First Peoples Spirituality
The first inhabitants of the territory based their cosmology on reading the sky map, referring to natural phenomena and perpetuating the memory of the Ancients. The Yamanas believed in a supreme being, called Watauinewa (the Ancient One), creator of all things in the world; many other deities and spirits populated their sacred pantheon. One of the highlights of their lives was the initiation rites for young men and women: a compulsory celebration and a dexterity contest; the young people acquired all the rights of adults (hunting, marriage, founding a family), which ensured a certain social cohesion. Only later, the sacred rites were taught to them, during a ceremony called Kina. The Mapuche, in particular, who are still present in Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia, continue to maintain an intimate relationship with their ancestral culture. Among the Mapuche, the admapu is the set of symbols, practices and traditional beliefs. According to them, they were created by Nguenechen, a god with four components: el Anciano (fucha), la Anciana (kude), el Joven and la Jovena. Ngunechen is the creator god who controls life on Earth: he is the origin of everything. According to their beliefs, the Mapuche are surrounded by ancestral spirits (wangulen), nature spirits (Ngen) and evil spirits (wekufe). To understand the relationship between Mapuche culture and nature, it is important to understand the idea of a supreme beneficent being, who helps and protects human beings, fighting against the forces of evil and to determine the importance of the concept of Ngen, the spirit of nature that maintains the cosmic balance and protects the fauna and flora. Evil creatures, powerful snakes, mythical birds, and malevolent sorcerers populate the Mapuche legends with many philosophical overtones. An important figure in Mapuche culture alongside the lonko (chief), the religious chief (shaman or machi) is the bearer of legends, ancestral beliefs and spiritual practices. He is always represented by his rehue (a totem) and his kultrung (or cultrún), a drum, which he designs according to the spiritual strength conferred on him by the Ngunechen. Recognizable on the Mapuche flag, the circular shape of the kultrung symbolizes the infinity of the world. The cross on its surface indicates the spaces into which the world is divided and the central part contains the core and the force that maintains the balance between the vertical spaces formed by Wenu Mapu (the land above), where the beneficial deities and ancient ancestors live; Nag Mapu (the land below), where all the living are and Minche Mapu (the land below), where the evil spirits live. The machi is a man or woman (often thelonko's wife) who is valued above all for his or her healing skills. He is the great connoisseur of a complex rite of therapeutic action called Machitún, a ceremony designed to heal patients of the "evil" that strikes them. The machi eliminate evil spirits, the wekufe, through shamanic prayers, cultrún drumming, trances, massages, herbal infusions and dances. The ritual communication established between the machi and his beneficent spirit begins at dusk and ends at dawn. This ceremony is still alive and continues to be performed in many communities. Today Mapuche beliefs are built on the principle of syncretism, a concept introduced by Christian evangelization (a kind of fusion between Christianity and Andean cosmology).
Evangelism
The conditions of the evangelization of Argentina, and more generally of South America, explain the Christianity that is present in the whole region today. At the end of the 15th century, Christopher Columbus set out for America at a time when the Catholic Monarchs were engaged in an extensive evangelization and colonization enterprise (including Africa and Granada). Columbus signed the capitulations of Santa Fe with the Catholic Monarchs, in other words, he was granted a political power that he was supposed to deploy in the places he was to discover. He is also renamed Christophoros: "the one who carries Christ". This is a significant event that announces the Iberian supremacy and the will to carry the Catholic religion. After a slow and painful Conquest, the Spanish and the Portuguese shared almost the entire South American continent where they managed to establish themselves thanks to the Church which supported the colonization. The Spanish colonists set up the system of encomienda, a practice of serfdom consisting of the grouping together of hundreds of Amerindian individuals in the territory with the aim of making them work without remuneration and evangelizing them.
The Jesuits. At the same time, Jesuit missionaries arrived at the end of the 16th century and applied a more progressive method of evangelization in their missions by instructing the natives in the faith while protecting them from slave hunters. They first arrived in 1593 in Santiago, Chile, and then the missions spread from Chiloé to Nahuel Huapi through the archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego. Several Jesuit missions were also established in the province of Misiones, in northeastern Argentina, and in the province of Córdoba in the early 17th century. Innovative and particularly focused on education and the arts, the Jesuits established real villages. Competing with the encomienda system, the mission model was the envy of the Spanish planters. Moreover, the order of the Society of Jesus, which shocked by its modernity and its theological positions, fell into disfavor in Europe, until it was dissolved by the king of Spain. The Jesuits were expelled from America in 1767 and their missions destroyed. The beautiful film Mission (1986) by Roland Joffé, retraces this episode in the region of Misiones. The mission of San Ignacio Mini, 60 km from Posadas, is one of the most famous Jesuit missions and is classified by UNESCO. You can still see the few red sandstone ruins of the site, which once included a church, a baptistery, a cemetery, a school, a hospital and houses reserved for the Guaraníes. Further south, in Córdoba, the Jesuits founded six large estancias for cattle breeding and cultivation. Also classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the perfectly preserved buildings can be visited today.
The Salesians - congregation founded in Turin by St. John Bosco in 1859 - established themselves at the end of the 19th century on the banks of the Rio Negro before moving deeper into the Patagonian land: they succeeded in establishing themselves at the level of the Rio Santa Cruz before definitively setting up a mission on the shores of the Magellanic Strait and the Tierra del Fuego archipelagos. Despite the harsh climate, they persevered, gathering several thousand inhabitants and baptizing the natives. This led to marriages, schooling and the construction of orphanages and chapels. Among the Salesians, the missionary and explorer Alberto Maria de Agostini stands out. Sensitive to the agony of the indigenous peoples who were suffering from the colonizing wave, he dedicated a large part of his life to them, leading several expeditions and writing several books. In Rio Grande you can visit the old Salesian mission founded in 1893. If the role of the Salesians could be beneficial for the development of Tierra del Fuego, that they protected the indigenous populations - the Selknam in particular - from the massacres perpetrated by the new landowners and other gold diggers, this protection and this education to the civilized world have, it seems, paradoxically accelerated the disappearance of these indigenous peoples. The Chilean mission of Isla Dawson is one of the most significant examples. Abandoning their nomadic way of life and their culture, deprived of reference marks and victims of the diseases brought by the Europeans, the Fuegian populations saw their number strongly decline.
The influence of the Church
Elected on March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the 226th pontiff and the first South American pope. The pope of the poor as emphasized by the choice of his name, Francis, in reference to St. Francis of Assisi. Even if freedom of worship has been recognized since 1853 in Argentina, you will quickly be caught up with the reality of the country by talking to the inhabitants: you will quickly realize that the society remains very impregnated with this Christian culture. And it is only recently that a certain freedom has gained the political spheres, because until 1994, the Argentine president had to be a member of the Church. This trend is called destape (imagine a bottle cap popped!): a more libertarian trend is circulating everywhere, especially among young people. As a result, according to a study published by the country's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, the number of Catholics fell by 13% between 2008 and 2019. In addition, it is important to note that Christianity here is the result and mixture of different local beliefs with the Bible. Thus, there are many overlaps between saints and Andean figures. Often, along the roads, one meets the famous "Santos" carrying legends and beliefs specific to the regions. One can distinguish the Difunta Correa or the Gauchito Gil, a modern day Robin Hood, his altar is red, covered with flags and scarves of the same color. In the northern provinces, especially in Salta and Jujuy, you can hear about the "Coquena" who, according to indigenous beliefs, is a protective dwarf who watches over the vicuña and guanaco populations. Discreet and elusive, he runs fast while whistling through the mountains: it is therefore obviously very difficult to meet him!
