Orality as a Mode of Thought and Existence among the Mapuche

投稿日: 2012/04/21 12:14:30

Key Words: Mapuche, orality, ceremonial dialogue, dream, existence

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Among the Mapuche of Southern Chile, the importance of the oral mode of communication is immediately perceptible because of their highly developed system of ceremonial dialogue (ngütramkan). In this article, I survey the anthropological problems implied by Mapuche orality on the basis of ethnographic data gathered near Lake Calafquén in 1990-1992. Concretely, I will show how their ceremonial dialogue intimately unites oral traditions, dreams and rituals, and thus, crossing the central parts of their traditional sociocultural practices, means for many of them the very practice that gives shape to their traditional mode of thought and existence. Another intention of this article, along with these ethnographic discussions, is to characterize their oral mode of thought and existence by contrasting it with Platonism and modern subjectivity, mostly inspired by E. A. Havelock's classic Preface to Plato. This second aspect of the article will help to apprehend from an ontological level the actual problem of the existence of contemporary Mapuche-an ethnic minority in the Chilean state, modern and basically Western-most of whom are obliged to fluctuate between two conflicting cultures.