Death, Biography, and the Mapuche Person

Abstract

The amulpüllün biographical oratory which takes place at Mapuche funerals in southern Chile is said to 'complete' the person. Such a perspective challenges the assumption that mortuary practices necessarily constitute a form of analysis, a division of the component parts of the social person. In this paper I explore what it is about the Mapuche person which needs to be 'completed,' and how funeral oratory achieves this goal. Utilizing Bakhtin's concepts of consummation and transgredience, and Ricoeur's concepts of emplotment and narrative identity, I suggest that it is only from the position of outsidedness that the necessary totalization of the deceased's person can occur. These processes of synthesis and totalization cast light upon an apparent contradiction between the importance which Amerindians place upon biography as an oral form, and theoretical approaches which stress the instability and divisibility of an Amerindian personhood predicated upon the incorporation of the other. Rather than viewing the totalization which occurs in biography as a critique of such an approach, I see it as a solution to the ontological problem which such an approach describes.

On People, Sensorial Perception, and Potential Affinity in Southern Chile

“…6. For a detailed analysis of Mapuche death, considered as a process of synthesis carried out in ritual practices through the dead person's biography, see Course (2007). For an analysis of cognitive aspects of mourning among the Jivaro, see Taylor (1993).…”

On People, Sensorial Perception, and Potential Affinity in Southern Chile

“…6. For a detailed analysis of Mapuche death, considered as a process of synthesis carried out in ritual practices through the dead person's biography, see Course (2007). For an analysis of cognitive aspects of mourning among the Jivaro, see Taylor (1993).…”

Speaking the Devil’s language: Ontological challenges to Mapuche intersubjectivity

“…This occurs through a variety of formal speech genres such as chalintun (greeting), pentukun (statements about the health of one's kin), and nutramtun (reciting of life history and genealogy) which allow speakers to locate themselves in social space and position themselves vis-à-vis their interlocutors. These discursive techniques of transmitting knowledge about persons continue even after death in the amulpüllün biographical funeral discourses which serve to 'complete' (dewman) knowledge of the deceased and allow their spirit to move on (Course, 2007). Connections with others are made not only through the formal speech genres mentioned above, but also through the sociability of everyday conversation (nutramkan) in both Mapudungun and Spanish.…”

Of words and fog

“…Twenty-eight months of fieldwork was carried out between 2001 and 2003 in the communities of Piedra Alta and Isla Huapi located between Lago Budi and the Pacific Ocean in Chile's Ninth Region. For recent ethnography on the Mapuche see Bacigalupo (2007), Course (2007Course ( , 2009) and Dillehay (2007). 10 See Grebe (1993) for further accounts of ngen.…”

On People, Sensorial Perception, and Potential Affinity in Southern Chile

“…6. For a detailed analysis of Mapuche death, considered as a process of synthesis carried out in ritual practices through the dead person's biography, see Course (2007). For an analysis of cognitive aspects of mourning among the Jivaro, see Taylor (1993).…”

Speaking the Devil’s language: Ontological challenges to Mapuche intersubjectivity

“…This occurs through a variety of formal speech genres such as chalintun (greeting), pentukun (statements about the health of one's kin), and nutramtun (reciting of life history and genealogy) which allow speakers to locate themselves in social space and position themselves vis-à-vis their interlocutors. These discursive techniques of transmitting knowledge about persons continue even after death in the amulpüllün biographical funeral discourses which serve to 'complete' (dewman) knowledge of the deceased and allow their spirit to move on (Course, 2007). Connections with others are made not only through the formal speech genres mentioned above, but also through the sociability of everyday conversation (nutramkan) in both Mapudungun and Spanish.…”

Of words and fog

“…Twenty-eight months of fieldwork was carried out between 2001 and 2003 in the communities of Piedra Alta and Isla Huapi located between Lago Budi and the Pacific Ocean in Chile's Ninth Region. For recent ethnography on the Mapuche see Bacigalupo (2007), Course (2007Course ( , 2009) and Dillehay (2007). 10 See Grebe (1993) for further accounts of ngen.…”

On People, Sensorial Perception, and Potential Affinity in Southern Chile

“…6. For a detailed analysis of Mapuche death, considered as a process of synthesis carried out in ritual practices through the dead person's biography, see Course (2007). For an analysis of cognitive aspects of mourning among the Jivaro, see Taylor (1993).…”

Speaking the Devil’s language: Ontological challenges to Mapuche intersubjectivity

“…This occurs through a variety of formal speech genres such as chalintun (greeting), pentukun (statements about the health of one's kin), and nutramtun (reciting of life history and genealogy) which allow speakers to locate themselves in social space and position themselves vis-à-vis their interlocutors. These discursive techniques of transmitting knowledge about persons continue even after death in the amulpüllün biographical funeral discourses which serve to 'complete' (dewman) knowledge of the deceased and allow their spirit to move on (Course, 2007). Connections with others are made not only through the formal speech genres mentioned above, but also through the sociability of everyday conversation (nutramkan) in both Mapudungun and Spanish.…”

Of words and fog

“…Twenty-eight months of fieldwork was carried out between 2001 and 2003 in the communities of Piedra Alta and Isla Huapi located between Lago Budi and the Pacific Ocean in Chile's Ninth Region. For recent ethnography on the Mapuche see Bacigalupo (2007), Course (2007Course ( , 2009) and Dillehay (2007). 10 See Grebe (1993) for further accounts of ngen.…”