The spirituality of the first peoples
Since time immemorial, native Americans have developed a system of magical and religious beliefs deeply rooted in the vast majority of indigenous cultures. Land of legends, Patagonia inspired its first inhabitants who were prey to a living nature and a hostile territory. They based their cosmology by reading the sky map, referring to natural phenomena and perpetuating the memory of the Ancients. The Alakalufs believed in deities such as Ayayéma (the storms and the wind), Kawtcho (the night strangler), Mwono (the avalanches)... The Yamanas, on the other hand, believed in a supreme being, called Watauinewa (the Ancient One), creator of all things in the world. One of the initiation rites, the young men and women acquired all the rights of adults (hunting, marrying, founding a family), which ensured a certain social cohesion. The Mapuche, in particular, continue to be intimately involved with their ancestral culture. To become familiar with their belief system is to go back to the origins of a rich and preserved world, which was present before the Spanish conquest. Among the Mapuche, the admapu is the set of traditional symbols, practices and 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. He is the creator god at the origin of all things. According to their beliefs, the Mapuche are surrounded by spirits characterized 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. An important figure in Mapuche culture alongside the lonko (chief), the religious leader is the bearer of legends, ancestral beliefs and spiritual practices. He is always represented by his rehue (a totem) and his kultrun or kultrung, (a drum). 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 spaces. The machi is a man or woman who is primarily valued for his or her healing skills. He or she is the great connoisseur of a complex rite of therapeutic action called Machitún, a ceremony designed to heal patients of the "evil" that caused it. The machi eliminate evil spirits, the wekufe, through shamanic prayers, drumming, trances, massages, herbal infusions and dances. The ritual communication 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 several communities in Araucania. However, the strong Catholic and Pentecostal influence has counterbalanced the ancestral beliefs: 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). Expert in the forest, medicinal plants and traditions, they are disappearing faster than the forests themselves.
Evangelization
The conditions of the evangelization of Patagonia, and more generally of South America, explain the Christianity present today in the whole region. But to better understand the present, it is necessary to take a leap into the past. At the end of the 15th century, Christopher Columbus set out for America at the same time that the Catholic Monarchs were engaged in an extensive evangelization and colonization venture (with Africa and Granada in particular). 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 Portuguese would keep almost all of the South American continent where they had succeeded in establishing themselves, notably "thanks" to the Church, which had played the role of colonizer. Indeed, the Church, in the perspective of what could be called patronage, supported the colonization. Several missionaries settled in the south of Chile and Argentina in order to proceed with the "ethnic cleansing" of the peoples. Many native Americans refused to submit to this system of enslavement, more commonly known as theincomienda. The Spanish Crown called upon the Jesuits at the end of the 16th century to instruct the natives in the faith. They first arrived in 1593 in Santiago and then the missions spread from Chiloé to Nahuel Huapi through the archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego
In 1875, the first Salesian missionaries set out for these remote regions under the direction of Don Cagliero. The Salesians had already founded an oratory in Buenos Aires, which served as an asylum for priests. In the Argentine pampas, they worked to convert their first neophytes, studying languages and preparing the ground for evangelization. At the end of the 19th century, they established themselves on the banks of the Negro River before moving further into the Patagonian land: they succeeded in establishing themselves at the level of the Santa Cruz River before definitively setting up a mission on the shores of the Magellan Strait and the archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego. Apparently determined to preach their good words, the Salesians did not interpret their numerous failed attempts as a sign of renunciation: in spite of the rigorous climate, they persevered, gathered several thousands of people, mainly Selknam, but also Alacalufes and Yaganes, in a reduction installed in 1889 on Dawson Island and baptized 20,000 natives. Marriages, schooling and the construction of orphanages and chapels followed. Among the Salesians was the missionary and explorer Alberto Maria de Agostini. Sensitive to the agony of the indigenous peoples who were then undergoing the wave of colonization, he dedicated a large part of his life to them, led several expeditions and wrote several books. The religious missionaries also set up reductions(reduccionnes) to group together individuals. This abandonment of nomadism made them more docile and protected them from the violence of the colonizers who decimated them for stealing sheep raised on the lands where they had always lived. By colonizing territories, the missionaries substituted themselves to the local sovereigns and took the power over these societies in which churches, viceroyalties, schools, religious orders developed.... The upheavals were also of a cultural order by the adoption of a Christian name for the baptized, the separation of the sexes, the obligation to remain in a closed dwelling, instead of moving freely in the immense spaces of Tierra del Fuego. The new life was summed up in the Latin formula "ora et labora" ("pray and work"). In the end, despite the objective of "protecting" the indigenous people, the experience was devastating, since when the mission was closed in 1911, only twenty-five of the thousand who had been established there remained. The protection of the future Christians by the parish priests caused their extinction, a tragic stagnation under the pretext of educating them. Some populations claim to have preserved a part of their beliefs, even if it is often a heritage mixed with Catholic beliefs. A little more than 400 years after the beginning of evangelization, the election of the first Latin American pope was a recognition of this Christianity populated by indigenous communities.
The influence of the Church
Nowadays, the dominant religion in Argentina and Chile is the Catholic religion, although there is complete freedom of worship. In Argentina, the official religion is the Apostolic and Roman Catholic religion, adopted by 92%; Protestantism (less than 3% of the population), Judaism, Islam and the Greek or Russian Orthodox religion are also practiced in the country. Chile does not have a State religion, but is strongly influenced by the Catholic Church (75% of the population is Catholic). The various Protestant currents (evangelicals in particular) have gained considerable importance in recent years and account for about 15 per cent of the population. For a long time, the dictatorship of Pinochet, a convinced practitioner, did not for a moment seek to change the way of seeing things. The Church gives its opinion on politics, the economy and social affairs, especially through its highest representative, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mgr Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis! Even if freedom of worship has been recognized since 1853 in Argentina and 1925, the reality of the two countries is obviously found in Patagonia, which is more conservative: in discussions with the inhabitants, one quickly realizes that the society remains very much imbued with this Christian culture. And it is very recently that a certain freedom has gained in the political spheres: until 1994, the Argentinean president had to be a member of the Church. This current is called the destape (imagine a bottle cap being blown off!): a more libertarian current is circulating a little everywhere, especially among the young. Moreover, it is important to note that Christianity here is the result and mixture of different local beliefs with the Bible. Thus, we find a lot of superimpositions between saints and Andean figures. Often, along the roads, one meets the famous "Santos", bearers of legends and beliefs specific to Patagonia. One can distinguish in particular the Gauchito Gil, a Robin Hood of modern times, his altar is red, covered with flags and scarves of the same color.
