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. A land of legends, Patagonia inspired its first inhabitants, prey to a living nature and a hostile territory. They based their cosmology on reading the sky map, referring to natural phenomena and perpetuating the memory of the Ancients. The Alakalufs believed in deities such as Ayayéma (storms and wind), Kawtcho (the night strangler), Mwono (avalanches)... The Yamanas, for their part, 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 initiation rites was for young men and women to acquire all the rights of adults (hunting, marriage, founding a family), thus ensuring a certain social cohesion. The Mapuche, in particular, continue to maintain an intimate relationship with their ancestral culture. Familiarizing ourselves with their belief system means delving back into the origins of a rich, well-preserved world, present long before the Spanish Conquest. Among the Mapuche,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. This 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 cosmic balance and protects flora and fauna. 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). Recognized 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 esteemed above all for his or her healing talents. Machi eliminate evil spirits, the wekufe, through shamanic prayers, drumming, trances, massages, herbal infusions and dances. Ritual communication between the machi and his beneficent spirit begins at dusk and ends at dawn. This ceremony is still alive and well in many Araucanian communities. However, the strong Catholic and Pentecostal influence has counterbalanced ancestral beliefs: today's Mapuche beliefs are built on the principle of syncretism, a concept introduced by Christian evangelization (a kind of fusion between Christianity and Andean cosmology). Connoisseurs of the forest, medicinal plants and traditions, they are disappearing faster than the forests themselves.
Evangelization
The conditions under which Patagonia, and South America in general, was evangelized explain why Christianity is present throughout the region today. But to better understand the present, we need to take a step back in time. At the end of the 15th century, Christopher Columbus set sail for America at a time when the Catholic Monarchs were engaged in extensive evangelization and colonization (notably of Africa and Grenada). Columbus signed the capitulations of Santa Fe with the Catholic Monarchs, in other words, he was endowed with the political power he was to deploy in the places he was to discover. He was also renamed Christophoros: "he who carries Christ". A significant event, announcing Iberian supremacy and the will to carry the Catholic religion. After a slow and painful Conquest, the Spanish and Portuguese were to retain almost the entire South American continent, where they had succeeded in establishing themselves thanks to the Church's role as colonizer. Indeed, the Church, in a spirit of what we might call patronage, supported colonization. Several missionaries settled in southern Chile and Argentina to "ethnically cleanse" the peoples. Many native Americans refused to submit to this system of enslavement, more commonly known asencomienda. At the end of the 16th century, the Spanish Crown called in the Jesuits to instruct the natives in the faith. They first arrived in Santiago in 1593, then the missions spread from Chiloé to Nahuel Huapi, via the archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego.
In 1875, the first Salesian missionaries set out for these remote regions under the leadership 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 were busy converting 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 Río Negro before moving deeper into Patagonia: they succeeded in establishing themselves on the Río Santa Cruz before definitively raising a mission on the shores of the Strait of Magellan and the archipelagos of Tierra del Fuego. Apparently determined to preach the good word, the Salesians did not interpret their numerous failed attempts as a sign of renunciation: despite the harsh climate, they persevered, gathering several thousand people - mainly Selk'nam, but also Alacalufes (or Alakalufs) and Yaghanes - in a reduction (mission) set up in 1889 on Dawson Island, and baptizing 20,000 natives. Marriages, schooling, orphanages and chapels followed. Among the Salesians was missionary and explorer Alberto Maria de Agostini. Sensitive to the plight of the indigenous peoples who were then suffering from the wave of colonization, he devoted much of his life to them, leading several expeditions and writing several books. Another missionary is José Fagnano, who opposed the violence of explorer Ramon Lista. Religious missionaries also set up missions(reducciones) to bring people together. This abandonment of nomadism made them more docile sheep, 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, missionaries took the place of local rulers and took power over these societies, in which churches, viceroyalties, schools, religious orders... developed. The upheavals were also cultural, with the adoption of Christian names for the baptized, the separation of the sexes, and the obligation to live in enclosed dwellings instead of moving about 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 aim of "protecting" the natives, the experience was devastating: by the time the mission closed in 1911, only 25 of the 1,000 who had been established there remained. The protection of future Christians by parish priests led to their extinction, a tragic stagnation under the pretext of educating them. Some populations claim to have preserved part of their beliefs, even if these are often mixed with Catholic ones.
A little over 400 years after the beginnings 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
Today, the dominant religion in Argentina and Chile is Catholicism, although there is complete freedom of worship. In Argentina, the official religion is Roman Catholic Apostolic, adopted by 92% of the population. Protestantism (less than 3% of the population), Judaism, Islam and Greek or Russian Orthodox are also practiced in the country. Chile has no state religion, but is strongly influenced by the Catholic Church (75% of the population is Catholic). The various Protestant movements (notably evangelicals) have grown in importance in recent years, accounting for around 15% of the population. For a long time, the dictatorship of Pinochet, a staunch churchgoer, did not for a moment seek to change this way of seeing things. The Church gives its opinion on political, economic and social issues, notably through its highest representative, Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, now Pope Francis! Although freedom of worship has been recognized in Argentina since 1853, and in Patagonia since 1925, the reality in both countries is obviously more conservative: talking to the locals, you soon realize that society is still very much imbued with this Christian culture. And it's only recently that a certain freedom has crept into the political sphere: until 1994, the Argentine president had to be a member of the Church. This trend is known as destape (imagine popping a cork in a bottle!): a more libertarian trend is circulating just about everywhere, especially among young people. It's also important to note that Christianity here is the result of the blending of various local beliefs with the Bible. There are many overlaps between saints and Andean figures. Along the roads, we often come across the famous "Santos", bearers of legends and beliefs specific to Patagonia. These include Gauchito Gil, a modern-day Robin Hood, whose altar is red and covered with red flags and scarves.
