O nascimento da Palavra: Linguagem, força e autoridade ritual mapuche

Abstract

This paper seeks to approach the roles of priest, chief, and shaman – all present in the Mapuche ngillatun fertility ritual - from the perspective of their differential modes of relating through language. Language, as understood by rural Mapuche, emerges not solely from the intentions of individual speakers, but equally from the force – newen – constitutive of all being. Priests, chiefs, and shamans all seek to align themselves through speech to this force which instantiates itself through them. Such an observation casts new light on Clastres understanding of the relationship between chiefs and language. If we follow Mapuche in emphasizing the indexical rather than symbolic qualities of language, we see that Clastresanalysis of chiefly language as susceptible to a model of “exchange” becomes somewhat problematic.