Machi (shaman) Information & Machi (shaman) Links at HealthHaven.com

For other uses, see Machi.

A machi is a shaman or (usually) a good Witch doctor in the Mapuche culture of South America; and is also an important character and the Mapuche mythology.

[edit] Description

They are spiritual leaders and function as: witch-doctors (curandero), and/or herbalists, religious authorities, and consultants.

The term is sometimes interchangeable with the word kalku, however, kalku has a usually evil connotation whereas machi is usually considered good; this, however, is not always true since in common use the terms may be interchanged.

The Mapuches live in southern South America mostly in central Chile (Araucanía and Los Lagos) and the adjacent areas of Argentina.

[edit] Human sacrifice

A book by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney, The Highest Altar: Unveiling the Mystery of Human Sacrifice (1989) ISBN 9780140139747 , documents a possible modern ritual human sacrifice during the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 1960 by a machi of the Mapuche in the Lago Budi community. The victim, 5 year old José Luis Painecur, had his arms and legs removed by Juan Pañán and Juan José Painecur (the victims grandfather), and was stuck into the sand of the beach like a stake. The waters of the Pacific Ocean then carried the body out to sea. The sacrifice was rumored to be at the behest of local machi, Juana Namuncurá Añen. The 2 men were charged with the crime and confessed, but later recanted. They were released after 2 years. A judge ruled that those involved in these events had "acted without free will, driven by an irresistible natural force of ancestral tradition." The story is also mentioned in a Time Magazine article from that year, although with much less detail.^[1]