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Visions and Divisions in Pehuenche Life Cristóbal Bonelli Iglesias PhD in Social Anthropology The University of Edinburgh 2012 Declaration This thesis has been entirely composed by me, Cristobal Bonelli Iglesias. All work is entirely my own, and it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification, unless otherwise specified. Signature: Date: 2 Abstract This work is based upon fieldwork carried out among indigenous Pehuenche people living in the Andes in Southern Chile. It is an ethnographic investigation of the relations between Pehuenche vision and healing practices in different local settings. The first part of this thesis focuses on Pehuenche vision from a cosmo-political angle. In order to set the scene for my overall argument, I explore the constitutive relation between mutual vision among real people (Ch. che ) and the emergence of the Pehuenche person, which I call the ‘dynamic personal composition.’ With mutual vision between people being a precondition for the emergence of social relations, I examine the experience of particular witchcraft actions in which mutual vision is not possible. This leads to the conceptualization of ‘unilateral vision’ as a key phenomenon associated with the emergence of illnesses and the alteration of the shared plane of Pehuenche visibility. I also explore how mutual vision can be restored only through the assemblage of particular visual capacities known in the vernacular as ‘the gift of vision.’ In the second part of the thesis, I analyze the ways in which public health services respond to particular illnesses not detectable or treatable by medical technicians. In particular, I focus on the implications of ‘the visualization of traditional healers,’ inherent in the State’s approach to intercultural health. Through the examination of both particular intercultural health projects, as well as local expressions of discontent and animosity towards the State, this thesis seeks to create awareness about the ontological relevance of mutual vision in relations among real people. By pointing out the equivocal understandings of the visible and the invisible domains within intercultural relations, the analysis as a whole seeks to explain why Pehuenche vision must be understood through ontological examination rather than through a multicultural approach. 3 Contents List of figures … 8 Acknowledgements … 9 Introduction … 14 1. Field site and methods … 16 1.1 Methodological notes … 19 2. Historical background … 25 2.1 Some historical considerations of Mapuche people … 25 2.2 Some historical considerations of Pehuenche people … 28 2.3 The current situation of Pehuenche people … 35 3. The place of this research … 38 3.1 The sick body in Mapuche literature … 38 3.2 Mapuche literature in context … 40 3.3 Global anthropological concerns and the place of this thesis … 41 3.4 The place of this thesis within reflections on Amerindian intercultural health … 43 3.5 Incommensurability and political ontology … 45 3.6 Vision … 46 4. The organization of this thesis … 48 4 PART I: Cosmo-politics of Pehuenche Vision … 52 Chapter 1: On People and Mutual Vision … 53 1.1 Pehuenche personal composition … 55 1.1.1 Personal dislocation and grammar … 62 1.2 Human capacities: on am and ngen … 66 1.2.1 On am , ngen and residence … 68 1.2.2 From am to witranalwe : an impersonal dislocation … 74 1.3 A final comment: on greetings and vision … 79 Chapter 2: On Unilateral Vision and Nocturnal Visitors … 83 2.1 Witchcraft and modernity: a brief theoretical framework … 84 2.2 Equivocal sleep disorders … 86 2.2.1 Multicultural nightmare … 92 2.3 Nguken as unilateral vision … 95 2.3.1 Symptoms: sick from visions … 98 4.4 Antisocial visual perception … 102 2.4.1 Motivation for nguken : eating blood … 106 2.5 Conclusions … 112 Chapter 3: The Gift of Vision: Healing practices as cosmo-activism … 113 3.1 Healing practices as kinship protection: a theoretical framework … 114 3.2 Dealing with predators through the gift of vision: The case of evangelical practices … 117 5 3.2.1 La vigilia: The anointment performance and its cosmo-political significance … 118 3.2.2 Relational spiritual safety … 122 3.2.3 Relational spiritual vision … 123 3.2.4 The gift of vision: Assembling gazes for detachment … 125 3.2.5 The relevance of the pastor’s corporeal support as an instrument ... 128 3.3 Dealing with predators through the gift of vision: The case of lawentuncheve … 130 3.3.1 The gift of vision of the lawentuncheve … 131 3.3.2 Pelontun willen … 133 3.3.3 Spiritual relatedness … 135 3.3.4 Fluid invisibilities: Procedures to make them visible … 136 3.3.5 Screening human intentionality … 138 3.4 Conclusions … 142 PART II: Political vision and divisions … 146 Chapter 4: The Cultural Vision of the State: Reflections on intercultural illuminations … 147 4.1 . ‘And where is ‘the Origin’’? … 148 4.2 The invention of an intercultural visibility … 151 4.2.1 From visible bodies to visible paths … 158 4.3 Culture as Mind: Risky abstractions of intercultural illuminations … 167 4.4 Conclusions … 173 6 Chapter 5: The Unproductive and Blind Sociality of the State and its Local Contentions … 175 5.1 Veranadas … 176 5.2 A shaman visualized … 182 5.3 Blind sociality … 189 5.4 Conclusions … 201 Final Conclusions … 203 Bibliography … 209 7 List of Figures Figure 1. Map of the Bío Bío region, Bío Bío province, and the district of Bío Bío … 17 Figure 2. Map of the district of Alto Bío Bío … 18 Figure 3. Map of Pitril in the district of Alto Bío Bío … 23 Figure 4. Protocols of referral … 159 Figure 5. Veranadas Cochico … 179 Figure 6. Machi Juana in a Chilean newspaper … 182 Figure 7. Machi Juana at her home … 183 Figures 8 & 9. The former renü or the Pinochet Stone … 205/6 8 Acknowledgments Around fifty years ago, Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story about an ethnographer who, after having finished his fieldwork, decided to give up academia, leaving his ethnography unwritten: what the man had learned out in the field could not be expressed with academic language whatsoever. During his fieldwork, Borges’ ethnographer had actually discovered the secret of the people he lived with, however he believed that this was not nearly as important as the paths that led him to it. In my own story as ethnographer there is no secret to be told, since for the Pehuenche themselves the mysteries of life are huge and by definition not knowable in their entirety. Many times during these last four years I have found myself doubting whether or not I should write up my ethnography. Like a troublesome spiritual visitor, this hesitation appeared every time I came to realize the huge gap existing between the world of academia and its language games, and the daily life of the Pehuenche people. If it were not for the caring insistence of friends and colleagues who encouraged me and convinced me that my story with the Pehuenche was worthwhile to be told, this dissertation would never have been written. This entire doctoral project was only possible thanks to the economic support of the Chilean Government, through its Beca Chile scholarship. It goes without saying that without all the people I met in Bío Bío, this project would also not have been possible. In Pitril, I would like to offer special thanks to Narciso Vita Gallina. Most of what I learned about Pehuenche life I learned from Narciso. Special thanks to Maria Luisa Vita Gallina, Narciso Gallina Sepúlveda, Gloria Vita Vita, Jorge Gallina Llaulen, Fernando Llaulen Rapi, Lorenzo Llaulen Rapi, Fermín Vita Curriao, Eduardo Vita Gallina, Guillermo Llaulen Vita, Sandra Vita Vita, Luis Vita Vita, Carlita 9 Vita Cifuentes, Corina Llaulen Vita and Silvia Urrutia Vita. I am infinitely grateful to my host family in Pitril, who still evokes in me feelings of love and care. I give my thanks to every single member of that family for those unforgettable days and nights spent in Pitril. I am also immensely grateful to Nolfa Pavián Montre, since without her strength, support, and wisdom, this experience would not have made any sense. I am equally grateful to many friends in other parts of Alto Bío Bío. In particular, I am in debt with Angel Ancanao Quintana, Manuel Pichinao Beltrán, María Suarez Huincaman, Rupertina Huincaman Milla, Juana Beltrán Pellao, José Felidor Tranimil Manquepi, Laura Porteño Maripil, Donata Pavián Montre, Corina Pavián Almendras, José Milla Maripil, Jonathan Burgos Pavián, Francisco Quepil Naupa and Felipe Curriao Campos. All of the kimun -wisdom- Pehuenche people shared with me is invaluable, however as a sign of thanks I must mention here what has been for me a simple and true, but significant revelation. For the Pehuenche it is an ethical imperative to pay careful attention to the ways we speak, the words we use, and the tone of our utterances in order to avoid causing harm to other people with our speech.