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Mapucha Women and Traditional Health

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Mapucha Women and Traditional Health lndi^enou& women Mapucha women and traditional health 6y Victor Toledo Uanca<\ueo T he importance of| who is the Mapuche Shaman. The Machi is a women in the development woman who is aided in rituals by a male of Mapuche society has been translator. (When the Machi is a man, he has recognized in relation to her openly feminine characteristics.) This duality role in the peasant economy corresponds to the dual characteristics of and as the role guardian of Ngenechen (Dominator of men), the greatest Mapuche culture. Mapuche divinity. The Machi, who plays a Mapuche women play mediating role between her people and the a key role in the health of divine, ritually combats evil. theircommunities for the rea• One of the most frequent forms in which sons cited above. The evil is manifest in the Mapuche family is Mapuche medical systems, adapted to the physical through illness. Disease is viewed beyond its natural characteristics of the community and its environs, has causes as a sign of something greater and more an• been a factor in Mapuche survival in the face of many guishing whose interpretation and destruction require mortal onslaughts throughout its history including the all family members and natural resources. The cause bacteriologist invasion brought by Spaniards in the could be an intentionally evil act performed by some• 16th century. one who sought the help of a witch (kalku) or spirit In the Mapuche world view, health and sickness (wekufe). belong to the sacred world, to the struggle between the The resurgence of evil in the orm of illness forces of good and evil. This is the principle behind occurs when the soul and body are . harmoniously Mapuche medicine, and experiences of health, sick• integrated, producing a drop in ph> ,al alertness that ness and healing are thus considered in relation to all is filled by evil spirits. The sup .atural cause of aspects of daily life. disease is the principal etiology (the y of the causes of In health, women and female spirits occupy a disease) of Mapuche medicine, lu, diagnosis relies key place in both the human sphere and the supernatu• upon a highly elaborated, semiology (system of iden• ral one. In daily life, Mapuche women possess exten• tifying and interpreting disease) of magical and reli• sive knowledge of the medicinal herbs that contain gious nature. The dreams of the sick person and her or natural and positive supernatural energies (ngelawen). his family are treated as an important symptom. These They possess broad botanical knowledge regarding dreams (peurna) announce future events and misfor• types of plants, Uiermal waters, stones and animal tunes. An expert interpreter of dreams, the Machi also organs. examines the sick person's urine, clothing (pewutm) This common knowledge, transmitted orally and other signs. from mother to daughter over generations, is a key With the diagnosis comes a proposed therapy, factor for every Mapuche family that must combat bad either herbal, in the case of natural illnesses, or ritual- spirits with the positive ones found in nature. magical-empirical, in the case of supernatural ones. Specialized and sacred knowledge resides in the The latter is sh".manistic, and its principal rituals are person of the Machi, the feminine-masculine figure the ulutun and the datum. The ulutun is a simple Isis International Women In Action 2/92 23 Indl^enoue women ceremony for minor diseases. The datum is a complex the developed countries. Contrary to the World Health and extensive ceremony for the treatment of serious Organization's 1978 Alma Alta conference, which diseases, in which the Machi, accompanied by helpers, recommended the maximum possible use of popular dances, sings, beats the kultrm and goes into trance. knowledge in primary health care, Chile has experi• This is the moment when her soul, aided by helpful enced true "symbolic violence" against popular medi• spirits, combats the forces of evil. In these ceremonies, cines. On the other hand, the Mapuche medical system the Machi also makes use of a complete hierarchy of faces challenges from the deterioration of the herbs (lawen). As the intermediary between humans, commuinity's natural environs and increasing com• gods and ancestral spirits, the Machi focuses her plexity in causes of death. therapeutic action in expelling evil spirits and replac• Today, the Mapuche community seeks huinca ing them with beneficient spirits. In this way, the public health services and medical technology in greater patient recovers her or his psychic-physical equilib• numbers and with greater urgency. At the same Ume, rium. community members feel that the evil spirits treat• In the 1950s three factors contributed to the ments are on the rise. This would appear to be a coexistence of medical systems that prevail today: convenient form of coexistence, except for the fact that increased presence of national health services; the Mapuche are growing steadily more dependent on the economic and social crisis that sparked widespread public services that discredit traditional ones but are emigration; and irreparable environmental changes. incapable of either meeting Mapuche health needs or The latter two factors are seen in the scarcity of halting environmental degradation. food and exhaustion of natural resources. This forces The paradox is that the health problems that the community into greater reliance on huinca (non- most affect the future development of the Mapuche Mapuche) medicine, despite the fact that illness is still affect its women, the guardians and teachers of tradi• approached through traditional cultural parameters. tional health knowledge. This "symbolic violence" The sick person now seeks both modem medical and expropriation of health are specific gender con• technology and the rituals-symbolic treatments of the cerns. New health programs for the Mapuche must not Machi and her herbs. This feminine knowledge per• only foster adequate interaction between the two health sists in both symbolic and prosaic ways. The 1960s systems but also rehabilitate existing cultural resources saw isolated cases of explicit collaboration between by including this traditional medicine and gender these two medical systems in regional health services. dimension. This coexistence, however, has experienced changes in the past 15 years that could have a negative effect on the Mapuche people. On the one hand, the official medical system is rapidly modernizing, bring• Source: Women's Health Journal, 1/92. Isis ing specialization, high technology and echoes of the Intemacional, Casilla 2067, Correo Central, San• same charges of alienation first heard in the 1970s in tiago, Chile. 24 Isis \nterryational Women In Action 2/92 .
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