Why Mapuche Sing

Why Mapuche sing
M.cxus Couvsv University of Edinburgh

This article attempts to draw out some of the connections between the attraction of personal songs
(l ) and ideas about personhood among rural Mapuche people in southern Chile. Approaching
these songs from both sociological and semiotic perspectives, I argue that they are constituted as
imprints of the singular subjectivities of their initial composers. A focus on three specic features of
l their use of rst-person pronouns, their entextualization, and their musicality reveals how they
allow the subjectivities encapsulated within them to become inhabited by others. I conclude by
suggesting that this process of inhabiting distinct subjectivities through song resonates with and
responds to a problem of epistemological solipsism grounded in Mapuche ideas about the
singularity of human nature.
By listening to music, and while we are listening to it, we enter into a kind of immortality.
Claude Lvi-Strauss I,,o [I,o]: Io
Luz Painemilla Huenten died of stomach cancer at home in the Mapuche community
of Oo Ooco in southern Chile at the end of :ooo.
1
I had come to know Luz, a devout
lifelong Catholic, through her role as catechist as I prepared for the baptism of my
goddaughter Camila. Luz had gained fame by turning the previously informal chats or
charlas for those preparing for marriage, baptism, or conrmation into burning caul-
drons of theological inquiry. Why did Jesus have to die? Why did he need to be baptized
if he was already God? What is Hell like? It was perhaps the zealousness with which she
pursued the responsibilities of her catechistic role that earned her a certain amount of
derision and caused her to be the focus of several unkind jokes and unfounded alle-
gations. This treatment would centre on the unusual status of Luz and her sister,
unusual at least for middle-aged Mapuche women, as spinsters, kawchu in the Mapuche
language, Mapudungun.
2
Several months after Luzs funeral I was sitting in the kitchen of Cornelio, one of her
cousins, drinking cider and talking about her life and death. Cornelio, now in his early
seventies, spoke of her passing and of her decision to be buried according to the rites of
the Catholic Church rather than the traditional Mapuche eluwn funeral. At her wake,
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) :,, -
Royal Anthropological Institute :oo,
Cornelio had sung one of the deceased womans personal songs, one of her l, and, as
I and his two grown sons looked on, he sang it again:
:. Naa anay, aa anay, aa anay
Oh sister, oh sister
i. Ichiw ngayu, ichiw ngayu, kawchu nien mew, kawchu nien mew
Because we are both spinsters
. Muna kom nga, muna kom nga, dungumew nga, dungumew nga
All kinds of things are said of us
{. Ichiw ngayu, ichiw ngayu, kawchu nien mew, kawchu nien mew
Because we are both spinsters
,. Muna kom nga, muna kom nga, muna ll nga, muna ll nga dunguemew pingetukeyu, aa anay
Of everything they speak of us, all kinds of things are said of us
o. Penmufuliyu, penmufuliyu tayu suerte
Yet if we nd our destiny
. Segura nga, segura nga femafuyu
We would be able to secure our future
8. Mlerkay nga, mlerkay nga, segurapeykum, segurapeyrki, aa anay
They say that theres a way to secure ones future:
p. Sacerdote feyurkey, sacerdote feyurkey, ka mlerkey, ka mlerkey Registro Civil
They say its the priest, they also say its the Civil Registry
:o. Registro Civil, feymu rme, feymu rme, pile kay nga, yeyafuiyu, yeyafuiyu, aa anay
Thus even at the Civil Registry, we could do it
::. Ichiw kay nga, ichiw kay nga, fewmewchi nga, fewmewchi nga, seguraleyu afafuy tayu dunguey-
ngen, aa anay.
If we were able to secure our future, that would end their talk of us.
(aawen, Identier: ARNooRooo)
3
While listening to this song, I could see Luzs awareness of the cruel rumours that
surrounded her, her hope for a better future for herself and her sister, and part of her
reason for such devotion to the Catholic Church. But what struck me above and beyond
the content of the song was the fact that it was sung by a man who had shown little
patience towards her while she was alive. Why should he have chosen to sing this song
at this time? Why should he have sought to engage with the expression of a life he found
to be quite ridiculous? To whom was the song directed? To his sons? To me?
4
My
subsequent research into Mapuche personal songs has led me to believe that through
singing Luzs song, her cousin sought momentarily to inhabit and thus experience the
contours of her life. In this article I seek to describe this engagement and suggest that
the attraction of inhabiting another subjectivity enabled through song is premised on
a problem emerging from a distinct understanding of personhood, one which posits
the truth of the world as a function of unique and singular individuals.
In order to come to an understanding of this relation between Mapuche personal
songs and ideas about personhood, I seek to explore song through a Peircean frame-
work of symbol, icon, and index (Peirce I,,I). This analytical framework leads me to
make what could be conceptualized as two parallel arguments, or, alternatively, as one
argument approached from two distinct perspectives. At its broadest level, my argu-
ment is that Mapuche personal songs are isomorphic with a Mapuche theory of
Magnus Course 296
personhood. From the perspective of symbol and icon, this is manifest in what the
songs are about and in their structure, while from the perspective of index, the homol-
ogy of song with personhood becomes apparent in the actual process of singing.
Whereas this rst perspective approaches songs metalinguistically, from the outside as
it were, the second perspective approaches songs phenomenologically as experienced
from the inside. In combining these two approaches I hope to provide a richer under-
standing of the multiplicity and plurality of Mapuche song than would otherwise be
possible. The Mapuche theory of personhood to which I allude as the constitutive
factor in song is the idea that one creates oneself as che, as a true person, through a
continual process of engagement with others. Thus I argue not only that personal songs
refer to and resemble this process, but also that, ultimately, they instantiate it.
The article starts with an exploration of the place of personal songs within more
general Mapuche ideas about the nature of language. I then go on to look at the formal
musical and poetic qualities of personal songs, before describing the social context
from which they emerge. In the following section I explore how as well as being about
specic kinds of relationships with unrelated others, personal songs also resemble these
relationships in their dialogical structure. I go on to focus on the way in which the
process of singing itself simultaneously unfolds two distinct kinds of relations with
others: on the one hand, a relation is established between the singer and his or her
audience, while, on the other, a relation is established between the singer and the initial
composer of the song. In both cases, I will argue, the singer enters into a process of
self-creation through engagement with others, the mark by which Mapuche persons
become che, true persons. The inhabitation of distinct subjectivities through song is
made possible through three features: rst-person pronouns, entextualization, and
musicality. My emphasis on Mapuche song as a process of experiencing and incorpo-
rating the perspectives of others leads to the assertion that such expression is inextri-
cable from the context of Mapuche ideas about person and being, ideas that focus on
the singularity of person. Of course little of this will make any sense until I tell you
something about Mapuche song and Mapuche life.
The formal aspects of Mapuche song
To understand the salience of personal songs, one must rst understand their place
within Mapuche thinking about communicative practice in general, what could be
called Mapuche language ideology. For, as a number of writers have shown, ideas
about language use are frequently inextricable from ideas about the nature of persons
in the world (Kroskrity :ooo; Schiefin, Woolard & Kroskrity I,,8; Williams I,,,).
Personal songs are but one aspect of a plethora of forms of oral expression referred to
in Mapudungun as dungu, a term meaning both speech and language. Although in
contemporary rural Mapuche society there is no particularly developed exegetical
discourse about the role of language practices, language nevertheless plays an essential,
structuring role in Mapuche life (Carrasco I,8,; Golluscio :ooo). Of particular rel-
evance to the argument I seek to advance in this article is the fact that language is one
of the traits through which the status of che, a true person, is ascribed. Those incapable
of proper speech, such as newborn babies or drunk people, are said to not be true
people (chengelan).
5
This mutual implication of language and personhood must be
understood in light of the fact that today most people in Piedra Alta are bilingual in
Mapudungun and Spanish (winkadungun, speech of non-Mapuche), although some
older people speak only the former and some younger people only the latter. The
Why Mapuche sing 297
relationship between the two languages and their associated linguistic practices is a
highly complex matter. In general terms, while the use of Mapudungun frequently
indexes an area of life deemed to be exclusively Mapuche, Spanish may be used to refer
equally to Mapuche or winka (non-Mapuche) practices. Both Mapudungun and
Spanish seem equally acceptable forms of language to lead to the ascriptions of full
personhood described above. The personal songs which are the topic of this article are
always and without exception sung in Mapudungun.
While the importance of song in Mapuche life nds mention in the colonial
chronicles of Ovalle (I888 [Ioo]), Gmez de Vidaurre (I88, [I,8,]), and Febres (I,o,),
it is with the accounts of Lenz (I8,,), a German linguist, and Augusta (I,,I [I,Io]), a
Bavarian Capuchin missionary, that academic interest in Mapuche song begins.
6
While
the act of singing is referred to as lkantun, the songs themselves are referred to as l.
7
There is no generic category of music in Mapuche society, and the people I knew
tended to treat instrumental music and song as distinct practices (Grebe :oo;
Robertson I,,,; :oo8). The foremost distinction within the category of l is that
between what could be called secular and religious song (see Painequeo :ooo). The
most important genres of religious song are shamanic song (machi i l) and ritual
lineage songs (tayil), neither of which are performed any longer in my eldsite of
Piedra Alta.
8
While recordings of shamanic song are widely available for purchase in the
music stores of Temuco and Santiago, it is the improvised songs of everyday experience
to which people in Piedra Alta usually refer when they use the term l. For them, there
are just songs and singing, and their placing within any taxonomy of metalinguistic
categories was always an a posteriori event prompted by my own inquiries. It is these
personal songs of everyday life that are the subject of this article.
The scope of this essay only allows brief mention of the formal poetic qualities of
Mapuche song; sufce to say that it displays the marked parallelism characteristic of
Amerindian oral art forms (Cesarino :ooo; Hymes I,8I; Sherzer I,,o; Urban I,,I).
9
Songs tend to vary within a relatively xed and formulaic framework. They nearly
always start with a drawn-out, high-pitched cry which serves as an indicator that the
song is beginning. This is followed by what Painequeo describes as mtrmtun, literally
calling, which consists in the repeated use of a kinship term indicating the interlocutor
to whom the song is addressed (:ooo: ,o). A line can be identied as a series of phrases
corresponding to one outlet of breath. With each subsequent utterance within a line, a
phrase descends in pitch and volume until as the speakers breath runs out it is almost
inaudible. Songs terminate with a spoken, rather than sung, phrase, which marks the
end of the song just as the high-pitched cry marked the beginning.
Although the style of l is immediately recognizable, the actual musical structures
employed in distinct l are complex, varied, and not immediately obvious to the
unaccustomed ear. While l frequently lack the repetitive melodic and metric struc-
tures of much Western music, they are nevertheless both tonally and rhythmically
organized. The tonality of l lies in the fact that their melodic structures always relate
to a nal pitch or tonic wherein each song is resolved. These structures are compli-
cated by the high degree of elaborations at the beginning and end of lines that are
external to the structure of each song. One of the most striking characteristics of l is
the wavering pitch of many singers, which results largely from the low volume at
which l are sung. The musical aesthetics of l does not lend itself to a projection of
voice; singers tend to sing quietly with their heads slumped forward as though
absorbed in introspection.
Magnus Course 298
The life-cycle of a song
Let us explore briey what could be called the life-cycle of a Mapuche song within its
social context: its birth, its life, and its death. Songs are given birth through a singers
improvised performance to an audience, usually a small group of people gathered for
a meal at someones house, or a group sitting around drinking after nishing some
communal task. The songs will necessarily be in the rst person, and in the act of
improvisation the voice of the song and the voice of the singer will be one and the
same. In other words, when improvising a song, people only ever sing of their own lives.
They rarely attempt, in this act of creation, empathetically to express the perspective of
someone else. The ability to improvise a song is highly valued, and many people,
although good singers, acknowledge that they cannot improvise. While people often
claim that they improvise these songs on the spur of the moment, their careful con-
struction suggests they may well have prepared them beforehand in private.
I now turn to an act of improvisation which I was fortunate enough to witness. Ral
and I had ridden over to Isla Huapi on horseback, the brackish winter water of
Lago Budi coming high up our horses anks. We had come to see Rals father-in-law,
Justo, and to visit the new house built for him through government subsidy. Upon our
arrival we found Justo and several other men outside the new house, drinking. As we
drank more, people started to sing. Most songs faded away as soon as they started, the
singers unable to make themselves heard over the raucous conversations and argument.
One particular song emerged over the racket only to be shouted down by Justos wife,
who, for an undisclosed reason, did not like that song. In the ensuing moment of
silence we became conscious of Justo, head bowed, eyes closed, singing into the table:
:. Futra kuy weche wentrungen, mari kayu tripantu nien
When I was a young man, long ago, Io years old
i. Miyawun nga, miyawun nga, miyawun nga, inaltu mapu mew kay
I wandered and wandered to the ends of the land
. Kalilepen nga pipingetuy i rakiduam nga pu peiengun
Let me be this way, said my thought, my brothers
{. Pelyen nga kie pichi koi nga petun nga inaltu nga miyawi feychi mapu
I met a little creature there wandering too at those ends of the land
,. Amuan nga, amuan nga, inantukuan nga pilen nga i rakiduam
I will go, yes, Ill follow her, said my thought
o. Koiperkenew, kuifaltuperkenew
As a creature she appeared to me, as an orphan
. Koylakoylatuenew
She lied and lied to me
8. Femlayan nga pikunomekutun i rakiduam kuy nga kuy
I cannot accept it, said my thought long, long ago
p. Muna weda koi em, muna weda koi em, pipingen iche weche wentrungen
Shes very bad that little creature, so bad, I said to myself as a young man
:o. Feychi pichi kuifal, pikunomekutuy i rakiduam
That little orphan, said my thought.
::. Akulen nga, akulen pulen nga pulen kay, feymunemakay welukintuwelnu Chumanchi nga chuman-
chi, pifuy nga i rakiduam
Shes coming here, shes going there, always glancing to the side. What am I to do? What is there to
do?, says my thought.
:i. Kapofokonowun, kapofokonowun, amulen nga amulen, nien nga nien
Ive lost my mind again, Ive lost my mind again, Im going, yes, going, I have her, I have.
:. Welu kai nga mangelutun wentrungen fele nga i rakiduam
But that I had trusted her, yet thats what being a man is like, my thought.
:{. Pikunomeketun.
This is what Im saying now.
(Mari kayu tripantu nielu, Identier: ARNooRoo,)
I later asked Justo about this song. I just made it up. Its my life, was all he would say.
The features of Mapuche song that allow it to encapsulate subjectivities will be dis-
cussed in detail later on, but it is worth highlighting here the way the proliferation of
instances of pronominal deixis aligns the experience encapsulated in the song with its
singer. In fact every single line of Justos song contains some instance of indexical
reference to the rst person, in some cases as the isolated rst-person single pronoun
iche, in others as the possessive pronoun, i, and in still others as the verbal sufx -n.
The song also displays what, as we shall see, is a characteristically dialogical con-
struction: the song as a whole is addressed to my brothers (pu pei), but also
contains a further internal dialogue between Justo and his own objectied thought
(i rakiduam).
Most songs die at birth. No one shows any interest or appreciation and the song is
never sung again. The alcohol-fuelled enthusiasm with which people are prepared to
improvise seems to be inversely correlated to the quality of the song. Nevertheless, if a
singer feels that his or her song has gone down well, in other words that people have
actually listened to it, and he or she feels that it successfully achieves its artistic goal,
then it may well be repeated to a different audience on another occasion. It is at this
stage that a song acquires what could be called a title, usually the rst full line of the
song or else a repeated refrain. Songs at this stage also come to be spoken of as
possessions of their creators. This is not to say that other people are prohibited from
singing these songs, merely that they are recognized as the original composers creation.
Nevertheless, people only very rarely sing the songs of those composers still living but
resort instead to the ever-expanding back catalogue of the dead. By far and away the
songs most frequently sung are those composed by people who are no longer alive.
Singers almost always identify the composer of a song either directly before or after its
performance. Such a performance often gives rise to a conversation about the life of the
deceased composer. Despite the fact that as a whole Mapuche life is highly gendered,
singing is not so. Both men and women sing, and both men and women improvise, and,
furthermore, women may sing songs composed by men, and men sing those composed
by women.
Song as representation, song as icon
What, then, are Mapuche personal songs about? They are about social relationships and
the problems that such relationships inevitably entail. In this regard, l are no different
from most songs sung in most parts of the world. So let us focus in more detail on
exactly which kinds of social relationships and their concomitant problems are deemed
song-worthy in Mapuche life. With very few exceptions, the songs I heard during my
eldwork were about afnal as opposed to consanguineal relations. I have neither heard
nor read accounts of songs concerned with consanguineal relationships.
10
There are
Magnus Course 300
none of the songs of lial, parental, or fraternal love so central to folk traditions in
Europe and elsewhere. Songs which at rst appear as exceptions are actually concerned
with consanguines acting as afnes.
Mapuche l focus on a variety of problems associated with afnal others, both from
a male and female perspective, and from different stages in a persons life. Songs from
a womans perspective refer to the deceitful nature of men, to the highly constrained
relationship with sons-in-law, to the trauma of leaving ones natal community, and to
ones marital status being a staple of community gossip. In a similar manner, mens
songs refer to the deceitful nature of women, to the jealousy of brothers, and to unjust
rejections of romantic love. A recurring feature is the assertion of ones own material
worth in the face of such unjust treatment; thus the voice of Rmpelfe pei displays his
shining silver spurs and glittering reins:
:8. Elukulen mew llumllumninga llumllum i espuela, wlfuyinga, wlfuyinga i kume plata, plata,
plata witrantukume, plata estripu, fewmenga, fewmenga
Because of my good clothes, because of my shining spurs, because of my glittering reins, because of
my silver stirrups
(Rmpelfe pei, Identier: ARNooRoo,)
While the betrayed woman of Weda ngoluche nds solace in her four great horses:
. Ito inalye nga, ito inalye nga, ito inalye nga, ito inalye nga, inalyerken may
I decided to follow him, I decided to follow him and follow him I did
8. Kie, epu, kula, meli futa mashantu, tai inayyem
One, two, three, four great horses, with which to follow him
p. Elme nga weda ngoluche
That foolish and bad man from the East.
(Weda ngoluche, ID: ARNooRoII)
A striking feature of l is that they are always constituted as a dialogue, and frequently
as a series of embedded dialogues. At the most encompassing level of dialogue, a song
as a whole is usually addressed to a consanguineal interlocutor often by a sibling term
such as pei, lamngen, or aa, which is repeated at the beginning of the song and
frequently forms a recurring refrain. This addressee is an invariant part of the song and
is not modied to reect the composition of the audience for each actual performance.
In many cases a second level of dialogue is embedded within that already occurring
between the singer and the sibling to whom the song is addressed.
11
This embedded
dialogue is frequently the reported speech constitutive of the afnal relation compris-
ing the songs theme. Although some songs are addressed to their subject, the vast
majority of the everyday songs which are the subject of this article are addressed to a
consanguine and about an afne.
In this sense l bear an iconic resemblance to the indigenous conception of the
person, che in Mapudungun. More specically, I want to suggest that the dialogical
constitution of Mapuche song resembles the dialogical constitution of the Mapuche
person, as it is through entering into relations of afnity that true personhood is
established.
12
Let me explain this in more detail: each infant is the product of the kpal,
descent, of its mother and father, descent which links it to its four grandparents,
described metaphorically as meli folil, four roots. Kpal is understood to be a given
component of the person: xed, immutable, and permanent from the moment of
conception. Its inuence is visible in each persons physical characteristics, in their
relations with spirits, in their capacity to full certain social roles, and in their moral
behaviour. Although, in theory, kpal links one equally to both matrilateral and patri-
lateral kin, it is usually only patrilineally related people who are spoken of as sharing
kie kpal, one descent. Being of kie kpal implies a shared identity, an identity which
further implies mutual assistance and solidarity. Yet to become a true person, to
become che, one must necessarily go beyond these relations of identity given at birth
and demonstrate ones own autonomous volition through the creation of relations
with non-kin, with potential afnes, whether these be friends or lovers. We have already
seen above how language is one capacity for which the status of che is ascribed; it is also
the medium through which this status is ascribed: both formal and informal greetings
are explicit acknowledgements that ones interlocutor is che. In addition to the
exchange of words, it is often the exchange of material goods through which relations
with non-kin are created and maintained. Many of the communal events of Mapuche
life, such as the ngillatun fertility ritual and the sport of palin, are actually better
thought of as the aggregation of numerous dyadic exchange relationships between
individuals. For most Mapuche people it is the establishment of relations with non-kin
which is the ultimate goal of social life, and co-operation with kin is often viewed
simply as a means to achieving this end. For example, men sharing kpal will
co-operate in the organization of a game of palin in order that they can each, as
individuals, provide hospitality for their unrelated friends. The key point is that this
Mapuche conceptualization of the person is distinctly centrifugal, a constant move-
ment outward from given consanguineal relations towards the creation of relations
with unrelated others (Course :oo,; :oo,; :oo,). So just as the Mapuche person is
grounded in a relationship of consanguinity that serves as an anchoring point for
entering into relations of afnity, Mapuche song, too, emerges from an initial dialogue
of consanguinity to enter into a dialogue of afnity. Mapuche l both describe and
resemble this outward movement, this process of engagement with the other; they
reference it both lexically and iconically.
Song as index
I have written above of the representational aspect of Mapuche l, both in the sense of
lexical reference what the songs are about and in the sense of iconic reference what
the songs resemble. In both of these instances the songs are about something other than
themselves. In other words, they represent something. But of course language cannot be
reduced to representational meaning alone, a point made in different ways by any
number of linguists, philosophers, and anthropologists throughout the twentieth
century. I want nowto explore howMapuche song, as well as being about relations with
others, is itself a process of relating with others, and consequently an index of this
relation. More specically, I want to suggest that there are two distinct relations going
on during the performance of l. Firstly, there is the external relation between singer
and audience. But, secondly, there is also an internal relation between the singer and
the composer of the song, whose subjectivity, I will suggest, is encapsulated within
the song.
Abroad literature onparticipation provides an analytical starting point for address-
ing the mutually implicative roles of singer and audience in the performance of l
Magnus Course 302
(Bauman I,,,; Goffman I,,; I,8I; Goodwin I,,o; Philips I,,:). Mapuche l are
performed in a wide variety of what Philips (I,,:) has referred to as participant
structures, particular congurations of speaker and hearer, and the roles which each
particular conguration implies. In addition to these culturally specic congurations,
Goodwins (I,,o) notion of participant framework highlights the importance of the
dynamic between speaker and audience. However, the very heterogeneity of contexts in
which songs are sung makes it difcult to generalize about these performative aspects
of l. In some performances, such as Rals peformance of his grandmothers song
Rosa pingen described below, there are just two participants. In others, such as Justos
performance described previously, there may be several. The particular dynamics of
participation will clearly differ in each one. One general statement about participation
which can be made is that the prescribed role of the audience in l is minimal. People
either listen to the song, or else ignore the singer and carry on talking. Audience
members rarely applaud or respond directly in any way to a song. Listening is in itself
taken as a sign that a song has gone down well. The difculty of addressing these
participatory aspects of l is exacerbated by the fact that Mapuche people rarely, if ever,
provide any explicit explanation of why they sing and why they listen. The two excep-
tions to this exegetical absence concern singing in the positive sense of seduction and
the negative sense of insult.
13
According to both men and women, songs used to play a central role in courtship. At
occasions when unmarried women and men would meet publicly, both men and
women would sing in the hope of seducing their desired partner. Being of good voice,
kme pel (literally good throat), was, and still is, a highly attractive quality. Today,
certain older men are famous, or perhaps infamous, for their ability to draw women
physically near to them from across the room by the beauty of their song alone. Young
people these days, however, have different strategies for proving themselves attractive to
one another, and the previous instrumentality of l in forging romantic relations has
ceased to be of such importance.
14
One instrumental usage of song which has not
disappeared is its negative use as a form of veiled insult to specic members of an
audience, referred to in Mapudungun as pilmal dungu. I get the impression, however,
that these kinds of insults are far more often perceived than intended.
Now while this emphasis on participation offers analytical purchase on what could
be called the externally dialogical aspect of l, it is perhaps less helpful in addressing
what could be called its internally dialogical aspect.
15
For I do not want to overem-
phasize the instrumentality or social efcacy of Mapuche song. Most of the time people
sing to an audience whom they wish neither to seduce nor to insult. To locate the
central dynamic of l as necessarily taking place between singer and audience in every
instance is perhaps to overlook one of its central features. Indeed, what I want to
suggest is that in many instances the most profound source of engagement suggested by
Mapuche song is not that between the singer and his or her audience, but that between
the singer and the intentionalized voice of the songs composer embodied in the
song itself.
Upon my return to Piedra Alta after an absence of several months, I was talking and
drinking with my compadre Ral, a father of ve who had just turned ,o. We sat up late
into the night, drinking and talking of our lives. Ral told me of his mothers death in
childbirth and his upbringing by his paternal grandmother, Rosa Pinchulaf. He
described to me how Rosa would sit by the stove each night to drink mat tea and sing
the songs of people she had known, sometimes accompanied by her husband, but more
often than not on her own. Ral, sitting now at that same stove, sang one of Rosas own
songs, Rosa pingen:
:. Troltren kupan nga, Troltren kpaln nga, iche anay, iche anay
I came here from Tolten, a descendant of Tolten
i. Akun mai akun, akun may akun, tufachi mapu, tufachi mapu, iche anay, iche anay
I arrived at this land
. Tufachi koi, tufachi koi, alnrupay nga, alnrupay nga, kupay
Just a poor creature then, so long ago
{. Feymew nga feymu, feymew nga feymu, iche, iche nga, Rosa pingen nga, Rosa Pingen nga, Rosa
pingen
That was why they called me Rosa
,. Welu kay welu, welu kay welu, welu kay welu, alnrupay nga, alnrupay nga, tripantu anay, tripantu
anay
But now so many years have passed
o. Feymu kay iche, iche kay nga, mlchokatuy nga, mlchokatuy nga, tai rayen nga, tai rayen nga
That now the ower has wilted, my ower has wilted
. Kufyi kay kuy, Rosa ngefun nga, Rosa ngefun nga, Rosa ngefun nga, iche kay nga
Long ago I was a true rose to myself
8. Welu kay welu, mlchokatuy nga tai rayen nga, ti anay ti anay
But now the poor ower has wilted.
(Rosa pingen, Identier: ARNooRoo8)
I assumed that the tears that rolled down his face as he sang were for the loss of his
grandmother, who had died several years previously, a woman he always referred to as
mother (uke). However, his sadness, he corrected me, was for Rosa herself, for her
experience of isolation, loneliness, and ageing, an experience he had momentarily
shared with her in singing her song. Once again the song is saturated with instances of
pronominal deixis. In terms of its dialogicality, the song is slightly unusual in that the
afnal relation at its core remains implicit, referred to indirectly through the descrip-
tion of upheaval and isolation caused by virilocal residence.
This idea that language may be a vehicle for subjectivity is characteristic of a
wide variety of non-representational approaches and is made particularly explicit in
phenomenological writings on the subject. Heideggers mantra that language is the
house of being is perhaps the denitive statement for a variety of phenomenological
approaches to language (I,,I: I,:). Phenomenological and other approaches within a
number of academic disciplines have established that language, far from being simply
a representation of the world, is at once constitutive of that world and of our interac-
tion with it. One issue which arises from such an approach is that of how to account for
the use of the words of others, whether through direct or indirect quotation. The acts
of alterity so characteristic of all language use challenge any understanding of language
as an unmediated engagement with the world (Hastings & Manning :oo). If language
really is the house of being, what kind of house is offered in the language of others? By
what means or mechanisms do we come to inhabit these houses, to dwell within the
words of others? Or put another way, what does it mean to sing someone elses song?
I seek to answer these questions with reference to three specic features of Mapuche
song: its insistence on rst-person pronouns, its entextualization, and its musicality.
As I have already mentioned, the songs we are talking about are always and without
Magnus Course 304
exception sung in the rst person, usually rst-person singular, occasionally rst-
person dual. I want to suggest that it is this insistence on the rst-person perspective in
Mapuche song which allows the song to become the inhabitable experience of another
subjectivity. This assertion will become clearer when we consider mile Benvenistes
(I,,I) meditation on the role of pronouns in the construction of subjectivity. Ben-
veniste points out that what are usually lumped together under the label of grammati-
cal person are actually radically different entities. Whereas the third person refers to an
entity outside of the instance of discourse, I can only be identied by the instance of
discourse that contains it and by that alone (I,,I: :I8). This rst person I necessarily
implies a second person, you, which is symmetrical to the rst person in being identi-
able by the instance of discourse alone. Benveniste goes on to suggest that it is this
polarity of person upon which all instances of deixis are built: thus neither spatial nor
temporal deixis, the building blocks of language, could exist if language were not
inhabited by a subject with a unique perspective on the world. A language without the
expression of person cannot be imagined, he says (I,,I: ::,). It is the rst-person
pronoun which anchors language to the world. Or as Holquist puts it in his discussion
of Bakhtin, I is the needle that stitches the abstraction of language to the particu-
larity of lived experience (I,,o: :8). However, it is important to note for our present
purpose that Benvenistes argument cuts both ways, for not only is language dependent
upon subjectivity in the form of personal pronouns, but subjectivity itself is dependent
upon and emergent through the use of the personal pronoun I.
Where Benvenistes approach falls short is in assuming that use of the rst-person
pronoun necessarily refers to the speaker of the utterance. This assertion ignores the
universal existence of direct quotation in which the use of I refers to someone else. This
poses a serious problem to the analysis of Mapuche song, as it is only in an act of
improvisation that the I of the song is equivalent to the I of the singer. In most instances
people are singing the songs of others, most frequently the songs of deceased others.
So if Benveniste is right in seeing the use of I as implying subjectivity, what kinds
of subjectivity are implied in singing the I of another? This lacuna in Benvenistes
analytical framework has been addressed in detail by Greg Urban (I,8,).
16
Urban points out that the use of I in everyday quoted speech is clearly not indexical
of the speaker. In order to understand this quoted I of another, Urban creates a
framework based upon a continuum of identity between the I of the initial utterance
and the I who is quoting the utterance. At one end of the continuum, the I is simply
shorthand for the third person. This is what Urban calls the anaphoric I. The meta-
linguistic brackets of He said, She said, make it clear just who the I is referring to.
Further along the continuum is the de-quotative I when these surrounding metalin-
guistic brackets have faded away and it is context alone which allows for the interpre-
tation of the I as distinct from the person uttering it. The next step is the theatrical I,
in which only the cultural context of performance allows the I of the speaker and of the
referent to be distinguished. Finally, we come to the projective I, in which the subjec-
tivities of speaker and referent are so blurred that the I ceases to be quotative at all.
Urban gives spirit possession and schizophrenia as examples of this end of the
continuum.
So where does Mapuche song t along this continuum of the I of others? I would
certainly not want to suggest that the singer totally loses a sense of his or her own
subjectivity, as is the case in Mapuche shamanic possession, duymin. But nor would I
want to suggest that Mapuche song is simply an act of quotation, as occurs in everyday
speech, re dungu. It is, I will argue, a habitation within the subjectivity of another, a
temporary act of dwelling in which the singer feels the contours of anothers life give
shape to his or her own. And it is this temporary dwelling which is a source of attraction
to singer and audience alike. I want to look briey now at two further features of
Mapuche song which allow the subjectivity encapsulated within song to become inhab-
itable: its entextualization and its musicality.
As I have mentioned above, the parameters of Mapuche song are rather narrow,
tending to follow a formulaic structure of parallel repetition. However, in the act of
improvisation, even these relatively narrow margins of the genre allow for almost
limitless possibilities of expression. The artistry of the successful singer lies in the
manipulation of these conventional limits. Yet whereas the xity of the genre is anony-
mous and frequently unconscious, the xity of each song is of a different nature. All of
the singers I know would seek to replicate a song in all of its aspects and would not try
to modify or amend the song in any way. This is not to say that in each instance a song
was a perfect replication of an original; people would frequently acknowledge forget-
ting lines or entire stanzas. Nor is it to say that songs do not change over time.
Nevertheless, the point is that for the most part singers understand themselves to be
repeating a xed form. Why is this important to our question of subjectivity? Because
it is this very xity of form, this text-like, object-like quality of Mapuche song, which
allows the voice of the initial composer to be divorced from the initial context of the
act of composition and subsequently to transcend time and space, a process of objec-
tication referred to as entextualization (Bauman & Briggs I,,o; Lempert & Perrino
:oo,; Silverstein & Urban I,,o). Furthermore, it is this entextualization which allows
the voice of the composer to withstand its inhabitation by the contemporary singer
and retain the imprint of the composers subjectivity. Think of the actors goal of
losing oneself in the role, a process made possible by the xity of script. It is in this
sense that we can think of Mapuche song as monologic, an encapsulation of the
totalized intent of the voice of the composer, manifest as the voice of the song. It is this
entextualized intent which imposes its subjectivity on the singer through xity of form
and subsequently allows discourse to transcend time. Despite this xity of form, I
should make it clear here that this act of alterity achieved through song is the result of
each singers creative agency (Hastings & Manning :oo: :,:). This agency is manifest
in the fact that singers choose to sing, and, furthermore, that they choose what to sing.
Just as the songs entextualization partially isolates the subjectivity at its centre from
the context of its performance, I want to suggest that so too does its musicality. Up until
now, I have only addressed l as texts and neglected the fact that they are, by denition,
sung. Yet our question is not simply that of what it means to speak the words of another,
but rather that of what it means to sing them. When asked how song differs from
speech, most of the singers with whom I worked replied that the former had melody
and the latter did not. As to the question of Why sing?, people either stated that they
did not know or simply that it comes out better (doy kme tripay). A more suggestive
answer was given by a Mapuche man, Francisco Ancatruz, to the ethnomusicologist
Carolina Robertson in I,,:: It is known that tayil means something, but the answer
comes out slowly. This must be because it has another kind of meaning (Robertson
I,,,: o,). Although Franciscos answer refers to tayil or sacred song, I believe it
equally applicable to l. The key point here is Franciscos assertion that song has
another kind of meaning.
17
This differentiation of song and speech on semantic
grounds nds a parallel in Rousseaus insistence that the rst language, which took the
Magnus Course 306
form of song, would persuade without convincing, and would represent without
reasoning (I,oo: I,). This emphasis on the role of musicality in undermining and
transforming the locus of semantic meaning casts light upon Mapuche notions of the
semantic difference between lkantun (singing) and re dungu (everyday speech). What
I want to emphasize for the purposes of this argument is that the musicality of l is yet
another aspect by which the voice of the singer is diluted and merged with that of the
songs composer.
What I have tried to demonstrate in this section is that Mapuche song is not
simply a representation of entering into relations with others; it can additionally be
understood both as a form of relation with others, but also as a process of becoming
other. In this sense, l are examples of what Peirce (I,,:) called indexical icons; they
are what they are about. And l are about the creation of specic types of social
relations of which they themselves are privileged examples. This is made possible by
the fact that Mapuche l are simultaneously closed, text-like objects and open, uid
structures of relations. An alternative vocabulary for thinking about this is Bakhtins
(I,8I) distinction between monological and dialogical forms of discourse. While
anthropologists have seized on Bakhtins emphasis on the dialogical, they have
tended to overlook his insistence that there is a constant tension between the mono-
logical totalizing closed voice of the author and its internal and external fragmen-
tation through its engagement with others. This tension between closed and open,
monological and dialogical aspects is, for Bakhtin, an intrinsic and inevitable quality
of discourse. There is no dialectic here, for one cannot supersede the other (Hill
I,8o: ,,).
Singularity in song
Let us turn nally to the composer, to his or her identity, and its manifestation in song.
In most cases a song is ascribed to a composer known to both the singer and the
audience. As I mentioned above, any song which is not a composition of the singer will
always be explicitly ascribed to its composer. The ascription of a song to a composer is
usually accompanied by a discussion of his or her life, and in this sense l play a
mnemonic role in the constitution of memory. However, in many cases, owing to the
age of a song, its composer is no longer known. This does not stop an attempt at
ascription being made, as the singer and audience speculate about the identity of the
original composer based upon clues within the song itself. After Cornelios perfor-
mance of Weda alka, a song reputed to be over :oo years old, a discussion ensued
among the group of drinkers in the recently sown potato eld. The discussion centred
on the predicament faced by the songs initial composer, a woman unable to attend to
her son-in-law, not only because of her lack of food, but also because of the mutual
avoidance expected between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law institutionalized in
Mapuche life as yewelwen:
o. Konpaley nga, chempichi nga? Ilela tai llalla?
If he enters now, what should I say? What food can I offer him, my son-in-law?
. Mna kishulen
Im so alone.
8. Epu kushe achawall nienukefun ka kie fucha alka
Just two old hens and one old cockerel is all I have.
p. Welu kay nga kuram rume kuramwelay ai epu kusheke achawall
But no eggs whatsoever lay my two old hens
:o. Weda alka, weda alka, pishawekelay
That bad cockerel he no longer stamps them
::. Mna kishuletun nga
Yes, Im so alone
:i. Iloan weda alka pisaweperkelay
Ill slaughter that bad old cockerel that they say no longer stamps
:. Pisalefuley kuramkelekeafuy ai epu kushe achawall
If he stamped them, my two old hens would be laying eggs
:{. Pisaliley nieafuynga kuram ai epu kushe achawall
If he stamped them, they would have eggs my two old hens
:,. Niemuli kuram achawall fey wall rume eluan kuram tai llalla
If I had any eggs whatsoever, Id give them to my son-in-law
:o. Iloa nga tai futa alka, fewmew kai nga kudan rume eluan ipayaya nga ai wesha llalla.
Ill slaughter that old cockerel, so at least Ill have his testicles to give my poor son-in-law when he
comes to eat.
(Weda alka, Identier: ARNooRoIo)
The ensuing discussion revolved around the attempt to ascribe an identity to the
songs composer rather than simply ascribing the song to a generic mother-in-law
category of composer. Where was the singer from? Who might be her descendants?
Why was she so alone? What would her son-in-law say upon receiving cockerels
testicles? The crucial point here is the emphasis people attach to having in their minds
a precise image of who each songs composer was. For as we shall see as we turn to the
framework of relations from which the Mapuche person emerges, there can be no
generic, generalized composers or generic, generalized acts of composition. Each song
has, by denition, a singular and unique composer who engaged in a singular and
unique act of composition, and it is the singular person of the composer which is
replicated in the act of singing. The reasons behind this singularity of song will
become clearer as we turn to the relation of Mapuche song to Mapuche theories of the
person.
The singular person
Aspects of what I have argued about Mapuche song its focus on afnal relations and
its utilization as an instrumental relation could well be said of many song traditions
around the world. However, I mentioned earlier that the engagement with distinct
subjectivities enabled through Mapuche song was perhaps based upon ideas about the
nature of persons distinct from our own. What are these distinct ideas and how do they
give distinct meaning to the act of engaging with others through song? Put simply, I
want to suggest that the emphasis on singularity and alterity, and the subsequent
possibility of inhabiting a song, cannot be understood outside of an emphasis on
singularity and alterity within ideas held by Mapuche people about the nature of
personhood.
Living in a Mapuche community, one quickly recognizes a general concern or even
scepticism about the epistemological validity of other peoples perspectives. This
concern is indexed linguistically through the ubiquity of evidential markers when
speaking Mapudungun (the particle -rke-), or the ubiquitous it is said that (se dice
Magnus Course 308
que) when speaking Spanish. By highlighting the unveried epistemological condi-
tion of the proposition of the utterance, the speaker creates an opening for doubt.
More importantly, judgements or courses of action are generally only considered
valid when based upon direct rather than reported experience. This is linked to a
general reluctance to give advice (nglam) to others, for, according to Mapuche
people, it is only the person who is experiencing a problem who can fully understand
the best course of action to take. This scepticism towards the possibility of fully
comprehending someone elses perspective on the world is, I would suggest, not so
much down to the perceived mendacity of people as to the particularity of what
constitutes the world for each person. This divergence of perspectives among true
persons is perhaps a function of the uniqueness of each person as understood in
terms of ideas about kinship and personhood.
18
As I described above, through a
continual process of self-creation each true person (che) comes to differentiate them-
selves from every other person. Yet in creating oneself through creating relations with
non-related others, one is also to some extent accepting the validity of their perspec-
tive as che. Such a conceptualization of being in the world in which true persons are
constantly differentiating themselves from one another inevitably raises a problem of
solipsism: how does one come to know that the other through which one creates
oneself is a true person? Overing and Passes (:ooo) have convincingly argued that,
for Amazonia at least, social processes of conviviality and consubstantiality are
answers to this question. Yet in the Mapuche context, these can only ever be partial
answers, for even the closest consanguines inevitably come to differentiate themselves
from one another in the process of becoming che. While ultimately this question of
solipsism can never be fully answered, it is the salience of the question from which
emerges the attraction of the engagement with another subjectivity enabled by l.
There is not space in this article to explore the full relevance of singularity for
Mapuche life; my purpose is simply to highlight the fact that the singularity of sub-
jectivity at the centre of each and every l resonates with and is part of an under-
standing of personhood as necessarily singular and its concomitant epistemological
problems. To appreciate fully the concern with singularity and alterity in Mapuche
song, it cannot be reduced to arbitrary artistic decision or a simple convention of the
genre, but must rather be fully situated within the framework of ideas about the
nature of personhood from which it emerges.
Conclusion
In this article I have sought to describe the everyday songs of Mapuche life. Approach-
ing these songs from a Peircean framework of symbol, icon, and index, I have suggested
that their principal focus is on the representation, instantiation, and inhabiting of
relations of alterity. This centrifugal quality of l is isomorphic with the centrifugality
of the Mapuche person. Much of their power lies in the tension between the closed,
entextualized quality which enables the composers subjectivity to move through time
and space, and their open, dialogical quality which allows them to be experienced by
the distinct subjectivities of singer and audience.
In the book to which the title of this article pays homage, Anthony Seeger argues for
a musical anthropology as opposed to an anthropology of music. Whereas the latter
seeks to understand the role of music within culture or society, a musical anthropology
focuses on music as part of the very construction and interpretation of social and
conceptual relationships and processes (I,8,: xiv).
19
In this article I have sought to
describe how l are not just representations of, or comments upon, the Mapuche
experience of life, they are part and parcel of it. Furthermore, they are particularly
salient because as poetic forms they offer condensed versions of a particularly Mapuche
understanding of persons in the world. In line with Raymond Williamss assertion that
any theory of language is also a theory of personhood (I,,,: :I), I hope to have
demonstrated that the nature of Mapuche song cannot be fully understood without a
proper understanding of the Mapuche person. There are of course many reasons why
Mapuche sing, and I follow Seegers caution in refusing to posit any nal cause for
song (I,8,: xv). The effect of Mapuche song I have chosen to focus upon here has been
the possibility of engagement with the singularity of other lives, a possibility made
attractive by the shadowof solipsism. The engagement enabled through l is an engage-
ment which must be taken seriously, for within it lies the truth of the other. There is
therefore a truth in Mapuche song, but like all truths in Mapuche life, it does not exist
in the generic realms of law, religion, or culture, but rather through the lived expe-
rience of singular and unique individuals, a lived experience of truth, which is shared
through song.
NOTES
The research upon which this article is based was supported by a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow-
ship and Small Research Grant, and I thank the Academy for its support. Earlier versions were presented in
seminars at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews and the Institute for Latin
American Studies, University of Liverpool, and beneted greatly from participants comments. Further
thanks are owed to Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Ana Fernndez Garay, Peter Gow, Maya Mayblin, Philipp
Mller, Peter Nelson, Hector Painequeo, Steve Rubenstein, John Shaw, Joel Sherzer, and Michael Scott. I am
especially grateful to the anonymous reviewers of JRAI, as well as its Editor, Simon Coleman, for their insights
and suggestions. I further thank Sergio Painemilla Huarapil and Ral Painemilla Painemilla for their help in
translating the songs discussed herein. My biggest debt is to the singers who have shared their l with me over
many years.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Domingo Huerapil Nagun.
1
The Mapuche are an indigenous people of Chile and Argentina numbering approximately one million.
This article is based upon twenty-six months of research carried out in :ooI-,, :ooo, and :oo, in Piedra Alta
located between Lago Budi and the Pacic Ocean in Chiles Ninth Region.
2
The genetic relationship of Mapudungun to other Amerindian languages is an issue of no little contro-
versy and as such is probably best thought of as a linguistic isolate. Recent studies of Mapudungun include
Golluscio (:ooo); Smeets (:oo8); and Ziga (:ooo).
3
For reasons of simplicity and space, each l discussed in this article is presented as an original transcrip-
tion accompanied by my own free translation. These translations admittedly butcher many of the meticu-
lously constructed parallelisms of the originals. However, interested parties may access the original
recordings, transcriptions, and literal translations of the l through the Archive of the Indigenous Languages
of Latin America, http://www.ailla.utexas.org.
4
All of the songs mentioned in this article were not elicited but recorded as they occurred. However, the
fact that I had previously asked people in the community for permission to record their l may or may not
have had a bearing on the nature of their performances. The recordings were transcribed and translated at a
later date with the help of local assistants.
5
The capacity for proper speech is not limited to true people; a variety of non-human entities are also
capable of speech, but their lack of proper human bodies prevents their ascription as che (Course :oo,: o,-,).
6
More recent accounts of Mapuche song include Golluscio (:ooo); Grebe (:oo); Painequeo (:ooo); Prez
de Arce (:oo8); Robertson (I,,,; :oo; :oo8); and Titiev (I,,).
7
lkantun is frequently mistaken as a cognate of the Spanish cantar to sing. The resemblance is coinci-
dental; -kantun consists of the particles ka, -tu-, and -n.
8
See Bacigalupo (I,,8; :oo,) and Robertson (I,,,), for the nature of Mapuche shamanic song.
9
There is of course a great deal more to be said about the musical and poetic qualities of Mapuche song,
but, given the constraints of this article, this brief overview must sufce.
Magnus Course 310
10
My distinction between afnal and consanguineal relations is based on the concept of sharing kpal, or
sharing descent, a term applied to all patrilineal relatives and immediate matrilateral relatives (Course :oo,;
:oo,).
11
In some cases, as in Justos song, thought itself is represented as an internal dialogue (cf. Voloinov I,,,
[I,:,]).
12
Here I am referring to potential afnity rather than actual afnity. As Viveiros de Castro (:ooo) has
demonstrated, actual afnes are but one aspect of a symbolic realm of alterity from which consanguinity
must be constructed. In the Mapuche context, it is friends (weny) who constitute the most potent form of
potential afne.
13
In addition to the instrumental uses of song as insult and seduction, Titiev (I,,) suggests that songs
constituted a means by which women could complain of maltreatment by their husbands and afnes.
14
It is worth noting that one of the goals of shamanic song is to seduce the spirits into entering the
shamans body, a process described in detail by Bacigalupo (:oo,).
15
See Hastings & Manning (:oo: :,,) for a critique of the overemphasis on external dialogism.
16
Goffmans (I,,) seminal work on footing also attempts to disentangle the relationship between
speaker and participant role. In Goffmans terms, the composer would be author while the singer would be
animator.
17
This point brings to mind Lvi-Strausss characterization of music as understandable, yet untranslatable
(I,,o [I,o]: Io).
18
Echoes of the perspectivism so well described for other Amerindian peoples (Lima I,,,; Viveiros de
Castro I,,8) are clearly present in Mapuche life, and although space does not permit me to discuss its full
relevance here, it is worth mentioning that singularity is one possible, although not necessary, implication of
a perspectival ontology.
19
See also Feld (I,8:; I,8) for an attempt to understand musical expression as social relation.
REFERENCES
Aucus1., F.F. I,,I [I,Io]. Lecturas araucanas. Temuco: Editorial Kushe.
B.cic.iuvo, A.M. I,,8. The exorcizing sounds of warfare: the performance of shamanic healing and the
struggle to remain Mapuche. Anthropology of Consciousness p, I-Io.
:oo,. Shamans of the foye tree: gender, power, and healing among the Chilean Mapuche. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
B.xu1ix, M.M. I,8I. The dialogic imagination: essays by M.M. Bakhtin (ed. M. Holquist, trans. C. Emerson
& M. Holquist). Austin: University of Texas Press.
B.ux.x, R. I,,,. Verbal art as performance. American Anthropologist , :,o-,II.
& C.L. Bviccs I,,o. Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life.
Annual Review of Anthropology :p, ,,-88.
Bvxvvxis1v, . I,,I. Problems in general linguistics (trans. M. Meek). Miami: University Press.
C.vv.sco, H. I,8,. Sistema mtico y relato oral mapuche. Estudios Filolgicos io, 8,-,o.
Cvs.vixo, P. :ooo. De duplos e estereoscpios: paralelismo e personicao nos cantos xamansticos amern-
dios. Mana :i, Io,-,.
Couvsv, M. :oo,. Borges, the Mapuche, and the mothers brothers son. Cambridge Anthropology i,, II-,o.
:oo,. Death, biography, and the Mapuche person. Ethnos i, ,,-IoI.
:oo,. Mapuche i mongen: indivduo y sociedad en la vida mapuche rural. Temuco: Editorial Univer-
sidad de la Frontera.
Fvnvvs, A. I,o,. Arte de la lengua general del Reyno de Chile. Lima.
Fviu, S. I,8:. Sound and sentiment: birds, weeping, poetics and song in Kaluli expression. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
I,8. Sound structure as social structure. Ethnomusicology i8, ,8,-o,.
Govvx.x, E. I,,. Frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press.
I,8I. Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Goiiuscio, L. :ooo. El pueblo Mapuche: poticas de pertenencia y devenir. Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos.
Go xvz uv Viu.uvvv, F. I88, [I,8,]. Historia geogrca, natural y civil de Chile. Santiago: Imprenta Ercilla.
Goouwix, M. I,,o. He-said-she-said: talk as social organization among black children. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Gvvnv, M.E. :oo. Amerindian music of Chile. In Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: an encyclopedic
history, vol. I. (ed.) M. Kuss, I,-o,. Austin: University of Texas Press.
H.s1ixcs, A. & P. M.xxixc :oo. Introduction: acts of alterity. Language & Communication i{,
:,I-,Io.
Hviuvccvv, M. I,,I. Poetry, language, thought (trans. T. Hofsadter). New York: Harper & Row.
Hiii, J.H. I,8o. The reconguration of the anthropology of language. Cultural Anthropology :, 8,-Io:.
Hoiquis1, M. I,,o. Dialogism: Bakhtin and his world. London: Routledge.
Hsxvs, D. I,8I. In vain I tried to tell you: essays in Native American ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Kvosxvi1s, P. (ed.) :ooo. Regimes of language: ideologies, polities, and identities. Santa Fe: School of American
Research Press.
Lvxvvv1, M. & S. Pvvvixo :oo,. Entextualization and the ends of temporality. Language and Communica-
tion i, :o,-II.
Lvxz, R. I8,,. Estudios araucanos. Santiago: Anales de la Universidad de Chile.
Lv vi-S1v.uss, C. I,,o [I,o]. The raw and the cooked: introduction to a science of mythology, vol. I (trans.
J. & D. Weightman). New York: Harper & Row.
Lix., T. I,,,. The two and its many: reections on perspectivism in a Tupi cosmology. Ethnos o{, Io,-,I.
Ov.iiv, A. I888 [Ioo]. Hstorica relacin del Reyno de Chile. Santiago: Imprenta Ercilla.
Ovvvixc, J. & A. P.ssvs :ooo. Introduction. In The anthropology of love and anger: the aesthetics of convivi-
ality in Native South America (eds) J. Overing & A. Passes, I-,o. London: Routledge.
P.ixvquvo, H. :ooo. La oralidad en el canto Mapuche. Mexico, F.: CIESAS.
Pvivcv, C.S. I,,:. Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. :: Elements of logic. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.
I,,I. Peirce on signs: writings on semiotic (ed.) J. Hoopes. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press.
Pv vvz uv Avcv, J. :oo8. Musica Mapuche. Santiago: Museo Chileno de Arte Precolumbino.
Puiiivs, S. I,,:. Participant structures and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in commu-
nity and classroom. In Functions of language in the classroom (eds) C. Cazden, V. John & D. Hymes, ,,o-,.
New York: Columbia Teachers Press.
Ronvv1sox, C. I,,,. Pulling the ancestors: performance practice and praxis in Mapuche ordering. Ethno-
musicology i, ,,,-Io.
:oo. Fertility ritual. In Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: an encyclopedic history, vol. I. (ed.)
M. Kuss, I8I-,. Austin: University of Texas Press.
:oo8. Mapuche. In The Garland handbook of Latin American music (eds) D. Olsen & D. Sheehy,
o8-I,. (Second edition). London: Routledge.
Roussv.u, J.-J. I,oo. Essay on the origin of language (trans. J. Moran). In On the origin of language (eds)
J. Moran & A. Gode, ,-,. Chicago: University Press.
Scuivvviix, B., K. Wooi.vu & P. Kvosxvi1s (eds) I,,8. Language ideologies: practice and theory. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Svvcvv, A. I,8,. Why Suy sing: a musical anthropology of an Amazonian people. Cambridge: University
Press.
Suvvzvv, J. I,,o. Verbal art in San Blas: Kuna culture through its discourse. Cambridge: University Press.
Siivvvs1vix, M. & G. Uvn.x (eds) I,,o. Natural histories of discourse. Chicago: University Press.
Sxvv1s, I. :oo8. A grammar of Mapuche. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ti1ivv, M. I,,. Social singing among the Mapuche. (Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology,
University of Michigan). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Uvn.x, G. I,8,. The I of discourse. In Semiotics, self, and society (eds) B. Lee & G. Urban, :,-,I. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter.
I,,I. A discourse-centered approach to culture: Native South American myths and rituals. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Vivvivos uv C.s1vo, E. I,,8. Cosmological deixis and Amerindian perspectivism. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute (N.S.) {, o,-88.
:ooo. GUT feelings about Amazonia: potential afnity and the construction of sociality. In The visible
and the material: the Amerindianization of society in the work of Peter Rivire (eds) N. Whitehead & L. Rival,
I,-. Oxford: University Press.
Voiosixov, V.N. I,,, [I,:,]. Marxism and the philosophy of language (trans. L. Matejka & I. Titunik).
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Wiiii.xs, R. I,,,. Marxism and literature. Oxford: University Press.
Zu xic., F. :ooo. Mapudungun. Munich: Lincom Europa.
Magnus Course 312
Pourquoi les Mapuches chantent
Rsum
Le prsent article cherche retracer quelques-uns des liens entre lattrait des chants personnels (l) et les
ides sur la personnalit chez les Mapuches ruraux du Sud du Chili. travers une approche la fois
sociologique et smiotique de ces chants, lauteur avance quils sont perus comme des empreintes de la
subjectivit singulire de leur compositeur initial. Laccent mis sur les trois caractristiques spciques des
l (utilisation de pronoms la premire personne, entextualisation et musicalit) rvle la faon dont ils
permettent aux subjectivits quils renferment dtre habites par dautres. Lauteur suggre, en
conclusion, que ce processus dinvestissement de subjectivits distinctes par le chant entre en rsonance et
en correspondance avec un problme de solipsisme pistmologique, ancr dans les ides de singularit de
la nature humaine des Mapuches.
Dr Magnus Course is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His research explores
issues of language, personhood, and kinship among the Mapuche and elsewhere.
Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, Chrystal Macmillan Build-
ing, a George Square, Edinburgh EH LD, UK. magnus.course@ed.ac.uk

Why Mapuche Sing

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Why Mapuche Sing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Why Mapuche sing

M.cxus Couvsv University of Edinburgh

You might also like