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Araucanians heros
South American people, occupying most of S central Chile at the time of the Spanish conquest (1540). The Araucanians were an agricultural people living in small settlements. They are classified into three major cultural subdivisions, the Huilliche, the Picunche, and the Mapuche, the last being the largest group. The known history of the Araucanians begins with the Inca invasion (c.1448–c.1482) under Tupac Yupanqui, but Inca influence was never strong. Against the Spanish under Pedro de Valdivia the Araucanians offered resistance, notably under Lautaro and Caupolicán, and their stout fight was immortalized in the epic by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga. They were successful in protecting S Chile and by 1598 had destroyed almost all Spanish settlements S of the Bío-Bío River. Their struggle continued intermittently in the 17th and 18th cent. in the uprisings of 1723, 1740, and 1766. White immigration southward brought on the war of 1880–81, which ended with Araucanian submission. Earlier, especially at the beginning of the 18th cent., Araucanians fleeing white encroachment had gone across the Andes into Argentina. Capturing wild horses, they became wanderers on the plains and absorbed the Puelche. Gen. Julio A. Roca subjugated them in his campaigns (1879–83). The Araucanians, although not fully integrated into the majority culture, continue to influence Chilean life; they number over 300,000.
Like
every other culture in the world, the Araucarian People have their heroes,
martyrs and
honorable
people.
The battles between the Spanish settlers and the
original inhabitants of Chile brought up some unforgettable heroes.
Lautaro
He was a famous Indian Chieftain and led various rebellions from the
Araucanian against the Spanish.
Lautaro
learned Spaniards military tactics, since he grew up as Pedro de Valdivia’s
stable boy. Later on he ran away to
rejoin his people.
In
1553 Lautaro led the Mapuches to the Battle of Tucapel, where Valdivia was
killed.
In 1557, while trying to conquer the capital of Santiago, Lautaro was
betrayed by some Indians and lost his life at the Battle of Peteroa together
with 600 other Araucarian. His head was taken to Santiago and impaled at the
Central Square.
Alonso De Ercilla in his epic poem “La Araucana”
exalted Lautaro’s braveness and military tactics.
Caupolican
This Mapuche Indians Chieftain is considered the greatest figure of the
Araucarian resistance to the Spanish settlers.
He defeated Pedro de Valdivia at the Battle of
Tucapel and occupied several cities founded by the Spanish.
He was the only Mapuche Chieftain to receive the
honor of being considered “General Chieftain” of the Araucarian People. At
that time, Indian tribes in Chile were very divided, did not use to fight
together and recognize only one Chief. The most courageous men of each group
were called “Toqui”. When the main Indians Chieftains of the southern
regions realized that the Spanish were threatening them as a whole group, they
decided to designate a “General Toqui”. Caupolican was the chosen one
because of his braveness and force.
Caupolican was captured by the Spanish in 1558 and conducted to Cañeta
where he was impaled in a public square.
Ercilla, besides writing the history of the Araucarian People, mixed
reality and legend in his poems to show to the posterity, the brave and
admirable individual called “Caupolican”.
Galvarino
This Indian Chieftain had one of the most
courageous participation in the process of the Araucarian conquers.
Galvarino’s mutilation: He accepted the punishment
with self-pride. He looked at the chief of the conquerors with arrogance and
showed no fear at the moment of the mutilation. With great dignity he put one of
his arms on the tree trunk and waited calmly for the ax slash. Then, with the
same tranquility, put the other hand to be cut off. Afterwards, defying the
Spanish he put his head on the trunk too. As they did not do it, Galvarino
called them cowards and traitors all those that helped the Spanish and bleeding
to death, he walked back to his people.
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The
Families(1)
The family lives in a very small room, the Indian hut made of wood and
straw. The cognates get together making a “bov”. Men could marry several
times according to their means. The wealthiest (ulmenes) had six or more wives
but, the majority was satisfied with two or three. The disproportion was the
consequence of the wars against neighbors and the number of subdued wives of the
enemy that they would bring home with them.
Like all the other populations in their ascending periods of social
evolution, the araucanos felt the need to breed many children. Besides the women
far from being a burden, they were the fundamental fountains of production. They
cultivated the soil, weaved, some were very skillful potters, and they prepared
with great address furs and leathers.
They knew how to prepare alcoholic beverages too, justifying all the
reunions at home by the proud husband.
The Araucan polygamy was moved by vital economic motives. Differing from
the Mahometan the sexual attraction had relative importance. Many widows
remarried late in life, because they were considered very skillful in different
crafts. Marriage was considered taboo among the members of the same totem; so it
was not permitted the union between direct cognates.
The ceremony had a religious character, it was preceded by a contract
between the bridegroom and the bride’s father, and it generally consisted in
buying the woman and the subterfuge of the bride’s abduction. The bridegroom
together with some friends arrived suddenly to the bride’s house, where
several women protected her. A rude fight took place having the father and other
males of the house as spectators, and generally finished with the abduction of
the girl. If the male assailants were defeated the mockeries would last a long
time.
The religious rite consisted in sacrify a lamb and the spray of its blood,
libations to the ancestor’s spirits and the communion of the assistants with
the meat of the sacrificed animal.
The House
wife
She was the first woman, the “unendomo”, the real owner of the
home, because the next woman recognized her in that position; her oldest son was
considered the primogenital, even though, he was born after the sons of the
other women.
The unendomo was set free when she became a widow, while the other women
were a part of the heritage of the primogenital son,
if he did not exist, they would pass to the oldest brother of the
dead man. It was not usual for a woman to commit adultery, it was punished by
death, extended to the abettor too. Such a rigorous reprisal was not originated
on a moral basis but because of the infringement of a right that was considered
exclusive.
The behavior of the daughters and sisters never really bothered the chief
of the house.
During labor, the woman was considered to be impure and she was secluded
in an ad-hoc hut that was burnt soon after the childbirth. The Araucan woman was
very prolific. Ovalle calculated that in 1642 the average of
four children per married woman.
About the evolution of the religious ideas the Araucan did not
approach close to the abstract conception. For the Mapuche the extension of life
was incarnated by a perfect double, like the shadow, real and intangible. The
other I could become invisible, but it was subject to the same needs and
appetites of the one alive. That is why they buried their dead with the items
belonging to them. The spirits kept their shape and character, because they
would keep on with their familiar and social life in the afterworld.
The double, the spirit, that was born with the body, could abandon
it whenever he wanted dreams, ecstasies and visions, and after death it
separated definitively going through different phases: the “am” and “pulli”.
Sometimes it could appear as a human or animal figure to the relatives and
friends, visiting the cemeteries to survey the funerals; the spirit likes a lot
the gift and sacrifices offered by the kinsmen. When the memories of the
“am” vanish, generally after a year, it happens because the “am” has
gone to the area where it becomes “pulli”.
For the coastal people the residence of the “pullis”was overseas, for
the natives of the cordilleras to the orient of the Andes. There was too another
spirit, a kind of transitory double the “ahué”, it was born from the dead
body; it stays besides of the dead body all the time and it will appear to the
relatives in many ways, through noise, dogs barking, doors closing themselves,
etc. The ahué melted later on with the Spanish superstition of the soul.
These spirits dominated the hidden forces, amongst them, all the
ones from nature, and they could do good or bad to the people. The Araucan
religion is based in worshipping the ancestors, incarnated into”pillian”: an
entity that is not considered a god nor a demon, but a forefather. Every group
and tribe had their” pillian”that according to the prevailing patriarchal or
matriarchal spirit was male or female. From pillion originates both good and
evil, and all its forces and anger could be started by a breach of some taboo or
the insult of a totem, and it will show himself by means of plagues, floodings,
draughts and earthquakes.
The skill to call the goodwill of the pillian originated a kind of
professional of rites, the”voiguevoe”(lord of canelo), an expert on how to
convince the pillian and to fight against the artifices of witches and wizards.
The Araucan supposed that when they joined forces they would make the collective
magics more effective than the individual ones, for that reason they created the
secret esoteric societies with the purpose of preventing mishaps and obtaining
better benefits. The brotherhood of the totem “huenu” o “co” had the
purpose of regulating the rains; the one of the totem “pillian” to resist
against storms, lightning and earthquakes. The “voiguevoe” evolved into
“ngenpin” and “machis”, which are already properly doctors and
fortunetellers.
The araucanos maintained besides the cult of the ancestors, the cult to
other spirits, mostly malevolent: the “huecuve”, a tool for the use of
witches; the “colo-colo”, a sort of basilisk; the “chiquehuecube”, a
sort of fish with nails that assails bathers.
The araucano people were, very religious; the religion was present
in all events and a great influence in the family and political structure, in
spite of been animist and its magical conception of the universe.
