous.org

 

Mapuche

Society

The family is the main focus of the Mapuche social organization.

Before of Spanish conquest, the people of the Central-South area lived in a sort of matriarchy. The sons carried the name and the totem of their mothers (the husband living with his wife family). However, by the Spanish conquest, men were already family heads, even though the children still carried their mothers’ names. From then onwards change was accelerated and wives went to live with their husbands families. Since then the patriarchy and virilocal concept has predominated. The Mapuche totem was the representation of a common tribal ancestor, not a god nor a representation of a spiritual figure.

Mapuche people had no villages; they spread out, in families, the same as they do to this very day. The lof, the residential unit, recognized a common origin, together they formed a kawin, and these formed a levo. A lof was a group of families that carried the same totem. The levos celebrated democratic assemblies where the authorities were elected.

Information from beingindigenous.org

 

Anthropology Studies

If you have read my “About K’Creative” you should know that I want to pursue a Master and PhD in Anthropology. Well, who doesn’t?! I have always been interested in culture, languages, religion and arts. So, how come I never found out before that THIS was what I have been longing to do? Should I blame the school counselor? No, I don’t think so, but still….for a person like myself with former studies and life experience in different fields, all connected to and with the anthropology area…why didn’t I see this before? These are actually just rethorical questions, by the way.

I’m reading and searching through all material I can find about Anthropology and where to study. My problem is that I don’t have a BA in Anthropology but a Bachelor in English Pedagogy, furhermore, I’m not an American citizen, therefore I have no previous knowledge on the requiered GRE (a must for all students, including International ones) and must take that and the TOEFL. My area of interest within Anthropology is the visual subdivision and hopefully, if all the pieces of the puzzle fits, my boyfriend, daughter and I will be moving abroad in a near future. (Sigh!)

Well, if there is anybody out there, willing to share experiences or knowledge about Anthropology grad. studies in general and Photoetnography in particular, please…don’t hesitate to write. I will be most glad for any assistance in this matter.

/ K