Renouncing Shamanistic Practice:

The Conflict of Individual and Culture

Experienced by a Mapuche Machi
Ana Mariella Bacigalupo
Departamento de Antropologia
Universidad de Chile, Piedra Roja 1111
Los Dominicos, Las Condes—Santiago, Chile
mariella@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu

Abstract
This article analyzes the conflict between traditional beliefs, cultural roles, and
the search for individuality through the study of Fresia, a young Mapuche woman
who renounced shamanistic practice. Her case demonstrates that the social
transmission of traditional beliefs and symbols is not in itself enough to ensure the
commitment of shaman/healers who must also internalize their cultural beliefs and
attach personal meaning to them through their dreams, visions, and ritual practices.
If this does not occur, as in Fresia's case, individuality emerges and may contradict
ideal cultural representations even in contexts such as that of the Mapuche where
the concept of the person is inextricably bound up with one's role in the social system.

Introduction
This article analyzes the case of a young female shaman/healer who was torn
between the cultural role of machi assigned to her by Mapuche society and her own
personal desires and motivations. It discusses the delicate balance between personal
and cultural factors seen through the experience of Fresia, a woman trapped between
traditional beliefs and her individuality, victim of a culture in transition.
Fresia was 13 when she had dreams and illnesses that led her family and
community to believe she was a machi. But three years after her initiation, she
uprooted her altar, buried her machi attire and drum, and fled to the city to become
a maid. Fresia faced a personal conflict in trying to fulfill the expectations of her
family and community because she had not internalized their traditions and beliefs.
Unable to resolve the conflict, she chose to escape.
Working with machis among the Mapuche in the Araucanian region of southern
Chile in 1991 and 1992,1 found that many of them are adapting their traditional roles
to new circumstances, while still continuing to be machis. But they remain motivated,
proud and self-righteous individuals who have faith in their abilities and their
profession. Cases ofmachis abandoning their profession are exceptional. Furthermore,
like many other non-Western societies (Watson 1989), the Mapuche identify
individuals according to their social role and its connection with social structure and
kinship. Fresia's search for personal freedom and autonomy is at variance with
traditional Mapuche concepts and with the anthropological view that individuality
cannot emerge in a social and cultural context where the concept of the person is
Anthropology of Consciousness 6(3):1-16. Copyright © 1995, American Anthropological Associati
1
2 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)]

bound up inextricably with their role and the social system (Mauss 1984, Watson
1989).
Traditional heritage is acquired by individuals through social transmission
rather than constructed by them from personal experience. Fresia's case demonstrates
that individual behavior and experience may in fact run counter to, or contradict,
ideal cultural representations, as Spiro (1984), Howard (1985) and Holtan (1988)
have indicated. When studying people in another culture, we should not over-
emphasize the ideal/typical and normative aspects and include "person-centered
ethnographies" (Levine 1982, Hollan and Wellenkamp 1994) to see how individuals
actually "live" their culture. Fresia's case relates to life histories of women presented
by Shostak (1981) and Watson (1989), who obtain some measure of autonomy and
freedom despite patriarchal values and institutions. It also relates closely to the
extreme case presented by Crapanzano (1980) of Tuhami in Morocco. Like Tuhami,
Fresia's childhood and adolescence exposed her very much to the conflict between
traditional values and a modern lifestyle. She is also possessed by traditional symbols,
and is unable to use them to resolve her own personal conflict Unlike Tuhami though,
Fresia is finally able to overcome her ambiguity and passivity by breaking away.
Fresia's case demonstrates that machis and shaman/healers in general need to
have personal experiences that enact and reinforce the cultural traditions they have
learned formally. This is the way they become convinced of their powers and ability
to help others. Their individual thoughts, motivations and emotions are closely tied
to their professional performance. Shaman/healers need to participate in the discursive
process of cultural maintenance and change. This is what Obeyesekere (1981:77)
calls "objectification," the expression of private emotions in a public idiom.
The material included in this case study combines observations on Fresia's social
and cultural surroundings, made over the period of a year, and excerpts from open
interviews in an effort to construct the subjective experience of her life history.
Because of the uniqueness of this case, I ground Fresia's experience in Mapuche
cultural belief and practice while also presenting her personal conflict. The purpose
of this is to evoke both cultural and personal meaning.
In the first part of this article I introduce the Mapuche ethnographic setting, the
role of machis, and their basic characteristics. In the second part, I present the case
study of Fresia and the elements of her life history, personality and form of machi
practice that led to her escape.

The Mapuche
The Mapuche of southern Chile are one of South America's largest contemp-
orary indigenous populations, estimated to be between 400,000 and 700,000 in
number, who maintain a strong sense of ethnic identity. They resisted the Inca
expansion and for four centuries fought back the Spanish and Chileans, but finally
succumbed to the imposition of the reservation system in 1884. The term "Mapuche"
means "people of the land." They continue to speak their own language, Mapudungu.
They are a kinship-based society headed by lineage heads, or lonkos, and reservation
chiefs called caciques. The patrilineal principle governs descent, residence rules,
inheritance, and succession. Their livelihood consists mainly of sedentary farming.
To supplement their income men engage in wage labor. Women occasionally sell
September 1995 Renouncing Shamanistic Practice 3

textiles, fruits and vegetables in the city market and sometimes work as domestic
maids. Women are valued for their work on the land, domestic activities and
childbearing. Unlike men they do not hold positions of power or practice politics.
Traditional knowledge of medicinal herbs and healing is largely a matter for women.
Most machis and kalkus or sorcerer/witches are women. The Mapuche have a
dualistic worldview where rituals serve to maintain a balance between good and evil
forces but do not seek a predominance of either.

Machis in Mapuche Society

Macks are the intermediaries between the Mapuche and the supernatural. They
possess power given to them by familiar spirits which they use to combat evil forces
and to propitiate ancestral spirits, the Mapuche deity Nguenechen, and minor deities
that give machis power, particularly the fertility gods kuyen (the moon) and wunelfe
(the morning star). Machis usually obtain their spirits from deceased machis on their
mother's side of the family or obtain them spontaneously through perrimontun
(visions) or during catastrophic events such as earthquakes and deluges.
Machis are called forth through chronic illnesses called machi-kutran, dreams
about their machi paraphernalia and herbal remedies. Most young machis now go
through a training period with a master machi who teaches them songs, prayers,
techniques for entering altered states of consciousness (ASC) and the use of
medicinal herbs. The neophyte is initiated by her master and two or three other
machis from their corporate group who "cure" her in a similar manner to the machitun
curing rituals that machis perform for ordinary people. After this, machis periodically
renew their powers every four to six years in a ceremony called Ngeuikurrewen which
is almost identical to the machi's initiation ceremony (Machiluwun) and serves to
maintain ties with the other machis of the group.
A machi's paraphernalia is very similar to that of Siberian shamans.1 It consists
of a personal altar called rewe, a step-notched pole which the machi ascends while in
ASC to communicate with the vertical cosmos, deities and spirits. Sometimes the
machi carves the face of her familiar spirit on the top of herrewe. The machi's kultrun
or ritual drum represents the horizontal cosmos and depicts moons, stars (both with
a positive connotation) or suns (with an ambivalent connotation) and are usually
painted blue, white (with a positive connotation) and/or red (with an ambivalent
connotation). Machis induce ASC through rhythmical drumming on their kultrun
and must have a helper and an interpreter or dungumachife to translate what she says
while she is in ASC.
Today, machis perform machitun rituals and several other rituals to cure super-
natural illnesses such as wekufetun or possession by an evil spirit and kalkutun or evil
sent by a kalku through exorcisms, massaging and herbal remedies. They also cure
various types of natural illnesses. In addition, some machis have begun to perform
love and luck rituals and have adapted to the needs of non-Mapuche patients.
Because the nguenpin, or ritual priests, are losing their traditional knowledge, machis
are now also officiating as priestesses in collective nguiUatun rituals where they
petition Nguenechen for greater agricultural yield, herd and progeny and to protect
the community from crisis situations.
Machis are usually strongly motivated, self-controlled and self-righteous
4 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)]

individuals who possess inter-personal skills, special qualities and personal abilities.
They must be both physically and emotionally strong in order to withstand spirit
attacks and stress. Modus usually belong to traditional families and have been
socialized into Mapuche beliefs and herbal knowledge. Machis are deeply involved
with their professional role and this takes precedence over their family obligations.
They must have faith in Mapuche beliefs and in their own abilities in order to be able
to cure others.
A growing number of machis are adapting to the needs and desires of huincas
(non-Mapuches), and increase their income and prestige as a result. Simultaneously,
they maintain local traditions and beliefs and keep the faith of their Mapuche
patients. Success in both worlds lies in their ability to switch from one to another.
Some machis incorporate foreign elements which serve to reinforce Mapuche
symbols or give them more prestige among their clients. Machis are now specializing
in curing "super-naturally induced" illnesses and leaving serious "natural" ailments
(operations, broken limbs, and illnesses which require western medication) to
western doctors who are more efficient in curing them. They incorporate many
huincas among their clients through their holistic curing. Some machis advertise
themselves on the Bahai Radio station, perform for tourists and allow themselves to
be filmed and photographed for a fee. Many of them incorporate Catholic elements
like the concept of God, the cross and the virgin in order to convince their Catholic
patients. They also use these same elements to reinforce the Mapuche concepts of
Nguenechen the Mapuche deity, his wife Nuke Papai and the nguillatuwe (collective
altar).
Despite these changes, machis do not lead spiritual tours for foreigners or try to
teach to teach huincas how to acquire a higher consciousness as Joralemon (1990) has
observed some Peruvian shaman/healers do. Machis expand their healing spectrum
to include non-Mapuches as clients for divinations, counseling, and love and luck
rituals, and as patients who suffer psycho-somatic diseases. Simultaneously, Western
medicine limits the type of curing machis can perform by proving to be more efficient
in healing "natural" ailments. Although machis who are too money-minded in
handling their patients are criticized, this does not affect their reputation as
supernatural curers.
As long as the Mapuche believe in machis and feel that their rituals and
treatments are effective, we cannot question their authenticity or reliability. Machis
are authentic as long as Mapuche people go to them as clients and patients. I agree
with Joralemon (1990 114) in that we cannot judge shaman/healers according to
whether they are "representative" or not. Every machi uses cultural symbols in a
particular way and may be believable even though he/she is at variance with other
machis. It is only when machis are no longer credible within the Mapuche cultural
context and loose their patients, that authenticity becomes an issue. Such is the case
of Fresia, the woman who abandoned machi practice.

The Case Study

Fresia was 20 years old, single and already a machi when I met her. She was living
with her mother, father and younger brother, who were semi-acculturated Mapuches
in a rural community near the town of Freire. Fresia was a robust girl with slightly
September 1995 Renouncing Shamardstic Practice 5

occidental features. When I first saw her she was recovering from an appendix and
ovary operation. Despite her convalescent state, she was dressed in full machi attire.2
I always got the feeling she was hiding behind a costume. As Fresia looked on, her
mother told me of the numerous natural and supernatural illnesses she had had. Most
of these were considered forms of machi-Jcutran illnesses which showed that she had
inherited her grandmother's machi spirit and her paternal grandfather's nguenpin
spirit. Fresia was therefore expected to be powerful both in curing and in performing
priestly roles. "The night I was born there was a full moon, I was born at five in the
morning, at the hour machis pray, at the hour the nguillatun starts. It was just a matter
of time before I became a machi," Fresia said.
At home, Fresia appeared to be a shy and obedient girl who acted very young for
her age and was complacent towards the needs of others. Her other side was that of
a restless and strongly-willed woman who wanted to decide her own future. She
switched from one mode to another and often found herself trying to explain and
justify her rebellious behavior. When she escaped to the city for the first time, for
example, she later told her parents that she had gone crazy and did not know what
she was doing. Although Fresia formally accepted the norms established for machis
by society and by her mother, she often behaved contrary to them. Her statements
and dress varied according to whether she was trying to act out cultural ideals in the
presence of other people or whether she was speaking for herself when we were alone.
Fresia liked the attention of an interview situation. She sometimes talked about
herself in terms of ideal machi behavior and lied when she didn't live up to them. For
example, to backup her initial statement that she was a powerful machi, Fresia told
me that she had a consulting room in the city where she saw her patients. At other
times, she told me that she had no motivations to be a machi at all. These
contradictions indicated that Fresia had an ongoing conflict with her culturally
assigned role.
Her family lived in a small wood house on a plot of land which they shared with
Clara, Fresia's paternal aunt, and her paternal grandmother. They had a vegetable
and fruit garden and a small field where they planted wheat. Fresia's father and
younger brother Pablo worked for a wealthy Chilean farmer nearby. Her older
brother, Rene worked in Argentina. Fresia is her father's favorite. He bought her
sweets in the city and did not like her to work. Fresia said that she was her parents'
only child as both her other brothers were from different fathers. I never knew
whether this was true or not, as they were all legally recognized under the father's
name.
Fresia's reuie was a thick step-notched pole made from laurel wood. The route's
face was carved on the opposite side from the stairs so that when Fresia prayed, both
she and her carved spirit's face would be looking east while she had her back to the
house entrance. Fresia had two large blue and white flags on the sides, and kept
offerings of mudai (a non-alcoholic beverage made from maize) on the steps in her
ketru metawe vessel3. Her kultrun was painted with red and blue lines and had two red
suns and two blue stars in each quadrant. Both her rewe and her kultrun drum were
exact copies of those of machi Sergio who trained and initiated her.
Fresia describes her childhood as a very happy time of her life when she had
plenty of affection and attention, and no responsibilities:
6 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)]

I was all laughter. I did not like to wear skirts but pants, and ride my bike;
my life was just fun. My brothers would play with me, grab hold of my
clothes and pull me. When we sat down to lunch, I always sat between my
father and my mother and when they went anywhere they would always
take me because I was the only girl. No one hit or yelled at me. I could just
play. I never had to work and when there were parties I was always the first
to go.
Until the age of 13 she was brought up by her aunt Clara who lived next door.
Fresia said, "Until I was 12, we slept together in the same bed and I would hold on
to her ear so that she would not leave me sleeping alone." Fresia is still very close to
Clara and calls her "Mom." She is Fresia's main confident and best friend. Fresia
went to live with her aunt because her mother could not handle both her and her
newborn brother. She resents her mother's lack of attention when she was a child.
Fresia was particularly hurt when both her mother, Dominga, and her father, Alvaro,
were absent one Christmas when he was being treated for wekufetun (evil spirit
possession) by machi Leonor.
I missed my father. We cried when we thought of him sick as he was, and
we felt abandoned, alone at Christmas. All the other children had presents,
but we had none because all the money was given to the machi to make my
father better. That day they took us to see him but we couldn't stay there,
only my mother could stay. She didn't care about us
Alvaro's wekufetun is a recurrent illness which consist of dizziness, headaches,
wandering at night, being angry and nervous, and not wanting to talk to anyone. He
did not eat, fainted frequently and had what Fresia called "a strange look in his eyes".
He got worse under stress or when he was worried about something.
Fresia has a close relationship with her younger brother Pablo whom she
describes as fun-loving and loyal. He grew up playing with her and covered up for her
mischief.
Once I went out to meet my boyfriend and Pablo went out too. When we
both got back it was dark, and we hadn't brought the animals in or made the
soup. My mother arrived and asked what we had been doing, and I told her
I had gone to see the neighbors. Pablo said it was true and covered up for
me.
Fresia's older brother, Rene on the other hand, was brought up in a very
traditional manner by her machi grandmother, whose spirit Fresia was thought to
have inherited. She describes him as sullen, nasty and authoritarian. "He is negative
about everything, difficult. He always finds everything I do is bad," she said. Rene
was fluent in Mapudungu and had knowledge about Mapuche traditions, something
neither Fresia nor Pablo had.
Fresia's problems began during adolescence when she moved back to her
mother's house. She was given more responsibilities and her environment at home
changed. "I was no longer the favorite, I was not spoilt like before. When they talked
to me, their words were harder more abrupt. I don't trust my mother, when I think
of telling her something it makes me scared," she said. Her mother, Dominga,
described Fresia as a cry-baby:
I would say anything to her and she would start crying. I didn't like her being
September 1995 Renouncing Shamanistic Practice 7

like that, crying all the time. She was spoilt, very picky. She came back to
live with me when she was 13 and went to school. Then she looked more
like a girl who had a mother and father; she would talk more and her face
looked happier, but she still has that dumb face.
At this time Fresia began to feel ill, dizzy, and tired, and she experienced strong
headaches. She missed out on the local school quite a bit because of this, but
otherwise led a relatively normal life. She loved to go dancing, and once won a
dancing competition in Freire. Dominga said:
She was a little parakeet. She loved to dance and sing but I never let her
go out on her own or dance more than two or three pieces, then she had to
come home. Girls that dance until all hours are not respected.
Fresia had several boyfriends which she kept secret from her mother, but none
of these relationships involved sex.
At the age of 15, Fresia went to boarding school. She said she enjoyed the
independence from her family, but her mind went blank when teachers questioned
her, and she felt dizzy when reading or writing. When she began to have strong
inexplicable illnesses, she dropped out. Fresia stated:
I felt cold. I was always dizzy. My stomach trembled. I was not hungry. All
the nerves in my feet, my arms, my fingers would shrink up, I was in pain.
They took me to the hospital but they found nothing wrong with me, but
when I returned home, there was the pain again.
Retrospectively, Fresia interpreted this as her first machi illness. These experiences
may relate to Obeyesekere's (1981:79-80) idea of strange illnesses and spirit attacks
as being bodily symptoms for encoding unconscious motivations and inner states
such as ambivalence towards parents, demand of love and its negation.
On returning home, Fresia felt a "nervous anger" at everyone. Her parents
thought it would be good for her to occupy herself by going to work as a maid in
Temuco, the closest city. Fresia had been working for eight months and said she was
happy when she began to feel faint and dizzy again. She had strong pains, and what
she called "strange dreams." "I dreamt that someone came to fetch me and that I was
with my dead grandmother. Other times I would dream about blue and white flags,
a branch of the cinnamon tree, things I never thought I would dream," said Fresia.
She became worried and, being a baptized Catholic, she went to see a priest. "He
started by asking me whether anybody in the family was a machi, and I told him my
grandmother was a machi." By this time, Fresia realized she probably had a machi
calling, but did not tell her parents and continued to work as a maid. "I could not
control my thoughts at that time, I was not well. I only thought about leaving home
for good and not coming back. I wanted to leave home and not become a machi," she
said.
It was then that Fresia cut her long hair. For her, this symbolized a break with
the past and with tradition. She then began to work at another house without telling
her parents where she was. Her parents became worried and searched for her at the
jail, the morgue, in strip clubs and the streets. They finally found her through a friend
she had called in the city. She said:
He told me that my people were looking for me, and that made me sad
because here I was working well and my people were worried without
8 Anthropology of ConscioiRness [6(3)]

reason. He said he would send the police to get me, I just laughed. They
came to get me, but if the boy hadn't told me I would not have left. 1 didn't
want to go back to my house because I was scared that they were going to
hit me.
Dominga said that Fresia had lost her head when she cut her hair. Fresia told me
that she had been "semi-conscious" at the time and did not know what she was doing.
Ironically, her state of semi-consciousness was interpreted as a further sign of her
machi calling.
After this incident, Fresia was not allowed to leave the house alone and became
ill again. Machi Sergio, who later became her master, tried to exorcise her machi spirit
unsuccessfully. "He tried to stop me becoming a machi. He did a treatment so that
the spirit would leave me. We tried to reject the spirit, but he couldn't. 1 continued
to be ill. The spirit was born with me, it was embodied energy...so I just had to
become a machi," Fresia said. Despite her reluctance, she finally decided to become
a machi because she could not stand the illness any longer. She wanted to get better
and there was no other culturally acceptable explanation for her illnesses and
dreams.
I would hide in my room without looking at anybody. Every day people came
to see how I was, so that I could talk about it and forget it. But I could not.
I would lock myself away and cry and cry or laugh like crazy. Now I can
control myself, but at the time I only thought about leaving, to leave and
not become a machi. But they never left me alone, every time I went to town
there was someone with me. One day, I didn't even know what was
happening and they arrived to do my treatment.
Fresia then went to live with Sergio, her master machi and there underwent
training, but her illnesses persisted. Sergio said:
She would roll on the floor in pain and punch anyone near and would be
without breath. She would hurt herself, twist and foam at the mouth. She
looked deformed. She would say she felt bad and I would put my hand on
her forehead and pray for her, often till dawn."
Most machis are knowledgeable about Mapuche traditions and learn a lot
through dreams. In Fresia's case, her family was semi-acculturated and she did not
even speak Mapudungu. She learned about machi practices formally through Sergio,
not by experience. Fresia gave no credit to her machi spirit and did not allow it to
teach her through dreams. She said:
Sergio taught me to play kultrun, to pray, to sing, to prepare remedies. The
most difficult was learning to recognize illnesses, which is something the
spirit does. There are still some types of evil which I can't recognize. Sergio
explained how to make remedies. I would forget and he would get angry.
Machi Sergio added:
The reason why she does not remember the remedies for certain illnesses is
because she does not pay attention to her dreams where the spirit is present.
Her family is to blame. Fresia does not have the support of her family. Her
mother does not want to be with traditional people and machis must live
their traditions, not just encounter them during rituals.
Because Fresia had little knowledge of Mapuche culture, Sergio had to teach her
September 1995 Renouncing Shamanistic Practice

the language, traditions and how machis should behave. She said
Sergio said I could not ride my bike, play ball, and talk with my friends. He
told me I had to talk in Mapuche language, speak to more adults, leave
laughter behind and take things more seriously. I had to relate to people •
differently. I had to ask my rewe for permission to leave, and wear traditional
clothing. This was a big change for me.
After living with Sergio on and off for a year, learning about machi lore and going
with him to cure his patients, Fresia became initiated at the age of 17. She enjoyed
her machilwwun ceremony. "It was very pretty. I was dressed in traditional clothing.
I wore colored ribbons. Lots of people came to see me, even some people from my
school and the university. Everyone was concerned about me."
Because Fresia was initiated by Sergio, she became part of his corporate group
together with Juan and Maria, his other initiates. Both Maria and Sergio came to
perform in Fresia's machilwwun, but she felt her only loyalty was towards Sergio.
Shortly after her initiation, Maria accused her of being a kalku (sorcerer/witch) and
so did Marlene, another machi from a neighboring community. This only increased
Fresia's anxiety in being a machi.
After her initiation, Fresia continued to have recurrent illnesses. Sergio
interpreted this as a form of kastikutran (supernatural punishment) her machi spirit
was sending. "It is because she has never properly accepted her machi spirit passed
on to her," Sergio stated. Fresia had a dislike towards her grandmother and this made
her ambiguous about the spirit she had received. She said:
I'm like her only because I inherited her spirit. I don't really remember her.
There are no photos, no recordings, nothing. She wanted to take me into
her arms when I was little and I would run away from her and she would get
angry. I didn't like her.. .1 didn't want to go anywhere with her. She died
when I was seven.
Fresia sometimes wondered whether her grandmother had not sent the spirit on
purpose to her to punish her for being distant while she was alive. At other times she
talked about her spirit in positive terms as lelfun rayen kalfu newelme (fields of flowers
and blue sky), and said that it was a good spirit, but a weak one. Fresia pictured her
spirit as a young boy who looked like her cousin Diego and said her voice became sad
and wailing when she was possessed by it.
There was no communication between Fresia and her spirit. She either allowed
it to dominate her or tried to ignore it. She feared the spirit and believed it would
punish her with illness when she failed to behave like a machi and fulfill her
supernatural obligations. The same day she told me she wanted to abandon her
profession and the community, she went to leave a wreath of copihue flowers at her
grandmother's grave to appease the machi spirit. Fresia said:
When the spirit tries to come to me, I get speedy, nervous. It happens when
I have to get up in the morning and play my drum and I fall asleep, or when
I don't do what the spirit tells me. When I leave home without its
permission, when I feel like dancing—that is when I don't feel well.
Fresia fell into a depression when she returned home after her machi training.
She was no longer babied as before and, as an unmarried Mapuche woman, she was
subject to cultural restrictions as well as those imposed on her by her mother. Fresia
10 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)]

said her mother wanted her to be the ideal obedient, quiet and hard-working
daughter and she complained about Dominga's way of controlling her. "My mother
is constantly asking me questions. She wants to know what I've Said to other people,
how I have behaved, what they have said to me. She doesn't allow me to go anywhere
alone. I get tired of it."
In addition, now that Fresia was a machi, she had to behave according to
traditional norms into which she had not been socialized. Becoming a machi had also
changed Fresia's personal life significantly. She said, "My friends think being a machi
is something terrible or they treat me with too much respect. I don't like that." Fresia
also lost her best friend Eva who was an Evangelist and never came to see her again
after she became a machi. Fresia said:
I had excess of thinking. I didn't sleep thinking about what I was going to
do, what it was going to be like later on, how I was going to lose all my friends
and no one would talk to me. I almost went crazy. I didn't want to become
a machi. Everything was blurred.
The Mapuche believe that excess thinking, feeling, and imagining is dangerous
because it can lead to possession of the soul by a harmful spirit and loss of the person's
real soul. Sergio therefore performed several sahumerios (smoke exorcisms) to scare
off the wekufe which he felt was lurking in the house. After this, Fresia returned to
live with Sergio for eight months, regained her strength and sanity, and then went
home again.
Fresia's future love life was also going to be affected by her work as a machi.
Although Sergio stated that she could get married, her mother said that Fresia's spirit
had chosen her to be single and she had to respect this. Dominga said:
God wanted her to continue being a young single girl. She can talk and have
friends, but don't let her even try getting married. I keep her here like a
queen. She never does any work. A machi needs rest. A young machi is the
same as God having an angel by his side and training to become a machi is
like being in a nun's school.
Fresia gave another explanation for her mother not allowing her to marry:
I am the only girl in the house. She won't allow me to get married because
she doesn't want to be alone in the house. When I'm at home I work like
any other woman. I have to make bread, clean wash dishes. She wants me
to stay.
Dominga insisted that Fresia could not be a machi and take care of a home with
a demanding husband at the same time. She proved her point by telling me about
the case of a female machi from a neighboring community who married, was abused
and later died in misery. Fresia had had several boyfriends, but her true love was
Rodrigo. Although their relationship was secret, he remained close to her while she
was a machi and Fresia hoped to marry him some day.
Fresia spent most of her time at home, but she wanted to get out. She wanted
to come with me to a nguillatun ceremony held by the mountain Pehuenche natives
and her parents agreed to let her go. The nguillatun turned out to be a political protest
against the construction of a dam and was covered by journalists. This was the only
ritual situation I saw Fresia take part in, except for the ceremony in which she
uprooted her altar and finally abandoned the profession. She enjoyed the special
September 1995 Renouncing Shamarustic Practice 11

attention bestowed on her by the Pehuenche cacique (chief) and other participants
of the nguillatun, but I was surprised to see that she only wore her attire during the
ritual itself, did not pray the whole time we were there, and hardly spoke Mapudungu.
She took the opportunity to socialize with both Pehuenches and Chileans. Fresia said
that the only time she had gone out during the year was when she performed in the
Villarica music festival, and she didn't want to leave.
Fresia felt very insecure about her machi curing powers. Although she now
possessed theoretical knowledge on machi remedies, rituals and beliefs, she was
reluctant to put them into practice. Initially, Fresia told me that she attended to her
patients in a consulting room in Villarica. I soon discovered this to be untrue.
Fresia explained herself: "I told you that because I didn't want you to think I
didn't have any patients. I wanted you to think that I was a big and powerful machi
that had patients from all over the place. Now you know the truth." Fresia did not
have any patients while I was in the field, but was too embarrassed to admit it. Fresia
lacked faith in herself as a curer and patients lacked faith in her as a result. She said
she did not believe that love and luck rituals could be effective but did not practice
the traditional way either.
Because Fresia could not handle the responsibility of being a machi, she stayed
at home and said she was still an apprentice. Once, when I was suffering from a liver
attack from having eaten too many eggs, I took my urine sample to Fresia to diagnose.
She refused, saying:
It is very difficult for me to start working giving herbal remedies. One
wonders how the patient is going to be afterwards, if they will be better or
worse. In order to cure one has to be sure about doing things. I don't have
the courage.
At the Pehuenche nguillatun in the mountains, a sick baby was brought to Fresia.
She said she was on holiday and that she was not going to cure it. In fact, Fresia was
not even able to cure herself from an ear infection. She considered gall-stones and
liver stones to be the same thing, and knew of no remedies for rheumatism although
it is a common ailment in both the country and the city.
Furthermore, Fresia always stated that she was "too sick" to cure. Although she
was convalescing from two operations ("natural illnesses") when I met her, this was
not always the case. Fresia said she had constant machi-kutran (machi illness) that
weakened her spirit. In Mapuche thought, machis can only cure others once they
have cured themselves of their machi-kutran. Fresia never managed to cure herself
completely. Moreover, she had lapses that she attributed to punishment by her
repressive spirit (kastikutran).
Fresia knew machis prayed to the full moon, but she didn't know why. She knew
there were positive machis and others who worked with both positive and negative
spirits, and that recent evil could be exorcised by vomiting while older evil could not.
But she did not know how to tell the difference. She took her silver jewelry and knife
everywhere to protect her against evil spirits, but did not know how to identify evil.
Although Fresia enjoyed the attention, she did not want to be considered a full-
fledged machi or undertake the medicinal, supernatural or social obligations the role
entailed.
Fresia's relationship with the community was also complicated. Although they
 12 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)]

acknowledged her as a machi, nobody from the community came to be treated by her.
No one came to ask her about traditional lore or the meaning of their dreams. Fresia
was expected to perform as mochi-priestess at the nguillatun ceremony held in
December of 1992, but did not feel she was up to it. She escaped before the end of
the year.
Despite Fresia's doubts, machi Sergio continued to have faith in her until the day
she left. He said she just lacked discipline and maturity, and needed a little help to
start working. Sergio considered her a good machi who just needed to learn to
concentrate and really get involved in her work.
At first, I thought Fresia was incompetent simply because she was young and
inexperienced, but I realized this was not the case when I met Maria Cecilia, an 18-
year-old machi who was initiated while I was in the field. Unlike Fresia, she played
kultrun and prayed every day, before and after her initiation. Maria Cecilia had
confidence in her curing abilities and had a slightly superior attitude towards people.
She had a steady flow of patients ever since her initiation. Maria Cecilia said that she
preferred being excessively traditional to being too lax. For her, being a machi was not
just a profession but a strongly motivated life experience.

Breaking Away
Fresia had clearly not internalized shamanistic beliefs and practices as her own.
Spiro (1984:328) states that the highest level of internalization of beliefs occurs
when an individual feels these beliefs are true, correct, and right, when she uses them
to structure her perceptual world and guide her actions and instigate behavior in
others. This is what is expected of machis in Mapuche culture. Fresia fluctuated
between believing she would receive supernatural sanctions for her behavior, to not
believing in machi lore at all. Once Fresia became a machi, she conformed with
cultural norms in order to avoid social disapproval and supernatural punishment.
She was not motivated, however, nor did she attach personal meaning to cultural
symbols as Obeyesekere's ecstatics did. In Fresia's view, the machi practice imposed
constraints on her behavior in the same way social sanctions did. When I asked her
why she painted her kultrun with red and blue lines, moons, and stars, she just said
that it was because machi Sergio had told her to, but she didn't know why.
Towards the end of my fieldwork, I noticed a change in Fresia. She no longer
imitated her mother in telling awful stories about women rotting alive because they
did not want to become machis. Instead she told me that Mapuche beliefs and
practices were only powerful down in the south, but not far away and that machis who
abandoned their profession had bad luck and could be poor and lonely, but did not
die. Fresia said:
I could go to another country when I want to and nothing would happen to
me because I would be far from my house, my reuie, my spirit. I would never
do well if I worked as a maid in the city. I would have bad luck, but I would
stop being a machi and could get married and have children.
I met one other machi who had abandoned his profession completely and pulled
his rewe out of the ground, and I heard about the cases of another two. They all
remained living in their communities and had experienced some misfortune. Saez
(whom I met) stopped being a machi because he had lost his powers and the
September 1995 Renouncing Shamardstic Practice 13

community accused him of being a kalku (sorcerer/witch). Fresia's case was different.
She lacked motivation and did not want to use the powers the community thought
she had.
Fresia felt she could no longer play the machi role and finally fled to Santiago to
work as a maid again without telling her parents. She had always conceived
Catholicism as parallel to and non-conflicting with her machi profession. When
Fresia fled, she seized Catholicism as a protection against her avenging spirit. She
took an image of the Virgin with her and prayed to it every night. "If I commit myself
to something completely like being a good Catholic, this way I can still serve God
but give up being a machi for good," Fresia said.
She tested her spirit's reaction by praying less and then stopping altogether.
When she left the community, she took off her machi attire and cut her hair. As Fresia
felt no retaliation, she believed the spirit had left her:
I'm not going to let my grandmother's spirit scare me now. Being a machi was
what my mother and the community chose for me, not God. No one was
ever worried about what I felt and wanted. I never felt I had the power to
become a machi. I am happy now that I have my own money, that I can have
friends and go out.
However, leaving her family and Rodrigo was a strong emotional blow for Fresia.
By becoming a maid, she had escaped her responsibilities and obligations and won
independence, but she no longer had the emotional support of her family.
Roberts (1984) finds that lack of commitment, conflict, and tension are the
main reasons for voluntary disengagement from a certain role, which is clearly
Fresia's case. She was not committed to her machi role and was very anxious about
it. She had an internal conflict between wanting to act out cultural ideals and
satisfying her own desires. She also had an ongoing conflict with her mother. In
addition, Fresia lacked skill and confidence in herself as a machi and only became one
because she was heavily pressured by society.
Fresia tried to justify her behavior by retrospectively analyzing her illness in
another light. She said that Sergio had mistaken her illness for a machi-kutran when
it was really a form of wekufetun (evil spirit possession) similar to that her father had.
She said the spirit had tricked Sergio into thinking she had a machi spirit. Fresia also
said that she could not have inherited her spirit from her maternal grandmother
because she was alive for seven years after Fresia was born. Furthermore, Fresia said
that she was not her mother's daughter. I was never able to ascertain whether this
was true or not. In the civil registry, it appeared that her parents had married two
years after she was born, but she carried their names.
Two months after her escape, Fresia went back to the community to give an
explanation of her actions and pull her rewe out of the ground. She wore short loose
hair, make-up, and a blue jeans mini-skirt. Fresia's flight from "the machi profession"
caused commotion in her family and in the community at large. Her behavior was
unheard of, and had no cultural explanation. Her mother sought other ways to
explain Fresia's illnesses and dreams that could not longer be interpreted as machi-
kutran.
Dominga: If you wanted to go and work in the city why didn't you tell us?
Fresia: Because you would not have let me.
14 Anthropology of Consciousness [6(3)1

Dominga: We would have covered up for you. All those times you were with
the spirit, was that fake too? If you didn't want to be a machi why didn't you
tell us?
Fresia: You made me be a machi.
Dominga: We spent all that money on you and got nothing back. People
are laughing at machi Sergio too.
Fresia's father was upset because they were now the laughing stock of the
community and he felt humiliated. Machi Sergio became ill.
Fresia blamed her parents and the community for making her become a machi,
although at the time she had reluctantly accepted it as her only alternative. "I wanted
to tell them everything, why this happened, what I thought, but my throat closed up.
Only my aunt understood me," Fresia said. Her family blamed her boyfriend, her
aunt, and me for her flight from the community. In Santiago, Fresia had contacted
a woman she had met at the nguillatun I took her to, who found her a job.
Since Fresia's behavior could not be interpreted in cultural terms, the community
chief dealt with the problem in a practical way by telling her she could no longer be
a machi. He said, "If you decided to go, you have to leave for good. No one is going
to believe you as a machi anymore. This is nobody's fault—Fresia decided to leave.
We wanted a machi in the community and it didn't work out."
Leaving the machi profession was both traumatic and a relief for Fresia. She
pulled her revue out of the ground and buried her kultrun (drum) along with her machi
attire and the rest of her paraphernalia. Normally, this is only done when a machi dies.
Pablo, her father and Rodrigo helped her pull the revoe out and leave it in the stream
to rot. Fresia prayed to her spirit for the last time and asked it to allow her to continue
with her life. She said:
When the revue came out of the ground, it was like a part of me which was
pulled out from the depth of my chest. It was like a dead person. I cried and
cried. But it was difficult working as a machi. I didn't want to be a machi.
Now I feel calm.
Fresia's belief system is conflictive and contradictory. Although she stated that
she did not believe in machis anymore, when she was pulling her reuie from the
ground, she thought her spirit might avenge itself by striking her with lightening.
Fresia left that same night for the city because Rene, her older brother, said that if
he saw her he would beat her up.
At present, Fresia is 23. She continues to work as a maid in the city and visits
her family regularly. Fresia maintains social ties with them and helps them with
money. Although she has had some problems adapting to being a maid in the city,
Fresia says it is much better than being a machi. No one mentions her previous
profession or how she abandoned it, and Fresia does not like talking to me about her
previous machi phase either. Rodrigo married another girl in the community and had
a child. Fresia has a new Mapuche boyfriend who lives in the city and with whom
she has a son. She baptized her son Catholic and celebrated the event with a family
party. Her former master machi Sergio believes her spirit will avenge itself, but Fresia
has not been ill, and has had no bouts of semi-consciousness or significant dreams.
She feels this is proof that she never really incorporated her machi spirit. Fresia is
comforted by the fact that machi Sergio was not angry at her, but nevertheless avoids
September 1995 Renouncing Shamanistic Practice 15

seeing Sergio when she goes to her community on a visit because she's embarrassed
and fears she will get machi-kutran again if she does.

Discussion
Although typically traditional institutions like shamanism and the practice of
shaman/healers can adapt and thrive under new social and economic conditions,
Fresia did not adapt her curing role to changing times nor practice like traditional
machis either. She was completely unmotivated.
Acculturation itself did not cause Fresia's breakaway. Natives in societies
undergoing acculturation who can no longer perform ideal roles may experience
change and still maintain a cultural identity. In societies like the Mapuche where
becoming modern means adopting elements from the culture of the outsider, cultural
identity is crucial. Because Fresia did not have the support of her family in carrying
out her profession and was not socialized into traditional practices she lacked cultural
identity to start with. She did not resolve her personal conflicts by resorting to dream
interpretation or traditional symbols and beliefs.
Fresia never internalized her machi profession and did not build her life around
it as machis should. Unlike most machis she did not attach personal meaning to her
rewe and kultrun nor did she consider dreams and experience as an important part of
being a machi. Although Fresia legitimized her position as machi and gained
traditional knowledge by undergoing machi training, she did not use cultural symbols
in ways which were significant to her. She possessed her symbols of office and dressed
in the traditional way, but she was unable to practice like a machi.
Fresia complied with cultural norms to avoid social and supernatural sanctions.
But lacking motivation, she could not fulfill the social expectations of being a machi.
She justified her thoughts and behavior that conflicted with cultural ideals as "bouts
of craziness" and "states of semi-consciousness." But this did nothing to strengthen
her faith in herself nor her acceptance of the restrictions the role entailed.
Fresia had no faith in herself as a machi and could not apply her curing knowledge
effectively nor convince others. She saw the machi profession as curtailing her
independence and her desire to get married and have children. Fresia tried to have
the best of both worlds: the security of her family and the attention bestowed on a
machi, as well as her quest for personal freedom. In the end, she found she could not
act the part and be herself, so she chose to break away.
Fresia's case demonstrates that if a person has not internalized cultural beliefs or
used them in solving her problems, the concept of individuality can emerge even in
a social and cultural context where the concept of the person is bound up inextricably
with the role and the social system. Furthermore, it is because she is obliged to take
on the cultural role of machi which is incompatible with her own desires that Fresia
is forced out of her ambiguity and passivity and finally makes a decision.

Notes
1
Like Winkelman (1992), I use the term shaman to refer specifically to magico-religious
practitioners who obtain their abilities exclusively from spirit allies and animal spirits, who
have control over their altered states of consciousness, and who undergo soul flight. These
individuals practice ona part-time basis and are often charisma tic leaders in their communities.
16 Anthropology of Consciousness

Shamans usually predominate in hunting and gathering societies with no integration beyond
the local level.
2
A female machi's personal attire consists of a chamal, a tight black tunic which is held
together with a trarigue, or traditional woven belt, a rebozo, or shawl, and heavy silver jewelry
pinned on the breast (trafpelalkusha) and around the head (trarilonko). They also wear a blue
kerchief around the head. Male machis use Western men's clothing with the exception of a
woven wool manta that goes over the shoulders, a kerchief over the head, silver bracelets, and
chains around the neck. They use a rebozo only during rituals. Normally all machis carry a large
knife with them wherever they go. Knives, like silver, are thought to scare away evil spirits.
Silver is also a sign of a machi's prestige and wealth. During rituals, machis may put torquoise,
yellow, and pink ribbons on their heads—representing the colors seen in their visions—and
colored scarves around their necks.
3
A duck-shaped vessel which only women use. It is related to fertility.

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