Imágenes de Diversidad y Consenso: La Cosmovision Mapuche a traves de tres Machis

Summary

Drawing on shamanic mental imagery and polysemic cognitive ability, I explain the dialectic between conceptual diversity and consensus and the role of the individual in re-creating contemporary Mapuche cosmology. I a rgue that machis pa rticipate actively in conceptual re-ordering as a cculturation, modernization and Christianity sweep ()ver Mapuche communities. 1 propose that the individual ways in which machis conceptu a lize and organize their practice are not contradictory but complementary responses pertaining to a lower level logic and contingent upon a higher level logic common to all. I demonstrate the need of an experiential person-centered approach to understand the relationship between the creative potentia 1 of individual machis and the restrictions determined by cultural concepts.