Mapuche

Mapuche
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Mapuche

Some Mapuches: Painter Eduardo Rapiman, a Mapuche girl in silver finery, Mapuche girl in traidtional dress and Ceferino Namuncurá
Total population
ca. 900,000 Many Chileans and Argentinians have some Mapuche ancestry
Regions with significant populations
Chile, Argentina
Chile 604,349 (2002)
[1]
Argentina 113,680 (2004-2005)[2]
Languages
Mapudungun, Spanish
Religion
Christianity (Catholicism and Evangelicalism) adapted to traditional beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Picunche, Huilliche, Chileans, Benei Sión
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious andeconomic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence once extended between the Aconcagua River and Chiloé Archipelago and spread later eastward to the Argentine pampa. The Mapuche make up about 4% of the Chilean population,[3] and are particularly concentrated in Araucanía and are due to emigration also numerous in Santiago.
The term Mapuche can refer to the whole group ofPicunches (people of the north), Huilliches (people of the South) and Moluche or Nguluche from Araucanía, or exclusively to the Moluche or Nguluche from Araucanía. The Mapuche traditional economy is based on agriculture; their traditional social organisation consists of extended families, under the direction of a "lonko" or chief, although in times of war they would unite in larger groupings andelect a toqui (from Mapudungun toki "axe, axe-bearer") to lead them.
The Araucanian Mapuche inhabited at the time of Spanish arrival the valleys between the Itata and Toltén rivers, south of it as did the Huilliche and the Cuncos lived as far south as the Chiloé Archipelago. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Mapuche groups migrated eastward into the Andes and pampas, fusing and establishingrelationships with the Poyas and Pehuenche. At about the same time, ethnic groups of the pampa regions, the Puelche, Ranqueles and northern Aonikenk, made contact with Mapuche groups. The Tehuelche adopted the Mapuche language and some of their culture in what came to be called Araucanization.
Historically Mapuches were known as Araucanians (araucanos) by the Spanish colonizers of South America.However, this term is now mostly considered pejorative[4] by some people. The Quechua word awqa "rebel, enemy", is probably not the root of araucano: the latter is more likely derived from the placename rag ko (Spanish Arauco) "clayey water".[5][6]
While some Mapuches mingled with Spanish during colonial times, giving origin to a large group of mestizos in Chile, Mapuche society in Araucanía andPatagonia remained independent until the Chilean Occupation of Araucanía and the Argentine Conquest of the Desert in late 19th century. Since then Mapuches have become subjects and then nationals and citizens of the respective states. Today, many Mapuche and Mapuche communities are engaged in the so-called Mapuche conflict over land and indigenous rights both in Argentina and in Chile.
Contents[hide]
1 History
1.1 Pre-Hispanic times
1.2 War of Arauco
1.3 Occupation of the Araucanía
1.4 Recent history
1.4.1 Modern conflict
2 Culture
2.1 Mapuche languages
2.2 Cosmology and beliefs
2.3 Textiles
3 Mapuches, Chileans and the Chilean state
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
[edit]History

[edit]Pre-Hispanic times


Huamán Poma de Ayala'spicture of the confrontation between the Mapuches (left) and the Incas (right)


Mapuche flag at the time of arrival of the Spanish.[citation needed]


Mapuches during a malón raid
The origin of the Mapuche is not clear and there is no consensus on the linguistic affiliation of their language.[7] Croese (1989, 1991) has advanced the hypothesis that it is related to Arawak. Reports in 2007...