Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Percepciones De Género En La Medicina Mapuche: Machi, Matriarca, Y Colonización, Krista Douglass

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Gender is a social ordering principle; a definition of masculinity and femininity according to an individual culture. While in Chile gender identity is often shaped by machismo, the Mapuche cosmovision is without gender disparities. Rather, relationships between men and women are governed by principles of equality and duality, just as the Mapuche deities balance both male and female energies. Women hold very important roles in the community as the leaders of the medical community. Although both men and women participate in various roles within this profession, machi, the spiritual healers, are mostly women. Males, or wentru machi, …