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CHAPTER 2. The Ambiguous Powers of Machi: Illness, Awingkamiento, and the Modernization of Witchcraft
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CHAPTER 2 The Ambiguous Powers of Machi: Illness, Awingkamiento, and the Modernization of Witchcraft “That place is charged with witchcraft,” Machi Pamela said as I drove her through the lush green countryside to the lakeside tourist town of Rukalikan, where the paved road ended. It was February 1995, and we were on our way to the home of Segundo and his family, whom Pamela believed had been hexed by a kalku, or witch. “The old kalku from the top of the hill envies them because Segundo got more land,” she explained. She catalogued the family’s afflictions for me: The house creaks and the dogs bark because of the witchcraft. They have bad luck. They saw evil cherrufe spirits [fireballs] dancing on the path. A bruja [witch] put a small coffin full of feathers in the outhouse and earth from the cemetery on their threshold so that they would die. Segundo’s wife died. The witch made Segundo deaf. He cries all the time . . . The kalku threw putrid dogs’ legs on the wheat fields to make them barren. Anita [Segundo’s younger daughter] is hexed. She runs to the woods like an animal and rubs her hands together. No one will marry her. Carmen [the elder daughter] cannot think, because the evil has possessed her head. Her urine is black with evil. Joaquín [the youngest son] . . . wants to be like a wingka [a non-Mapuche Chilean], and he is ill. The bruja wants them all to die so that she can get the land. Mapuche people call on machi to heal them of many forms of illness, both natural and spiritual in origin, and they believe witchcraft to be a prime cause of illness and misfortune. In modern Chile, where Mapuche feel increasingly alienated and experience conflicts and jealousy over growing economic inequalities, accusations of witchcraft are on the rise. Machi are in unprecedented demand to heal witchcraft-related illnesses. As an- 18 Shamans of the Foye Tree other machi, Rocío, explained: “Some Mapuche are wealthy and others are poor. The envy and gossip are so great that all I do is cure people of witchcraft.” Mapuche hire machi such as Rocío and Pamela to counteract kalkutun (witchcraft by kalku) or wekufetun (witchcraft by evil spirits known as wekufe) and regain control over their lives. Machi conduct all-night datun healing rituals to cure patients of a variety of witchcraft-related and other kinds of illnesses. They usually induce trance through the auditory stimulation of rhythmic drumming, and they gain knowledge from spirits and deities. They pray, give their patients massages and enemas, perform smoke exorcisms, prescribe herbal remedies for the patient to drink or use as poultices, and give advice about social relationships. The roots of these rituals are ancient, but machi today thrive as they engage with contemporary concerns and incorporate into their spiritual practices the knowledge and symbols of Catholicism and the national medical and political systems, transforming and resignifying them in the process. Besides curing the effects of witchcraft, they cure soul loss and evil-spirit possession, abate divine punishments, and provide antibiotics . They treat insomnia, stress, and depression, and they legitimate the Mapuche’s political struggles for land recovery and sovereignty. Shamans mediate between the human and spirit worlds, female and male gender identities, and discourses about good and evil, tradition, and modernity. In this chapter I begin and end with witchcraft, not only because machi find it such an important part of their healing work but also because, as we will see, Mapuche view machi and witches as not entirely different from each other. The powers of both arise from complementary forces of good and evil in a dual universe, and machi are thought to be capable of using their powers for ill as well as for good. Along the way, I describe how spirits call certain people to vocations as machi healers and how machi diagnose natural and spiritual illnesses. A Datun for Witchcraft From Rukalikan, Pamela and I continued along narrow dirt roads to the Mapuche community of Tren-tren filu, where the dirt road ended, too. Before the trip Pamela had surprised me by saying about Segundo’s family: “I am going to heal them, and I need you to come as my ritual assistant.” I was hesitant to accept. I had grown close to Pamela since our first [52.86.227.103] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:52 GMT) The Ambiguous Powers of Machi 19 meeting...