La representación del ritual funerario mapuche en reducciones de Jaime Huenún

Abstract

This article explores the representation of amulpüllün, or Mapuche funeral ritual, in the poetry collection Reducciones of Jaime Huenún, a Mapuche-Huilliche author. It analyzes several poems in which the lyrical subject, assuming the role of speaker of amulpüllün, performs a ritual invocation to the spirits of dead Mapuche to ensure their transition to the afterlife. This study also examines four collages created from photographs and documents archived at the Museo de La Plata in Argentina, as they constitute an alternative channel of enunciation of funeral rituals. These poems and collages recover the stories of the people represented in them, symbolically integrating them into the historical memory of their societies through the literary strategy of amulpüllün. In addition, the texts draw parallels between the stories of these people, denouncing how, in different ways, they were permeated by violence, exclusion and oblivion.