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Chapter Reference: The Encounter; Colonial Crucible; Postcolonial Blues; Progress; Neocolonialism
South America's southern cone had indigenous populations when the Spanish arrived. Because they were not sedentary, however, colonization marginalized the indigenous people of the far south rather than incorporating them. The Mapuches of Chile, famous in the Spanish-speaking world since the Spanish poet Alonzo de Ercilla chronicled the Spanish encounter with them in the 1500s, were one such group. The Tehuelches, a related group, lived across the Andes in Argentina. In fact, the name Araucanos refers to a culture that spanned the rugged, snow-bound Andes of the far south. The Araucanos expanded their trans-Andean influence in the early 1800s under the leadership of Calfurucá, who dealt with the caudillo Rosas. The Argentine frontier in the 1860s and 1870s was in some ways similar to the Great Plains of the United States at the same time, with cavalry forces manning forts against mounted indigenous war parties. In Chile, the Araucano frontier was long stabilized along the Bio Bio River. Both Argentina and Chile finally subjugated Araucano populations militarily at the end of the nineteenth century. Today, the modern Araucanos, like the Mapuches, remain on the margins of national life. A paper on Araucanos could look at key moments of social transition, first through the encounter with Spaniards during the colonial period, then with the expansion of the frontier in Argentina and Chile, and lastly during the twentieth century.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- How did the encounter between Mapuches and Spaniards during the colonial period differ from that of other indigenous inhabitants of the Andes farther north? How did Mapuche social structure affect their relationship and the reaction of Spaniards?
- How did the Argentine and Chilean states justify the expansion—through military force—of the frontier in Indian territory in the nineteenth century? How does this story fit into the larger context of Latin American history during the neocolonial moment?
- Araucano populations remain on the edges of national life today, but they constitute an important image in the national imagination of Chile especially. What part have they played in the construction of Chilean identity?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Faron, Louis C. Hawks of the Sun: Mapuche Morality and Its Ritual Attributes. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964.
This monograph will be of interest to students exploring themes like Mapuche beliefs in the supernatural, death and fertility rites, and symbolic values in Mapuche society.
** ________. The Mapuche Indians of Chile. Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology. New
York: Hold, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Though dated, this book is a concise synthetic overview of Mapuche society.
Hilger, M. Inez. Huenun Ñamku: An Araucanian Indian of the Andes Remembers the Past.
Preface by Margaret Mead. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.
Hilger presents an interesting firsthand account of Araucanian ways of life as they were related to her by an older Araucanian.
** Jones, Kristine L. "Calfucurá and Namuncurá: Nation Builders of the Pampas." In Ewell
and Judith Ewell and William H. Beezley, eds., The Human Tradition in Latin
America: The Nineteenth Century. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1989.
175-86.
** Mansilla, Lucio V. An Expedition to the Ranquel Indians. Translated by Mark McCaffrey.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
Students will enjoy this engaging and humorous account of travels to the lands of the Ranquel Indians on the frontier in Argentina, conversations with Ranquel leaders, and observations of Ranquel society. Lucio Mansilla was a relative of Rosas.
Other Resources:
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