Mapuche silverwork

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The daughter of a lonko dressed in traditional Mapuche silverwork at around 1900.
Drawing of a trapelacucha, a silver finery piece, 20th century.[1]

Mapuche silverwork is one of the best known aspects of Mapuche material culture.[2] The adornments have been subject to changes in fashion but some designs have resisted change.

History

Prior tradition of gold adornments

Mapuche people had a gold-related cultural tradition that predates the Inca invasion.[3] In the 16th century, at the time of the Spanish conquest of Chile, Mapuches are reported by various chroniclers to have used gold adornments.[3] According to Zavala and co-workers (2021) the widespread gold-related toponyms in Mapuche lands and early Spanish reports of gold objects, plus the easiness for the Spanish to find gold mines suggests that gold mining did occur in Pre-Hispanic Chile south of Itata River, well beyond the borders of the Inca Empire.[4]

Historian José Toribio Medina posits that most of the Mapuche gold adornments were despoiled by the Spanish during the conquest.[3] Local folklore says much gold was also hidden from the Spanish and gold mines collapsed on purpose.[3] Gold mining became a taboo among Mapuches in colonial times, and gold mining prohibited under death penalty.[3] Prior to the Destruction of the Seven Cities serving the Spanish in gold mining had been a deadly activity that killed many Mapuches.[5] Some 17th-century Spanish sources specifically reject the notion that Mapuche used gold adornments or valued the metal.[3]

Development of silverwork

During the latter half of the 18th century, Mapuche

Mapudungun: rüxafe).[6][7][8] By the 18th century silver had effectively filled the place gold previously had in Mapuche culture.[3] Old Mapuche silver pendants often included unmelted silver coins, a circumstance which has helped modern researchers to date the objects.[8] The bulk of the Spanish silver coins originated from mining in Potosí in Upper Peru.[7] The foreign origin of most silver (liqen, lien, lighen) explains why there is scarcity of silver-related Mapuche placenames relative to those referring to gold (milla).[3]

The great diversity in silver finery designs is indebted to the fact that designs were done to be identified with different reynma (families), lof mapu (lands) as well as specific lonkos and machis.[9] Mapuche silver finery was also subject to changes in fashion albeit designs associated with philosophical and spiritual concepts have not undergone major changes.[9]

In late 18th century and early 19th century, Mapuche silversmithing activity and artistic diversity reached it climax.

La Frontera to obtain food.[11]

As of 1984, Mapuche scholar Carlos Aldunate noted that there were no silversmiths alive among contemporary Mapuches.[6]

Appearance

Although these adornments showed some variation in form, the principal one appears to be a set of three separate columns of flattened silver links joined to each other by square alternating links. At the top of the set of columns, and holding them together, is a flat two-headed bird figure and at the base is a flat semicircle or trapezoid that usually has a series of small disks dangling from its base. The wearer would place the object hanging from his/ her neck and down the chest.

Notes

  1. ^ Thiers, Karin M (2007). Reflejos plateados de la Luna. Valparaíso, Chile.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Painecura 2011, p. 15.
  3. ^
    S2CID 244279716
    .
  4. doi:10.29393/rh28-30mcjf50030
    .
  5. ISBN 978-956-8303-02-0
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e f Aldunate, Carlos (1984). "Reflexiones acerca de la platería mapuche" (PDF). Cultura-Hombre-Sociedad. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Painecura 2011, pp. 25-26.
  8. ^ a b Kangiser Gómez, María Fernanda (2002). "Conservación en platería mapuche: Museo Fonck, Viña del Mar" (PDF). Conserva. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  9. ^ a b Painecura 2011, pp. 27-28.
  10. ^ Painecura 2011, p. 30.
  11. ^ a b Bengoa 2000, p. 224.

References

External links

Media related to Mapuche silverwork at Wikimedia Commons


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