Mapuche

General Info

Here are some stats on Chile:

Capital ..................     Santiago
Official Language .....   Spanish
Government .............   Democratic Republic
President .................  Michelle Bachelet
Population ..............    16,432,674
Density ....................  54 people per square mile

GDP Per Capita ......    11,937
Currency .................   Peso

           Motto ......................  Por la Razón o la Fuerza: "By right or might"

• • Previous Motto: After darkness, light AND By the Reason or by the Sword
• Anthem .................. Himno Nacional
       The hymn speaks of the natural beauty of Chile but then in the chorus it      reflect the struggles of its people which is expressed in the line, “Either you be the tomb of the free or the refuge against oppression.”
• Islands ..................... Easter Island and Isla Sala y Gómez
• Names Meaning.......      "Where the land ends"
• Flag: In the Chilean flag, the five-pointed star represents a guide to progress and honor; the blue symbolizes the sky; the white is for the snow-covered Andes, and the red represents the blood spilled to achieve independence.

Pastor Eleutorio Cayulao

A missionary showed up in Vega Redonda with a message of salvation and a vision for the Mapuche people.  As he taught God’s word, he also called on the Holy Spirit to heal many of the infirmities of the area.  One person who was miraculously healed through prayers was the mother of Pastor Eleutario Caulao.  At the time, Eleutario  was 8 year old.  The family grew in a close relationship with Jesus Christ.  He matured in his Christian walk and  became involved with his local church.  Four  years later, he was baptized and continued to deepen his love for his savior Jesus Christ.   At 18, he moved to Santiago and worked under a union type organization while still maintaining strong connections to the church.  Everything was going well, until President Pinochet decided he didn’t like the unions and members started to disappear.  For security, Eleutorio returned to Collin Alto at the age of 25.  Two years later Eleutario felt God calling him to be a pastor which he resisted.  How could he support a family on a pastor’s salary from a country church; sometimes the giving was less than a dollar.  We was currently the official leader at the Collin Alto church but not the pastor.  During this time, Eleutario began working with an American Missionary Pastor Gene Huckaby.  Huckaby challenged him to follow his calling but Eleutario continued to resist.  Eight years later, Brian Hamerlinck came to Chile to translate the Bible into Mapudungun.   He approached Eleutario to help with the translation.  With much hesitation and feeling ill equipped to translate the NT, he accepted the job.  For the next 10 years he and Brian worked on the translation.  On the completion of the NT, Eluetario received a letter from a seminary in Santiago, Chile.  After much discussion with his wife and consideration of his young children,  he went to seminary in Santiago while his family stayed in Collin Alto.  During the next 2 years, Eleutario saw God work in many miraculous ways to provide for his family and pay for the education.    Now he is the pastor at Collin Alto and one of the few Mapuche pastors with a seminary education. 

 

Some of his accomplishments are: one of the voices on the Jesus Film in Mapudungun;  one of the voices on a dramatic presentation of the New Testament on tape in Mapudungun and  the narrator of the God Story which is 16 biblical stories extracted from the Bible.  He is also discussing a contract with The Bible Society to translate the Old Testament into Mapudungun.  But above all his accomplishments, Pastor Eleutario finds his greatest joy in pastoring within his community and overseeing four  mission churches in neighboring communities.   

 

We have been attending Pastor Eleutorio's church for the last year and it has been a wonderful experience.  Besides being a powerful expository teacher of God's word, he and his family have become our cultural tutors and good friends.  We find ourselves amazingly grateful for bringing this man of God into our lives.

 

Recently, we asked Pastor Eleutorio what he felt was the biggest prayer request for the Mapuche church.  He responded, "I wish the Mapuche Christians had a missionary heart.  What I mean by this is that they would find the courage to evangelize more intentionally.  The Mapuches are a very reserved people and to evangelize their neighbor or nearby communities is very difficult.  Please pray for a missionary heart."

 

As we start to organize a Prayer Movement for the Mapuche people, we want to express the heart and soul of the Mapuches by allowing you to see how God is touching the lives of different Mapuche church leaders and how God is tugging on their hearts in prayer.  Please join our brothers and sisters in Christ that they may receive a “Missionary Heart” for their own people. 

 

Learning Style

Our mission in Chile is to teach Mapuches to plant churches and to teach and evangelize children. We observe that the adults have a variety of educational backgrounds. Most average a 6th to 8th grade education, but many cannot read or write. Other adults cannot speak Spanish very well. The school experience was very traumatic for many adults. We were told of ridicule and punishment for those who did not speak Spanish well enough to survive in their schools. The result was that they dropped out. But today many youth are able to obtain high school and university educations. The government is investing in the school system with the goal to have everyone complete the 8th grade. To do this requires many children to live at the schools. The schools have dormitories instead of bussing students to school.

In their homes Mapuche children learn by observing what others are doing and imitating it, sometimes by trial and error or much repetition. They are relational/global learners. They need to understand the big-picture before the details. Detailed explanations are not helpful. They are not abstract thinkers. They would probably learn better in small groups rather than individually. I observed Mapuches try an exercise given to them in a seminar, to draw an object described in a Biblical passage. It was very hard for them to visualize the picture from the details. The Chilean schools teach by rote memory, not by teaching abstract principles and using abstract questions. Mapuches are slow to accept change. Our Mapuche language teacher did not see how the world could change any more in the future. He said that it had already changed so much, that there couldn’t possibly be any more changes. They describe themselves as slow learners, and one woman told us that we were much more patient teaching them than the Chileans, such as her pastor. Repetition is useful and it is good to hand out notes, so they can focus on what the teacher says and not on taking their own notes.

They do not learn by reading books, but are an oral culture. Reading the Bible is particularly challenging, as the commonly used translation, the Reina-Valera, is like the King James. It uses old words and grammar that are not spoken today, so it takes a higher education level to understand it. We know only a few people, even in the city, that have read the whole New Testament. The audio New Testament project has met with mixed success. The main problem is the time that it takes to sit and listen and the lack of people to explain it to them.

In traditional cultures stories are frequently used to teach the Bible. Jesus used short stories to teach challenging topics. We do not know of any attempt to use chronological story telling in Chile. Teaching the same content in as many different contexts as possible, until the students process and internalize the principle is another technique. Again, they learn by observing and doing, rather than by explanation. It will take time before they are ready to put the teaching into practice on their own. Audio-visual techniques also work, though Mapuches do not have the means to show videos for themselves, because the format draws their attention. Group work may be better than individual work because of their cultural framework

Power - Who has It

Earlier this century there were chiefs of each community who ruled by wisdom and might. They made rules and enforced them by strength. If someone got out of line, he was counseled, then perhaps beaten if counseling didn’t work. The roll of chief was passed down to the oldest son, but could be challenged by a stronger man. The chief would also organize the annual ngillatun, where the community prayed and made sacrifices to their gods. To deal with the government, the heirs of the chiefs still act as the community spokesmen, or there may be elected leaders whom have educational or speaking skills to deal with the government. They will also have a good testimony within the community.

Ministry note: We continually hear how important personal testimony is for church planting. Many times a family wants to start a church on their property, but their testimony keeps other people from coming. It is very important to investigate the whole community before starting a church there, in order to evangelize the community “gate keepers” who can help bring the whole flock in.

Today many communities don’t have chiefs. In one sense a pastor fills this role, telling the church what to do and when to do it. When the pastor does not live among the people, he will name another man to be in charge of the building, running the service, setting activities, etc. Sometimes the man in charge will preach, if the pastor is not available. He is careful not to overstep his authority with the pastor. Usually this man is not well trained. Most city pastors do not seem to recognize the need to train up local leaders and to let them function independently. They are chosen by seniority in the church and wealth.

The fathers of the households set the family work assignments, including assignments for the married sons, their wives, and children. They give each family member a job in the fields or tending the animals. In the past the families ate together the fruit of their collective labors. To some extent the sons would control their own families; and the mothers, their children. Each would have areas of responsibility. The women and children tended the gardens and smaller animals. They cooked and cleaned under direction of the landowner’s wife. The men tended the cows and horses, plowed the fields, hauled firewood, etc.

Today Mapuche families are becoming more independent, but the father who owns the land makes rules for its use. The married sons will be given a spot for a house and a field to work, if the land is big enough. But they will work for their own families, keeping the harvest or profits for their own individual families. They will also help support elderly or widowed parents. The sons may have to find a job in the city or go north to work in the fields during harvest season, in order to build a house or support a wife and children.  The extended family will help one another in a crisis (e.g. crop failure). If the land is too small to farm, a site for a house will be provided to the married sons, but they will have to find work somewhere else. The government will not divide Mapuche land into very small parcels, so the sons may not be able to own the land around their home. The title will remain in the father’s name and will be passed down to the oldest son.

Usually women do not have authority, except the machis, or shaman, who are predominately women. They are the healers of physical and spiritual ailments. They have a primary roll in the ngillatun and We Tripantu ceremonies to communicate with their god and tell the people what he wants. Sometimes this involves saying what to plant, if it will be a good year for certain crops, or what trees to plant. There are many machis who charge money for their cures so generally have more money than the average Mapuche. One opened an herbal pharmacy in downtown Temuco. We know one Christian Mapuche couple that offers an alternative to the machi healing, that is a prayer ministry.

The youth are influenced by their age-set. The Mapuches can choose to go to high school by living at a school in a nearby city, but it costs some money to do so. There they live with other youth and tend to be influenced by them and the world. Many youth leave their land. It is a common complaint of the older people. They may bring back new ideas to the community but have little influence due to their age.

Ministry note: Church planters need to deal with the influential people in the Mapuche communities. The best men to look for are those who have a good reputation for helping others. They will have to have enough land to donate a site for a church or enough influence to find a site. If a family does not have a good testimony, people may not come to a church on their property, or they will not be able to approach others to evangelize them. The chiefs may oppose open evangelization or may oppose the donation of a site to a church, so one must rely on influential people living in the community to overcome this problem. Relational evangelism does not cause a problem, but Pentecostals frequently use loud speakers and open-air events to evangelize, which can bother some people, (me included). An evangelism that demonstrates love and service to the community is best.

Written by Jerry and Jan Jacobson

Religion - Who They Worship

Traditional Mapuches see the world as controlled by various spiritual beings and/or gods. There is a creator god, Ngünechen, whom each community petitions annually or bi-annually in a ceremony called ngillatun. Sacrifices of animals and food are presented to a wooden image of Ngünechen and promises are made to him in return for prosperity, such as rain, good crops, many animals, health, and protection from bad spirits. The traditional Mapuche “religion” has little to say about morality.

Behavior - What is Practiced

So, the Mapuche believe in a plethora of spiritual beings and have superstitions that guide them to action, when they encounter a bad spirit. But there is little in their belief system that would guide them not to sin. Things like drunkenness, rape, abortion, sex before marriage, bigamy, and robbery occur, because they don’t have a core belief in a god that says these things are bad.

Value - What is Important

Mapuches tend to value their animals (the word for animal and money is the same, kulliñ), land, and families. They also value wheat, a staple of their diet. Mapuches have a spiritual connection with their land. We were told by non-Mapuches that Mapuches worship land and nature, but this is not the case. The land is what gives them value. Mapuche means “people of the land.

The Mapuches in the valley have been farmers, while other groups in the mountains raise animals and gather food, and yet others by the ocean are fishermen. Antonio says “I’m not a real Mapuche, because I don’t have enough land and oxen to farm.” With oxen they can work the land and have transportation. A team of oxen gives the Mapuche a good life and identity. Pastor Manuel told us that his oxen would cost as much as a cheap car, but if he bought a car all he would have is transportation. The oxen give him much more value.

The Mapuches live on family farms in their communities. They value their extended families, and the community pressure tends to keep families together. The parents and married sons all have houses close together on the father’s land. The married girls, on the other hand, go to live with their husband’s family in another community. In some places a bride price is still paid for a girl, to her father, expressing her worth to her new husband, and the groom’s ability to care for her. A horse and some smaller animals is a good price. After marriage the girl still visits her parents, but is not allowed back home until the bride-price is paid. There is additional pressure from her father for her husband to treat her well. Members of the family help one another work, share food, take care of each other’s children, etc.

Wheat is a staple of the Mapuche diet. They eat it in granular form like rice, make breads, and even make a drink (muday) from it. Most of the fields are sown in wheat, which leads to a problem. They say they remember yields of 35 sacks to 1 sack planted, but now only have yields of 3 to 1. The soil is spent from continually growing wheat in the same small parcels.

The word Mapuche means “people of the land.” Land was not something to be owned.  When the Mapuche were “pacified”, they were put on reservations. The Mapuche call them “reductions”, because their land was reduced to these parcels. The Pinochet government then privatized their farms, drawing property lines. The small amount of land allocated to a Mapuche family was too small to really feed a family, let alone get them out of poverty. The population growth has further subdivided the land among the sons, such that in some cases, there isn’t any land left to farm. Many Mapuche are thus forced to leave the reductions to survive, or do so to try to make a better living, and thus leave their culture and language behind.

Written by Jerry and Janet Jacobson

Beliefs - What is True!

Myths and superstitions about the spirit world control their beliefs.  Machis are the intermediaries between Ngünechen, the spirit world, and the people. Usually they are women. They know much more about the spiritual world than the common person. Man is not conceived of as an isolated individual, but is intimately linked to the supernatural, natural and social worlds. When someone has a spiritual problem, for example bad health, bad luck, or bad dreams, they see a machi.

She restores the equilibrium between these worlds which was broken. The simple spiritual remedy costs about $2.15. This income makes the machis much richer than the average Mapuche. A Mapuche hospital in Maquehue has a machi on staff, and another machi owns a Mapuche pharmacy in downtown Temuco. The use of medicinal herbs is quite common.

Machis all have a carved stump of a canelo o maqui tree, called a rewe in front of their house. It has steps that she climbs as she communicates with the spirit-world. The higher she climbs up the totem, the closer she is to her god. She also uses a bowl shaped drum called a kultrung, which has a representation of the 4 quadrants of the universe, stars and suns drawn on the face.

Mapuches believe that people can also have evil spirits or be witches. One superstition is that when they hear a night bird call, it might be a witch passing. They then will throw the mate tea leaves in the fire. In the morning if someone comes to the house with a red, burned face, he is the witch. The witches are the cause of bad health problems and death, if they curse you. A machi can reverse the curses. Another bad spirit, called a “duende”, which is the size of a young boy, goes around at night. These evil spirits have more power at night, while Ngünechen has more power at sunrise. For example, on the Mapuche New Year morning, the machi gathers the people at sunrise to petition Ngünechen. The front door of their house also faces the morning sun. They believe that a very strong, local whirl-wind is the devil going by, but they only learned about him from early Catholic missionaries. Machis and grave markers also wear the cross as an additional symbol of power. The spirit world is something Mapuches fear and to try to control. In a sense the evangelicals in Chile also try to control God through prayer. Their petitions are somewhat self-centered. They want a God that will help them, NOW, with good health, good crops, etc. Our Omega teaching on prayer for Kingdom advancement was a completely new concept for the students. A Mapuche pastor told us that he did not really understand the Great Commission, since it means reaching out to other people groups. You are either Mapuche or you aren’t. Mapuches attend the ngillatun and outsiders are excluded. You can’t convert yourself into a Mapuche. Evangelicals also place a great emphasis on dreams and visions as direct communication from God. This may be a hold-over from traditional beliefs. We also heard stories of believers learning to pray for the health of others. The priesthood of believers is a new concept. The people did not intercede for one another. The machi was their only connection with god. In a sense, pastors assume the machi’s roll as the only intercessor unless people are taught otherwise.
Written by Jerry and Janet Jacobson

Ngillatun - Spiritual View

The traditional Mapuches have a spirit-view of the world.  The traditional Mapuches have a spirit-view of the world, which has changed a bit since Catholicism arrived with the original Spanish settlers. The Mapuches believe in a creator god, called Ngünechen, which means “sovereign over man”, but they don’t know much about him. One woman told us that their god is the same god that the Catholics worship. This is because most Catholic Mapuches continue to go to the ngillatun, an annual or biannual event, where they sacrifice animals, make commitments, and ask for favors from Ngünechen. They usually have a wooden god carved from a pole of a sacred tree, like canelo, standing in a sacred field where they hold the event.

The ceremony revolves around this god. They dance around it and make blood sacrifices to it. During the event their shaman, called machi, prays for favors for the community. Also, at sunrise on the Mapuche New Year the machi gathers the people to pray. But other than at the ngillatun and the “we tripantu”, (New Year), the Mapuche have little day-to-day contact with Ngünechen. They believe that they must keep their promises that they made to him at the ngillatun, or they will have spiritual problems, and he won’t protect them. Between these annual events the people don’t pray or have any formal religion or worship. 

What controls their daily lives is a belief in a spirit world. Some of the spirits, (püllü), are also known as gods in some communities. They also believe spirits live in places like mountains, volcanoes, trees, forests, lakes, and sloughs and protect them (ngen). A traditional Mapuche would ask the spirit of the forest for permission to cut down a tree. Spirits can also live in animals. The bull has a strong spirit. One local community, Pangipüllü, is named “spirit of the lion” for the mountain lions that live there. Sheep have good spirits and dogs, snakes, owls, foxes, and chickens have bad ones. A tan colored dog can protect you from bad spirits, while black dogs have bad spirits. Dreams and visions of bad spirits may cause a Mapuche to go to the shaman, (machi), for a cure. Mapuches believe that the machis can interpret dreams and visions. There are machis that can communicate with Ngünechen, and others less powerful that only communicate with earthly spirits. Some machis address their prayers to different gods, like the god of the sea or the god of Villarrica, a local volcano. They also believe that humans have spirits that walk around at night while the person sleeps. They believe that a spirit can leave a dead person who is not buried correctly and “haunt” someone. Mapuches live in fear of the bad spirits and try to placate the good spirits at the ngillatun to protect themselves or to bless the community.

Mapuche - Who are They?

The Mapuches are an indigenous people that live in southern Chile and Argentina, (Araucanian or green in the ethnologic map below). The 2002 Chilean census, (below) says there are about 604,000 Mapuches in Chile, but this number may be low. Discrimination has caused many Mapuches to try to blend in with the rest of the population. The total includes 19,500 Huilliches (Southern People), who speak a different dialect of Mapudungun, the Mapuche language. There are 3 sub-groups of Mapuches.

The ones that live in the Andes are called Pewenches (Araucaria Tree People. The Pewen or Araucaria is the national tree of Chile.). Others live in the valley, called Mapuches (Land People), and by the coast, called Lafkenches (Sea People). 60,350 Mapuches also live in Argentina. Many have moved off their land, called reductions, to the cities, have changed their names, and have adopted the Spanish language and culture. But many are still living a more traditional lifestyle in Mapuche communities.

The country of Chile is divided into 13 regions for governmental purposes (see the map on the next page). A recent investigation by the Baptist missionaries, (IMB), shows that there are 15 communities in the 8th region without an evangelical church and over 300 in the 9th region, with and additional 100 communities yet to be surveyed. The 10th region has not been investigated. The survey did not take into account the occasional need for more than one church per community, due to the physical distance between churches, number of people, or other factors, such as snow.

Written by Jerry and Janet Jacobson

Kinship

Traditionally a Mapuche man would pay a bride price for his bride.  Usually, the men...

would choose their wives from their mother’s brothers’ or sisters’ children and not from their father’s side, which was forbidden.   Now, most Mapuche marriages require a civil ceremony.  Polygamy is illegal in Chile but the traditional Mapuche men would have more than one wife to demonstrate their wealth.  There are still a few polygamist marriages but only among the older generation.

Also, there is a tradition that the first year of a Mapuche marriage is conditional.  Either partner can withdraw from the marriage with family approval.  After the first year, divorce is rare because the families will work hard to keep the couple together.  When a woman is divorced, she will return to her father’s house to live.  If she has children from a marriage, rarely does she remarry.  Divorce became legal in Chile in 2004.  Husbands are now legally financially responsible for the women they divorce.

To demonstrate the importance of kinship relationships, one discovers a very specific system for naming relatives.  An uncle on the mother’s side is called “weku” and an uncle on the father’s side is called “malle”.  A father and mother would each have a different word referring to their son.

Within a kinship relationship, there are very specific roles for each member.  The father is the head of the household.  It is the father who assigns the jobs that must be completed to every family member, including married sons.  When a son marries, he brings his bride home to live with His family.  The married son may live in his father’s house or may build a new house on his father’s property for his family.  When the father dies, all property is transferred to the eldest son.  The other children may remain in their houses with a sort of “user rights”.  The mother oversees the household, the household garden and the small animals like chickens.  Children are integrated into routines and chores as soon as they are able to walk.  They are taught life skills through natural limits, repetition and games.  “They are treated as an equal rather than over protected.” (Hernández Salles, p47)  Grandparents also help in the raising of the children.  The grandmother often watches the children while the grandfather educates them in cultural values, customs, and duties.